Current Affairs

[anniec]

Why do our journos act like little children constantly asking "when are we there", with their repeated demands to know an exit strategy. I do wish that one of the cabinet members answering their questions at the daily briefing was brave and sarcastic enough to give them a real put down.

Here you are, John. Not a government minister, but Jonathan Van Tam sorting out Robert Peston, one of the chief irritants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKXX5RpHy30

[Frank Manning]

They seem to be even worse today. I can't remember the last time I heard one ask a sensible question which would actually inform the public. It's all about trying to trap someone. What a pity journos don't have to face an election, smug self important so and sos.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Am I the only one uncomfortable seeing the public wandering round streets and supermarkets wearing masks? If there is a shortage of protective equipment for NHS and other care staff surely it shouldn't be wasted in this way?

[towny44]

Am I the only one uncomfortable seeing the public wandering round streets and supermarkets wearing masks? If there is a shortage of protective equipment for NHS and other care staff surely it shouldn't be wasted in this way?

I guess there are shortages, which is to be expected in the circumstances, but the concerted chorusing by the various trade bodies seems to be far too political for my liking, especially when the authorities do appear to be trying their best to increase supplies and ease the logistics issues.

[Manoverboard]

Am I the only one uncomfortable seeing the public wandering round streets and supermarkets wearing masks? If there is a shortage of protective equipment for NHS and other care staff surely it shouldn't be wasted in this way?

Those that I have seen, albeit on t'telly, have been decorators' masks so not up to the same spec as used in the NHS.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Am I the only one uncomfortable seeing the public wandering round streets and supermarkets wearing masks? If there is a shortage of protective equipment for NHS and other care staff surely it shouldn't be wasted in this way?

Those that I have seen, albeit on t'telly, have been decorators' masks so not up to the same spec as used in the NHS.

So totally useless!

[Manoverboard]

Am I the only one uncomfortable seeing the public wandering round streets and supermarkets wearing masks? If there is a shortage of protective equipment for NHS and other care staff surely it shouldn't be wasted in this way?

Those that I have seen, albeit on t'telly, have been decorators' masks so not up to the same spec as used in the NHS.

So totally useless!

I think so .... OL was selling them

[barney]

We were quite surprised when out on our bikes on the Tarka Trail this morning to see so many groups of youngsters who clearly were not from the same household.
Disappointed
You think the message would have got through by now.
In Torrington, there was a group having a bbq, if you could believe that!

[Mervyn and Trish]

I guess there are shortages, which is to be expected in the circumstances, but the concerted chorusing by the various trade bodies seems to be far too political for my liking, especially when the authorities do appear to be trying their best to increase supplies and ease the logistics issues.

I'm struggling not to give the wrong impression with this post, so I need to be very clear with one thing at the outset. I have always had huge respect for everyone who works in the NHS, even before this pandemic. The job they do is incredible at the best of times. At the moment to describe them as heroes is an understatement. As we shield ourselves away from the dreadful virus they daily walk towards it to care for others. Some have tragically given their lives in so doing.

But, and this is where it gets difficult, I agree with John that their heroic self sacrifice is being politicised. I'm sure this government isn't perfect and with hindsight might have chosen to do some things differently. Isn't that a wonderful science? But on the Personal Protective Equipment issue about which there is an ongoing debate a number of things are very clear to me.

First the government have made huge efforts and are continuing to try to ramp up supply and distribution. And I'm sure in places there is less than the optimum supply. But on the issue of the latest guidelines for appropriate use we have been told the government has liaised with the Royal Colleges. Those are the professional bodies. Those now sniping, such as the BMA are, for all their fancy titles, Trades Unions.

Second, the numbers have hit me when I started digging beneath them. We heard yesterday a much repeated plea from a health professional which included the emotive line "I am seeing colleagues dying every day". Can that actually be true?

