So what do we do now?
Even the bad solutions being proposed by the Government are simply re-hashed bad solutions from the past. They failed previously and they will fail again. Re-activating the Nightingale Hospitals does not provide a viable solution. The Government can’t simply hire a giant warehouse and stick lots of beds in it. Even if they get hold of sufficient ventilators, they will not be able to find the ICU specialist doctors to intubate those patients, the ICU specialist nurses to operate those ventilators, the infrastructure to deliver high quantities of high-flow oxygen, or the range of allied expertise – in infectious diseases, radiology, nephrology or coagulation – required to manage the complex requirements of patients with COVID-19. Interestingly, a conservative estimate is that the failed Nightingale Hospitals scheme cost the equivalent of 963,115 nights of care in a hospital, or 2,640 more proper beds open throughout 2019.
This is now a national emergency and there is a serious risk of both another 80,000 deaths and devastating long-term economic damage. We need to think outside the box:
- Bureaucrats and inefficient management consultants should step aside. We need to promote chief executives like Prof Marcel Levi who lead from the front, have clinical vision and clearly understand the enormity of this crisis.
- Tier 5 lockdown in affected areas of high population density (including London).
- Rapid legislation for time-limited requisition of private hospitals and care homes in the national interest.
- Extensive deployment of the army to vaccinate efficiently and quickly, and contain the pandemic in high-risk settings like large care homes.
- Bold economic intervention to ensure that the poorest sections of our society can comply with restrictions, because effective pandemic management cannot exclude any social sector.
We also need our political leaders to show some courage, stop obstructing our legal action for disclosure of the pandemic reports following Exercise Cygnus, act in the national interest, and have an honest open conversation now in Parliament about the Department of Health’s secret plan for population triage if things get really bad. Before we get there, we have to be prepared to “break some rules” in intensive care, and draw up guidelines for a situation where doctors and nurses may have to perform duties which are outside of their expertise.
Thank you Moosa
Lying is indeed the operative word.
Excellent work Moosa. The [people at the top/ behind the] ‘system’ have ensured it is broken, imo, beyond repair. Sheeple like activity of the bulk of the staff within excepting you and the others above etc will ensure it remains as is.
The problem with NHS England is that the majority of the board have a background in supermarkets and banking. Surely the majority should be clinical?
Excellent article but you really should put a date on it.