Category Archives: NHS

We are fighting a 21st-century disease with 20th-century weapons

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Better and faster joined-up data systems are key to coping with and preventing pandemics such as Covid-19 – as well as more everyday diseases

Covid-19 has exposed the deficiencies of national disease detection and prevention systems in many countries of Europe, and in the United States. In the UK, contact tracing was abandoned early due to lack of capacity. Just three weeks ago the government was prepared to let thousands of Scots travel through England to Wales and back for a rugby match, and it has taken a month to develop a strategy for scaled-up testing. After a decade of austerity and decentralisation, we are trying to recover the lost muscle memory of the public health response.

It will not be 100 years until the next pandemic. Population growth, human invasion of animal habitats and the resumption of fast travel between continents will take care of that. More urgently, we need a system in place after the lockdown to prevent a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic being worse than the first.

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NHS heroes … and targets of racists

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I cheered the role of BAME medics in the battle against Covid-19 – but I didn’t expect the torrent of abuse that followed

“Little China girl.” “Paki doctor.” “Black bitch.” These are just some of the racist slurs directed at NHS nurses and doctors as they work on the frontline. I remember feeling sick when I first read an ITV report detailing these incidents at the end of last year. And it was at the front of my mind as I whooped in support of our carers on Thursday night.

I returned to that report last week after posting what I thought was an uncontroversial tweet, noting the fact that all four doctors who had tragically lost their lives to coronavirus at that point were people of colour, and that it was a reminder of how much the NHS relies on BAME and migrant doctors and nurses. Just over four in 10 NHS medical staff are BAME, and almost one in three doctors are not from the UK. From the first Caribbean nurses who arrived after the second world war, the NHS has been built on the backs of both migrant and British workers; in the late 1960s, half of all doctors below consultant level were non-British.

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Five-year-old child among latest UK coronavirus deaths

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Death toll increases by 708 in one day, largest amount since outbreak began

A five-year old child is among 708 people whose deaths with coronavirus were announced on Saturday in the UK, as Britain’s death toll rose to 4,313, the biggest increase since the outbreak began.

The latest figures show the recorded death toll from the virus in the UK has risen by 20%, and above 4,000 for the first time.

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‘Stay home for them’: chief nurse urges public to remember two nurses who died of Covid-19 – video

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At the daily Downing Street press conference on Friday, England’s chief nursing officer, Ruth May, invoked the deaths of nurses Areema Nasreen and Aimee O’Rourke as she urged members of the public to stay at home. 'This weekend is going to be very warm and it will be very tempting to go out and enjoy those summer rays,' she said. 'But please, I ask you to remember Aimee and Areema. Please stay at home for them.'

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Pots, pans, cheers and bagpipes: UK applauds key workers in coronavirus fight – video

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People across the UK stood at their front doors, outside their windows, on balconies for the second week in a row, to clap, cheer and bang pots and pans for healthcare staff and all key workers dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. 

In Scotland, many bagpipers joined in a 'pipe up for key workers' tribute and in London, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, who is still in self-isolation, stepped out of No 10 to join in the clapping

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NHS call on PM to ensure test centres are conveniently located

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Concern that centres were too far from both work or home for those working in London

NHS staff have called on Boris Johnson to ensure the new coronavirus testing centres are located conveniently for health workers and not in out of town sites such as Ikea car parks.

Drive-in test centres for nurses and doctors were opened this week in converted car parks at the Scandinavian superstore in Wembley in London and Chessington theme park near the M25.

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‘Thank you’: NHS staff clap public for staying at home – video

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The theatre and endoscopy staff at the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust have thanked and applauded the general public for staying at home. In a video posted online, matron Vicky Oluwole says: 'We, the staff of Lewisham endoscopy theatres, are thanking you for clapping for the NHS. Now, we are clapping and saying thank you for staying at home'

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NHS nurse applauded by family as she returns from work amid coronavirus crisis – video

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An NHS nurse working during the coronavirus outbreak in the UK received a standing ovation from her family as she returned home from a shift.

Her son shared a video on Twitter and said: 'We as a family have been welcoming our mum home from work as a hero. She is a nurse in the NHS in Britain and is working so hard every day! We will continue to do this every time she returns home from work'

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My NHS colleagues are committed but we are at maximum stretch

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Psychiatrist and former minister Dan Poulter says the crisis is unprecedented, but his fellow health workers will see it through

As I walk across the hospital complex and pause to look at the London tower blocks in the near distance, life could not be further removed from the green benches of parliament, a mere 45 minutes walk away. Covid-19 has changed everything. In mental health services, in the central London epicentre of Britain’s outbreak, we are used to caring for people who have severe mental illness, but we have been confronted with a new reality of caring for people who are also infected with coronavirus.