So far, at time of writing, 19 NHS have sadly lost their lives in this pandemic, though no-one knows whether they contracted the virus at work or three weeks ago shopping in the supermarket before the lock down. Did he know them all?

That number is across the board. The BBC has a list of them. There are doctors, nurses, cleaners, academics. And there are in the UK 1.5 million people employed in the NHS. So tragic as every one of those deaths is it represents around 1 death per 75,000 people.

Across the country there have been around 10,000 deaths in a population of 60,000,000. That is on death per 6,000 people.

So the death rate in the NHS is less than one tenth of that in the general population. It is still too many. But that suggests to me that considering the dangerous situation they walk into every day, compared to the general public doing nothing more dangerous than catching a bus to work or going shopping, the protective equipment they have is doing an amazing job.

To repeat. I love and respect the NHS. But I share John's concern that they are being used as political cannon fodder by those with a different agenda. They deserve better.

[Clophill4]

Well said and eloquently expressed

I'm sure some will take issue but not me.

Perhaps those that take issue will also have their own agenda

[Manoverboard]

I guess there are shortages, which is to be expected in the circumstances, but the concerted chorusing by the various trade bodies seems to be far too political for my liking, especially when the authorities do appear to be trying their best to increase supplies and ease the logistics issues.

I reasoned many posts ago that it is a postcade lottery. I still think so and would not be at all surprised to discover that the NHS Trusts who have shortages of masks etc are the same Trusts who have shortfalls during each and every period off difficulty. In other words they are poorly managed by senior staff with negative left wing attitudes. So if, for example, they have staff shortages they will blame the Government for not providing enough people rather than manageing their resources in a more business like manner.

The front line staff are of course beyond reproach.

[screwy]

I heartily concur with Sir Merv and Moby.Well said chaps,just what I was telling the wife last night.

[barney]

Well said by Merv.
One slight correction is that the population of the U.K. is nearer to 70 million.
About 67 million legal but estimated about 3 million others who are undocumented.

[screwy]

On the good news front....Big Boris is out of hospital, recovering At Chequers.

[david63]

On the good news front....Big Boris is out of hospital, recovering At Chequers.

Thought we couldn't go to second homes

[screwy]

Oooo, arn’t we being picky.

[Gill W]

Merv, how many of the 1.5 m people that you say work for the NHS are on the front line actually caring for the CV patients?

My friend works for the NHS and she hasn’t been anywhere near a CV patient.

Perhaps your metric should relate to front line staff only?

[Mervyn and Trish]

Merv, how many of the 1.5 m people that you say work for the NHS are on the front line actually caring for the CV patients?

My friend works for the NHS and she hasn’t been anywhere near a CV patient.

Perhaps your metric should relate to front line staff only?

No Gill, the 1.5 million aren't all on the front line. But if you look at the detail of the 19 who have sadly died they aren't either. They are NHS wide and include , for example, a rural GP, a midwife, a pharmacist, a district nurse, a heart surgeon, a mentai health matron. Even if you discount the admin people from the 1.5 million the metric is still striking.

To repeat, I take nothing away from the heroism of those in the NHS. But to hear some of the comments in the media you would think they were dying at several times the national rate for other people and that is simply not true. But even one death, within the NHS or outside, is too many.

[Ray B]

I am amazed at the Gov response to get help to the NHS and all types of care workers. The logistical support to obtain and distribute all the supplies to over 58000 sites is just mind blowing. It's so easy just to pick holes in it, but to mobilize and run this is just amazing. I salute you all supplying our front line workers, well done.

[david63]

I am amazed at the Gov response to get help to the NHS and all types of care workers. The logistical support to obtain and distribute all the supplies to over 58000 sites is just mind blowing. It's so easy just to pick holes in it, but to mobilize and run this is just amazing. I salute you all supplying our front line workers, well done.

And all of that assumes that the supplies are actually available!

[Gill W]

Merv, how many of the 1.5 m people that you say work for the NHS are on the front line actually caring for the CV patients?

