rigorousintuition.ca

Figures from the national NHS operational dashboard, seen by HSJ, show that 40.9 per cent of NHS general acute beds were unoccupied as of the weekend — 37,500 of the total 91,600 relevant beds recorded in the data. That is 4,500 more than the 33,000 the NHS said had been freed up on 27 March, and nearly four times the normal amount of free acute beds at this time of year.

Internal NHS figures from the covid-19 national operational dashboard state that, on Saturday, English acute trusts reported that 41,038 nurses and midwives were absent . 28,063 (68 per cent) were covid-19 related. The total nursing and midwifery headcount in acute trusts is about 280,000 — meaning roughly 10 per cent are off on covid-related absence.

There are ongoing complaints from staff about their access to covid-19 tests — which, it is hoped, will hope reduce the absence rates from suspected cases — while national officials say these are now being made available.

Across all acute trust staff, 122,144 in total are absent. 82,075 of these absences are covid-related (67 per cent). The total acute headcount is 943,513 — so about 8.7 per cent of the total are absent for covid-related reasons.

The rate is lower among doctors: 9,239 were absent of which 7,633 (83 per cent) were covid-related. Total medical and dental acute headcount is 113,420 — so about 6.7 per cent were absent for covid-related reasons.

Army's Seattle Field Hospital Closes After 3 Days, Without Treating a Single Patient

Richard Sisk
Military.com•April 10, 2020

The hastily built field hospital set up by the Army in Seattle's pro football stadium is shutting down without ever seeing a patient, so the service can shift resources where they're more urgently needed, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee said.

Medical equipment at the CenturyLink Field Event Center is being returned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for use elsewhere, but the governor cautioned against reading too much into the move.

"Don't let this decision give you the impression that we are out of the woods," Inslee said in a statement Wednesday. "We have to keep our guard up and continue to stay home unless conducting essential activities to keep everyone healthy." Washington state saw the first coronavirus death in the U.S. on Feb. 29.

Related: Russia and China Are Spreading Lies About Coronavirus, Pentagon Says

The state asked FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers to convert the football stadium "before our physical distancing strategies were fully implemented and we had considerable concerns that our hospitals would be overloaded with COVID-19 cases," Inslee said.

"But we haven't beat this virus yet and, until we do, it has the potential to spread rapidly if we don't continue the measures we've put in place," he said.

Inslee joined Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan in praising the work of the Army's 627th Hospital Center out of Fort Carson, Colorado, in setting up the field hospital, which closed only three days after opening for patients.

"These soldiers uprooted their lives to help Washingtonians when we needed them most. Since then, it's become apparent that other states need them more than we do," Inslee said.

Durkan said the judgment has been made that the state's hospitals currently have the capacity to deal with the coronavirus threat.

"We are making the right decision to allow other cities to have these resources and capacity," she said. "While Seattle fought hard for these resources, it's clear other communities are in desperate need of this high-quality medical facility and personnel."

The decision to close the Seattle field hospital comes amid early signs that the number of new cases could be hitting a plateau in New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in the U.S., and other states.

At a news conference Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, "Overall, New York is flattening the curve."

However, Army Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday that he is aggressively pushing ahead to build more field hospitals and convert existing facilities, such as convention centers, when directed by FEMA at the request of the states.

"So far, to date, we have been asked to do 914 different [site] assessments. … This could be all the way from 2,000-bed convention center down to a 100-bed hotel room," Semonite said.

"There are about 22 facilities, which we call 'Tentative.' The governors haven't decided, the mayors haven't decided," he said. "It's an area where we're concerned about a bed shortage, but we haven't actually been told to do anything yet. So we haven't contracted it, and FEMA has not turned us on.

"This virus is deciding where it's going faster than normal, where it's leveling the curve, and so the actual build-out schedule -- we just kind of see how this thing actually has to play out," Semonite said.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Read more: Hundreds of Marines Arrive in Guam to Help Virus-Stricken Carrier Crew

JackRiddler » Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:32 am wrote: in the absence of that data I'll guess those are down

Attendances

• The total number of attendances in March 2020 was 1,531,100, a decrease of 29.4% on the same month last year. Of these, attendances at type 1 A&E departments were 26.3% lower when compared with March 2019 and at type 3 departments were 34.7% lower.

Just 19 patients treated over Easter weekend at 4,000-bed NHS Nightingale hospital in London
Few patients were treated at the new overflow facility as intensive care capacity at existing London hospitals never went above 80 per cent

Henry Bodkin
14 April 2020 • 8:37pm

The new 4,000-bed temporary NHS Nightingale hospital in East London treated just 19 patients over the Easter weekend, it has emerged.

Leaked data shows the tiny handful of patients were treated at the massive overflow facility as intensive care capacity at existing London hospitals never went above 80 per cent.

It comes as an NHS chief in the North East of England predicted the Nightingale hospital under construction there is unlikely to be needed.

Occupying London’s Excel conference and events centre, NHS Nightingale London was built in just nine days after a massive operation involving military planners.

Including 2,900 intensive care beds, it is principally intended to be a critical care facility for seriously ill but stable Covid-19 patients who have transferred from permanent London hospitals....

(...)

“The President of the German Hospital Association has sounded the alarm: more than 50 percent of all planned operations throughout Germany have been cancelled, and the „operations backlog“ is running into thousands. In addition, 30 to 40% fewer patients with heart attacks and strokes are treated because they no longer dare to go to the hospitals for fear of corona. There were 150,000 free hospital beds and 10,000 free intensive care beds nationwide. In Berlin, only 68 intensive care beds are occupied by corona patients, the emergency clinic with 1000 beds is currently not in use.”

0_0 » Sun Apr 12, 2020 8:28 pm wrote:I'm angry too! Angry about all this crazy shit! And imo these dance videos are being used as a feel good angle to sell increasing fascism. Just like Boris Johnson going to the IC for 3 days. And like the "spontaneous" clapping. And all the other human angles that are used to emotionally manipulate people to not have a cold hard look at the numbers that are supposed to justify this madness. That's why i feel taking a skeptical look at them is justified. And it's nothing against the nurses themselves, i have no doubt they are in general overworked and stressed out, and have been for a long time. Just going shopping has been turned into a very complicated thing, so i can only imagine how the procedures in care have been complicated day by day. And lots of jobs in hospitals and care *will* disappear because of all this, so they have very real reasons to be worried. And since they are forbidden to speak by their employer, we can only guess what's really happening there. That hospitals now have a financial incentive to report procedures and deaths as covid-related might or might not have something to do with not allowing them to speak freely. Compared to the onslaught of mainstream media, these videos of small youtube channels are just a little bit of fighting fire with fire as i see it. Like a little chihuahua barking at a pack of wolves. Here's another one: