On Sunday 2 April 2023: COVID & NOROVIRUS INFECTIONS UP AGAIN. THE NHS IS STILL HIGHLY STRESSED.
It isn’t over! Winter Pressures haven’t gone yet. What has been learnt from this worst ever winter? This summer must be spent concentrating on making things better and planning properly for the 2023-24 winter. Our health and wellbeing must be a top priority; we mustn’t be complacent.
COVID infections and deaths with Covid on death certificates have risen again whilst hospitalisations remain high. 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 are higher than normal. Many people getting these infections suffer badly and are left weak and need more time than usual to recover fully.
The sickness bug Norovirus is 77% higher than the 5-season pre-Covid average, 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.
STRIKES of NURSES, PARAMEDICS AND AMBULANCE STAFF are on hold and a settlement is proposed. The strike by JUNIOR DOCTORS and hospital dental trainees in March led to a reported 175,000 cancelled appointments and procedures; they now intend to strike again for 4 days, 11-15 April which is forecasted will lead to another 250,000 cancellations, which will be catastrophic. 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). The cost of agency staff for the NHS in 2021 was £3bn, up 20%. Some English Hospitals, including Princess Alexandra, Harlow, are experiencing SEWAGE LEAKS.
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. Our local medical professionals are terribly upset when they can’t look after us properly. They’re doing their very best.
Researchers say sniffing sweat may help trigger calming the brain and is being tested as an anxiety therapy. Other new research aims to reduce babies dying or being left with disabilities after being shaken.
The full report of the MEETING WITH OUR MP on 3 March is on our website in the Activities and News sections. In summary, we:
- Explained unlocking the blocked hospital beds will significantly reduce pressures on ambulances, A&Es and GPs; NHS staff shortages are crippling. It takes three years to train nurses and paramedics and five to train new doctors, but only weeks to train new residential and domiciliary care staff. They need to be paid more than they can get for stacking supermarket shelves. Sir John agreed;
- 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; plans are being made and Sir John is being supportive;
- Supported his call for an effective independent or public inquiry into our Mental Health Services, particularly at The Linden Centre, Broomfield; Sir John will continue to lobby about this; and,
- Sir John was grateful for information about other issues which included: Crouch Vale Medical Centre will be able to cope with the extra patients from the housing development North of Burnham Road; the planned increase in diagnostic services for the area; reduced waits for dispensing medicines in our local acute hospitals; how social media can help spread public health information; virtual wards are increasing and patients in SWF are benefitting; and, the Carers Allowance for unpaid carers is limited by the low earnings threshold.
This Spring Covid booster vaccinations will be given to everyone over 75, care-home residents and the most vulnerable people. Starting on Monday 3 April older adults in care homes will begin to get jabs given by visiting NHS teams. Other eligible people will start getting their vaccinations from mid-April; booking for these will open on 5 April, with invitations being sent by the NHS App, texts and letters. In the Autumn there will be another full programme of Covid and flu jabs, for the same cohorts as in 2022.
The Dashboard says in w/e 3 March in England there were 473 (p/w 432) Deaths with Covid on death certificates and in w/e 27 March 6,307 (p/w 6,950) patients admitted to hospital. Hospitalisations and deaths lag behind infections. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data estimates 1,489,600 (1 in 38) people in England had Covid in w/e 13 March (p/w 1,332,800 = 1 in 40). Taking the ONS estimate and SWF’s population as 16,000 that means there were 421 (p/w 400) SWF residents with Covid in w/e 13 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. Covid testing is being scaled back further in England from April. Most staff and patients in hospitals and care homes will no longer be tested unless staff are working with severely immunocompromised patients or if there’s an outbreak for example on a ward, in a hospice or a prison. But this can be scaled up again quickly if there’s another big Covid wave or new variant. And the ONS infection survey estimating the national infection rate has just come to an end. This is all part of the “Living with Covid” approach which relies on vaccines to keep people safe. This approach is like that used for other common respiratory infections such as flu.
The Government says to AVOID CATCHING & SPREADING COVID & OTHER INFECTIONS: 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. 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 