Thread by @ILOVETINY, THE NHS CRISIS 2020 Unless you've been living under a rock (& [...]

THE NHS CRISIS 2020

Unless you've been living under a rock (& I envy you, if you have), you'll be aware of the current crisis facing the NHS.

The UK media would have you believe this is unprecedented, but are they right?

Breaking news or broken news?

A THREAD

1. Before we delve into the archive, here's a reminder of media reporting on this crisis. Surprisingly (& suspiciously), the BBC aren't freaking out: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-54538341

Coronavirus: Queen Elizabeth Hospital suspends cancer transplants

Two nurses are thought to be the source as cancer patients are treated for coronavirus.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-54538341

2. The Daily Mail, on the other hand: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8837277/Liverpools-intensive-care-wards-95-capacity-patient-numbers-set-rise-peak.html

Liverpool's ICUs at 95% capacity, with patient numbers rising

The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals across Liverpool could reach more than 400, the city's peak earlier this year, in the next 10 days, a city councillor has warned.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8837277/Liverpools-intensive-care-wards-95-capacity-patient-numbers-set-rise-peak.html

3. Here's The Times with their bleak outlook for NHS Scotland. Collapse, you say? https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-in-scotland-nhs-faces-collapse-without-further-curbs-doctors-say-kv3ktg60q

Covid in Scotland: NHS faces collapse without further curbs, doctors say

Doctors fear hospitals risk becoming overwhelmed by a second wave with one physician insisting it is a “mathematical certainty” that cases will “rise inexorably” without further curbs.Dr Allan Cameron

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-in-scotland-nhs-faces-collapse-without-further-curbs-doctors-say-kv3ktg60q

4. This is 'Voice of the People' (debatable, but whatevs) writing for The Mirror: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/voice-people-britain-faces-tough-22863724

"Britain faces tough winter with NHS in crisis and country divided"

NHS staff shortages, lack of beds, absence of regular Covid testing for staff and a government completely unprepared getting it wrong at every turn is what's in store in the coming months

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/voice-people-britain-faces-tough-22863724

5. The cast of dramatic actors at The Guardian star in 'Another Leaked Document'. Coming soon to a socially distanced theatre near you: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/18/revealed-some-manchester-area-hospitals-already-full

Covid: Greater Manchester running out of intensive care beds, leak reveals

NHS document shows no spare beds for patients in Salford, Stockport and Bolton

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/18/revealed-some-manchester-area-hospitals-already-full

6. The Independent will be their supporting cast: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-uk-hospital-beds-icu-manchester-north-west-covid-update-b1151923.html

Covid cases could overwhelm intensive care capacity in Manchester by 12 November, warns No10

Hospital situation ‘very concerning’ as Tier 3 stand-off continues

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-uk-hospital-beds-icu-manchester-north-west-covid-update-b1151923.html

7. Now, hold on tight, boys & girls. We're going all the way back to 1996, where Dolly the Sheep gets cloned, Take That call it a day & The Independent reports on the acute NHS bed shortage: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/nationwide-catalogue-of-acute-bed-shortages-1323544.html

Nationwide catalogue of acute bed shortages

Some of the hospitals forced to take action over shortage of beds include:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/nationwide-catalogue-of-acute-bed-shortages-1323544.html

8. In 1997, Tony Blair (Booo!) leads Labour to a landslide election victory, there's death in a Paris tunnel & the BBC warns of the winter worries facing the NHS - 'a flu epidemic could bring it to the brink of collapse'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/36608.stm

9. As 1998 rolls around, the Good Friday Agreement is signed & the first DVD is sold in the UK. Everything is changing. Everything except the news, that is - the BBC reports (again) of the pending NHS meltdown:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/45273.stm

10. Nobody is partying like it's 1999 in 1999 - Harold Shipman is killing, Jill Dando is being killed (not by Shipman, btw) & NHS intensive care beds run out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/250008.stm