My friend works for the NHS and she hasn’t been anywhere near a CV patient.

Perhaps your metric should relate to front line staff only?

No Gill, the 1.5 million aren't all on the front line. But if you look at the detail of the 19 who have sadly died they aren't either. They are NHS wide and include , for example, a rural GP, a midwife, a pharmacist, a district nurse, a heart surgeon, a mentai health matron. Even if you discount the admin people from the 1.5 million the metric is still striking.

To repeat, I take nothing away from the heroism of those in the NHS. But to hear some of the comments in the media you would think they were dying at several times the national rate for other people and that is simply not true. But even one death, within the NHS or outside, is too many.

Looks like there may be more than the 19 you mentioned

https://nursingnotes.co.uk/covid-19-memorial/

On a different note, I see we are now at 10000 reported deaths with CV in hospitals ( who knows how many in care homes), and our daily rates of death are more than Italy and France at their worst. The reports from Italy and Spain rightly conveyed the horror and urgency of the situation. Yet, here we are at the height of our own national catastrophe - and I get the sense that news reports seem to be playing it down. We’re now on track to be the worse affected nation in Europe, and all we get is Hooray for Boris he’s out of hospital. Perhaps, as a nation we are desensitised to the amount of death, and because we are comfortable in our bubbles at home it doesn’t seem real? I find what is happening to be troubling, to be honest.

[Manoverboard]

... and I get the sense that news reports seem to be playing it down.

Really .... I think that the opposite is true.

[Frank Manning]

... and I get the sense that news reports seem to be playing it down.

Really .... I think that the opposite is true.

Actually I agree with mob Gill.. Every amateur strategist is clammering in the media for attention. Every newspaper is searching for a seemingly unconsidered statistic to use to support a sensationalistic headline. Its a pandemic, there is no superhuman man or woman who can solve it in a stroke, and running around like headless chickens is the last thing we need. Stop playing politics and push the essential message, stay home, and let the professionals do their jobs.

[towny44]

Merv, how many of the 1.5 m people that you say work for the NHS are on the front line actually caring for the CV patients?

My friend works for the NHS and she hasn’t been anywhere near a CV patient.

Perhaps your metric should relate to front line staff only?

No Gill, the 1.5 million aren't all on the front line. But if you look at the detail of the 19 who have sadly died they aren't either. They are NHS wide and include , for example, a rural GP, a midwife, a pharmacist, a district nurse, a heart surgeon, a mentai health matron. Even if you discount the admin people from the 1.5 million the metric is still striking.

To repeat, I take nothing away from the heroism of those in the NHS. But to hear some of the comments in the media you would think they were dying at several times the national rate for other people and that is simply not true. But even one death, within the NHS or outside, is too many.

Looks like there may be more than the 19 you mentioned

https://nursingnotes.co.uk/covid-19-memorial/

On a different note, I see we are now at 10000 reported deaths with CV in hospitals ( who knows how many in care homes), and our daily rates of death are more than Italy and France at their worst. The reports from Italy and Spain rightly conveyed the horror and urgency of the situation. Yet, here we are at the height of our own national catastrophe - and I get the sense that news reports seem to be playing it down. We’re now on track to be the worse affected nation in Europe, and all we get is Hooray for Boris he’s out of hospital. Perhaps, as a nation we are desensitised to the amount of death, and because we are comfortable in our bubbles at home it doesn’t seem real? I find what is happening to be troubling, to be honest.

Gill we have one of the highest population densities in Europe, and certainly the one with the largest population, so we should not be surprised that we are being affected so severely. Couple that with having the most obese population as well, and I am amazed that our health service seems to be coping as well as it is.
I think that the way the govt have handled this crisis has been first rate, and certainly in line with some of the best countries, and far better than many, including France which with a population density far lower than ours is struggling to cope with the numbers.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Add to that we are a poorly disciplined nation. I've not seen many pictures of Italians sunbathing in parks or Spaniards having barbeque parties.