MORNING SERIAL
WITH so much attention placed on issues like ventilator numbers there had been an absence of focus on the best of resources – staff. Normally an intensive care ward would have one nurse for every patient. In the Gwent at the busiest times they had to move to a 1:2 ratio.
Dr Hepburn explained that once ratios increase to one member of staff for every three patients it is almost not worth bringing the patient in. This again demonstrates shortcomings in our health service. Whereas you can shift your economy to suddenly build loads of ventilators, a highly trained and knowledgeable intensive care nurse is not made in a factory, they are trained in university and they are forged over years of experience.
If you want to look at why Matt Hancock and the gang were concerned about the NHS being overwhelmed look no further than capacity in critical care. In the UK we have about 6.6 ICU beds for every 100,000 of our population. Germany has 29.2, USA 29.4, Austria 21.8, Belgium 15.95. Even Italy, a country whose health service was overwhelmed, has almost twice the UK capacity at 12.5.
Dr Hepburn also talked about how the crisis had forced the NHS to cut through the layers of red tape in the health service. He said: “We have seen clinicians of all disciplines come and help. The estates guys are amazing as well, when we have had to put new air pipelines in as well as new doors and new walls. Everyone has just said ‘yes we can do that.’ That is quite different to the normal levels of bureaucracy you see in the NHS. Normally to get a new set of doors will take you months. It has been good to cut all that red tape out and see what we can do when everyone pulls together.”
One of the most striking of Dr Hepburn’s comments was about PPE. He’d had no trouble getting hold of personal protective equipment because as he put it “we are in a privileged position because we are top of the tree in terms of priority”.
Early data would suggest that ICU workers caught the virus less than other colleagues in hospital (though there is still research to be done on this).
> Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/ productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013
CONTINUES TOMORROW