On Sunday 19 March 2023: IT ISN’T OVER YET. OUR IMMEDIATE FUTURE REMAINS SERIOUS. THE NHS IS STILL STRESSED.
Hopefully Winter Pressures have peaked and the spring and summer will bring easier times. What has been learnt from this extraordinarily awful winter, will this summer be spent concentrating on making things better and planning properly for the 2023-24 winter? Will we all continue to take our health and wellbeing as a top priority, or will we be complacent?
For now, COVID infections remain high for another week and hospitalisations and deaths are rising again. FLU infections remain high, particularly for 15-44 year olds. RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS (RSV) infections are still high for under 5s. ADENOVIRUS is high for 5-14 year olds. COLDS AND FLU are high especially for the over 45s. SCARLET FEVER & STREP A infections remain serious. Lots of people getting any of these infections are suffering badly with them and being left weak and needing more time than usual to recover fully.
The sickness bug Norovirus remains prevalent, particularly with the over 65s and under 5s. Don’t visit vulnerable people, particularly in care homes or hospitals while having diarrhoea and/or vomiting until 48 hours after symptoms stop. Keep practicing good hand hygiene especially after being unwell, using the toilet or preparing or eating food.
International research mostly from high-income countries in Europe and Asia has found that people’s general mental health and anxiety symptoms hardly deteriorated during the pandemic. However, some UK studies show evidence of considerable variation. An NHS survey found as many as 1 in 6 seven-16-year-olds and 1 in 4 seventeen-19-year-olds in England had a probable mental disorder in 2022. NHS figures show nearly 30% more children contacted mental health services between 2020-2022.
STRIKES of NURSES, PARAMEDICS AND AMBULANCE STAFF are on hold and a settlement is proposed. The strike by JUNIOR DOCTORS and hospital dental trainees on 13, 14 & 15 March led to a reported 175,000 cancelled appointments and procedures. This dispute must be settled immediately. Thousands of treatments have been lost during recent nurses’ strikes and all these strikes make workloads more challenging and interrupt tackling the NHS backlogs. 13,000 hospital beds are blocked by patients fit to discharge. 100,101 hospital beds are available (up from 90,621 last year). Some English Hospitals, including Princess Alexandra, Harlow, are experiencing SEWAGE LEAKS.
NHS staff shortages are crippling. It takes three years to train nurses and paramedics and five to train new doctors. Safe long-term resourcing, funding and managing our NHS needs to be a national priority for everyone.
Local health and welfare service providers are governed by the funding, resources and targets they are given by central government. Our local medical professionals are terribly upset because they can’t look after us properly. They’re doing their very best.
Promising reports on 16 March said whilst standards remain unmet, our ambulance response times are improving, and delays for hospital treatments are slowly reducing. Access to psychology therapies are on track. GP Practices in Mid Essex are seeing more patients than in the previous two years and making nearly double the number of home visits than the year before the pandemic started.
We MET OUR MP on Friday 3 March and impressed upon him the need for effective national action and:
- Explained that unlocking the blocked hospital beds will significantly reduce pressures on ambulances, A&Es and GPs;
- Said strikes make things worse and negotiations must be held;
- Asked when St Peter’s Hospital will be replaced one way or another as it is no longer fit for purpose;
- Supported his call for an effective independent or public inquiry into our Mental Health Services, particularly at The Linden Centre, Broomfield; and,
- Explored ways to do better.
We were grateful for this meeting and will report fully about it as soon as possible.
You may still be able to get Covid & Flu vaccinations at pharmacies subject to availability of vaccines and payment. This Spring Covid boosters will be given to everyone over 75, care-home residents and the most vulnerable people. In the Autumn there will be another full programme of Covid and flu jabs.
With Scarlet Fever and Strep A most people don’t get extremely sick but they can be a serious illness, particularly for young children. Both are treated with antibiotics; there isn’t a vaccine. Get the latest information from pharmacists and at: https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2022/12/05/group-a-strep-what-you-need-to-know/ .
The Dashboard says in w/e 17 February in England there were 388 (p/w 379) Deaths with Covid on death certificates and in w/e 13 March 7,058 (p/w 6,288) patients admitted to hospital. Hospitalisations and deaths lag behind infections. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data estimates 1,400,000 (1 in 40) people in England had Covid in w/e 7 March (p/w 1,400,000 = 1 in 40). Taking the ONS estimate and SWF’s population as 16,000 that means there were 400 (p/w 355) SWF residents with Covid in w/e 7 March. 2.2m people in the UK have long Covid; 80+ in the SWF & Dengie area. If you think you have long-Covid see your GP for a diagnosis & referral to a local recovery service.
To AVOID CATCHING & SPREADING Covid the Government says: TAKE EXTRA CARE, IF UNWELL AVOID VULNERABLE FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES & RELATIVES; ventilate indoor meetings; meet outdoors; wear face coverings in crowded enclosed spaces. If you get Covid stay home if you can and avoid contact with other people. Most hospital deaths with Covid and flu on death certificates in Essex and England are reported to be of people not fully vaccinated.
SWF Health & Social Care Group provides health & social care information and signposting to people, especially those at risk, isolating, housebound, and without local support. Information is on our website https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/ . Contact us on swfhealthsocial@outlook.com or leave a voicemail on 01245 322079 which is monitored daily.
SWF Health & Social Care Group 