When to go to hospital

[louisa maud]

I have made up my mind I will do that, my OH is very stubborn

Louisa Maud

[groom]

would like to see far more people sent for specialist treatment in good time, rather being advised to stay at home, inexpertly cared for, until their condition worsens beyond salvation.

So would everyone. However, the problem is they can't do that, as there just aren't enough hospital beds or NHS staff to cover everyone who gets CV. So the decision has been made that only those who fit the criteria are admitted to hospital, which, given the situation is right. It would be dreadful if beds were taken up by those who could be treated at home, meaning that those who were seriously ill couldn't be admitted.

For some reason the UK isn't releasing figures to show how many people actually get CV and recover. I suspect this is because we aren't testing enough people to know. We need to reach the stage when everyone who thinks they have the virus is tested.

Death rates have fallen today, but that could be because it is the weekend and not all have been recorded. We should know by Tuesday if they are actually going down.

[Gadget]

But deaths are still just those who die in hospital. No care home or home deaths included in those figures. These come out once a week but a week in arrears and cause of death has been recorded in various ways.

I've lost faith in the figures because we can't compare them with anything.  I carried out a lot of statistical analysis (even on health data) in my earlier career and I don't have any confidence in them whatsoever.

[bearkat]

They say you can prove anything with statistics.

[Gadget]

There are rules and they aren't following them.

Just to give an example. Unless you know how many people have had  Covid (symptomatic or non- s) and how many have died from it and the population base, what do they tell us? Not a lot.

[Roobarb]

That's exactly why I don't bother reading them.

[Greensleeves]

I agree with Gadget - no-one has any idea whatsoever in the UK how many people have the virus, or indeed how many people have died from it.  If you become unwell, you're told to stay at home, not phone 111, not contact the GP - so basically you're on your own, abandoned, until such time as you either get better or deteriorate.  No-one knows if you have the virus or if it's something else, so you can't be counted in the statistics.

My daughter was supposed to have surgery at the end of March.  She was discharged from hospital, and surgery cancelled because of CV, so now she's isolating until such time as surgery can be done.  On 25th March she developed a cough, and I got one a few days later.  Three weeks later we still have coughs; we've looked up symptoms and they don't really match CV symptoms - except that it also says that possible other symptoms could be.... it seems everyone has something different. 

The important thing here (assuming we both recover, of course) is whether or not we have had CV and without testing we won't know.  So, we don't know whether we need to isolate to protect other people from us, or to isolate to protect us from other people.  Clearly this situation needs to be addressed as there must be tens of thousands of people in similar situations.  And I don't see how it would be safe to repeal the lockdown unless testing and tracing were in place.

[BushInn1746]

On the Downing Street Briefing today (Sunday) the chart now showed two lines for the UK:-
i) in hospital and
ii) in hospital AND other settings.

Our Coronavirus UK deaths in hospital and other settings are still about the same as France and Italy.

The chart lines for each country, originally started when 50 deaths were reached in that country.
 ----------
Covid-19 is a highly contagious communicable immunogenic disease and our own immune systems need to fight the virus to get better.
 ----------
For those not getting better, once hospitalised oxygen and a drip seems popular.

Usually recommended that at home for any virus, that I should drink plenty.

The husband of my Sister's friend was on oxygen, but had sudden deterioration and was told that on commencement of invasive ventilation his life expectancy would only be 50/50. However, thanks to Doctors and Nurses keeping him stable and his own immune system he pulled through and survived Coronavirus.

Mark

ADDED
UK NICE Guidelines
"Deciding about hospital admission"
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng165/chapter/4-Managing-suspected-or-confirmed-pneumonia

[sugarfizzle]

Following on from Mark's link, the full NICE Covid-19 guidance makes interesting reading.

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng165/chapter/1-Communicating-with-patients-and-minimising-infection-risk

Parts 2, 3 and 4 available as links on left hand side of page

Regards Margaret