Hundreds of healthcare colleagues are already off sick. Others are self-isolating because a family member is showing symptoms. Our service is at maximum stretch.

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UK can keep Covid-19 deaths below 20,000, says medical director

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Professor Stephen Powis has said the national effort can work if everyone plays their part

Every citizen in the United Kingdom must play a part if the number of deaths from coronavirus are to be kept below 20,000, the national medical director has said.

The call for a national effort to reduce deaths came as the total who have died rose by 260 since Friday to 1,019. In total, 17,089 have tested positive in the UK.

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Applause for NHS was bittersweet | Letter

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For Corinne Fowler, the clapping event transcended the bitter rows of the last few years, but also caused a pang of sorrow

The mass clapping event (Millions of Britons clap for carers on coronavirus frontline, 26 March) was bittersweet and loaded with irony. It was an unprecedented show of collective gratitude, inspired by a Dutch woman living in the UK, by a nation whose Brexit vote caused a shortage of medical staff as it sent EU citizens away. A clapping nation whose government created a “hostile environment” to banish the Windrush generation, who made vital contributions to the NHS.

I also thought of supermarket workers on low wages now risking life and limb, generally with no gloves or masks. There is little consideration for their safety. If it weren’t for them we would not be eating.

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Clap for carers: applauding the NHS – in pictures

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People across the UK have taken part in a mass round of applause in support of the NHS workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.

In the Clap For Carers initiative people took to their doorsteps and balconies applauding, banging pans and letting off fireworks. Notable buildings around the country were also lit up in blue

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Boris Johnson: 405,000 NHS volunteers signed up in 24 hours – video

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Boris Johnson has thanked the 405,000 people who have responded to the government's call for volunteers to help the NHS support vulnerable people during the coronavirus crisis. On Tuesday, health secretary Matt Hancock asked for 250,000 volunteers

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Matt Hancock calls for 250,000 volunteers to help NHS during coronavirus crisis – video

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The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has announced a new scheme to recruit 250,000 volunteers to support people who are unable to leave their homes during the coronavirus pandemic. The volunteers will help the NHS and local services by delivering shopping and medicines to vulnerable people. Hancock also announced that an extra 35,000 staff, including final-year medical students and retired doctors and nurses, are joining the NHS to fight the virus.

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Coronavirus: doctors and nurses in Belfast post message urging public to stay at home – video

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Healthcare workers on the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak in Northern Ireland have made an appeal to the public. In a video, doctors and nurses from the Belfast trust respiratory team urge people to stay at home in order to save lives

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UK military planners drafted in to help feed vulnerable in Covid-19 outbreak

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Food stockpilers told they should be ‘ashamed’ as prime minister urges Britons not to make mother’s day visits

Key military officials are to help ensure food and medicines reach vulnerable people isolated at home during the coronavirus crisis, as part of a nationwide campaign to protect more than a million people most at risk of being hospitalised.

Community pharmacies, voluntary groups and food retailers are in talks with the government to ensure essential items reach people being told to remain in their home. Those believed to be at most risk are being contacted on how best to protect themselves, and being strongly advised to stay home for at least 12 weeks.

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Doctors warn coronavirus could overwhelm NHS ‘within weeks’

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Intensive care audit shows sharp rise in admissions to critical care as London hospitals struggle to cope

The numbers of coronavirus patients needing life-or-death care have been doubling every three days, a report by senior doctors has revealed. London is worst affected, but the rest of the UK will soon be hit with a similar surge, the document warns.

The audit of intensive care carried out since the epidemic began shows that patients needing the highest level of help soared from 50 on 9 March to almost 200 on 19 March – and doctors fear this spike could turn into a nationwide surge within a few weeks.

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‘My Covid-19 vlog’: junior doctor shares insight amid coronavirus outbreak – video

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NHS junior doctor Ed Hope has updated his YouTube channel by vlogging about his experience on the front line of the coronavirus emergency as Covid-19 cases grow in the UK, covering panic buying to specialist mask fitting.

Dr Hope's Sick Notes is a YouTube channel that usually has a 'light-hearted look at hospitals', however the doctor has got serious by looking at the NHS approach from the inside

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