11. Y2K panic passes & normal life resumes in 2000. At the BBC, this involves the 'NHS on its knees':

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/596378.stm

12. And, 'six months to save the NHS':

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/695090.stm

13. Against all odds, the NHS managed to drag itself into 2001, where Labour win a second term in another landslide & the world changes forever on Sept 11th. What doesn't change, however, is the BBC reporting on an NHS crisis:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/01/99/nhs_in_crisis/1494994.stm

14. The Queen Mother dies in 2002, at the age of 101, & bed shortages leave hospital patients waiting for hours on trollies. It's unsure whether the 2 are connected:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2195260.stm

15. The 2003 Health Secretary, John Reid, dismisses claims that the NHS is facing a winter bed crisis. Reassuring, when you consider the trustworthiness of our current Health Secretary:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3236680.stm

16. We're going to run through 2004 with our eyes closed & our ears covered because a 'lack of beds is killing patients' & we don't wanna see that, do we?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3514065.stm

17. A ray of hope on the horizon in 2005 with the BBC reporting a flu outbreak 'may overwhelm' the NHS, but it may not. So, fingers crossed, everyone:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4274642.stm

18. FFS! Hope snatched away as full hospitals have to turn patients away:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/4244329.stm

19. A whale turns up in the Thames in 2006 & the Queen celebrates her 80th b'day. Let's hope she isn't hospitalised as new superbug MRSA & fears over bed occupancy are not a combo fit for a queen:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5370336.stm

20. Madeleine McCann goes missing in 2007. MRSA & hospital overcrowding does not:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6440927.stm

21. By 2008, MRSA is mostly forgotten, as is Madeleine McCann. Flu, however, is making a comeback, threatening to overwhelm the NHS when it does:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7797775.stm

22. With all the morals of a skip rat, the BBC trot out a 'won't somebody think of the children' narrative in 2009 with their story of critical care paediatric bed shortages:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8367272.stm

23. Not to be outdone, the Daily Mail sees the BBC's bed shortage & raises them '4000 babies born in lifts, corridors, offices & toilets'. Nice played, lads: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209034/The-babies-born-hospital-corridors-Bed-shortage-forces-4-000-mothers-birth-lifts-offices-hospital-toilets.html

The babies born in hospital corridors: Bed shortage forces 4,000 mothers to give birth in lifts,...

The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk as births in locations ranging from lifts to toilets - even a caravan - went up 15 per cent last year to almost 4,000.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209034/The-babies-born-hospital-corridors-Bed-shortage-forces-4-000-mothers-birth-lifts-offices-hospital-toilets.html

24. In 2010 (anyone else missing 2020?), Tony Blair is a war criminal, Gordon Brown is PM & we have the lowest number of intensive care beds in the developed world: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1318945/Intensive-care-crisis-We-fewer-beds-nation.html

Intensive care crisis: We have fewer beds than almost every other nation

We are lagging far behind our European neighbours, both in terms of ICU beds per 100 hospital beds and ICU beds per 100,000 of population.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1318945/Intensive-care-crisis-We-fewer-beds-nation.html

25. Labour get their marching orders by 2011, but a hung parliament means we get a Tory/Lib Dem coalition instead. Cameron & Clegg, the worst duo since the Hillside Stranglers, cut funding to the NHS like there's a prize for it: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079220/Four-doctors-says-NHS-cuts-affecting-patient-care.html

Four in five doctors insist NHS cuts are affecting patient care

Medics quizzed said health service cost-cutting has led to fewer hospital beds, increasing pressure on doctors to prescribe cheaper drugs, poorer occupational health support and reductions in...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079220/Four-doctors-says-NHS-cuts-affecting-patient-care.html

26. While the killers of Stephen Lawrence finally face justice & Jimmy Savile avoids it, in 2012 the NHS faces another crisis - acute care on the verge of collapse:

https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/acute-hospital-care-in-england-could-be-on-the-verge-of-collapse.html#

27. Or the 'brink of collapse', as The Guardian terms it. They're both pretty interchangeable: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/sep/13/acute-hospital-care-brink-collapse-doctors

Acute hospital care 'on brink of collapse' say doctors

Royal College of Physicians says there has been 37% rise in admissions over last 10 years and new hospital planning is needed

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/sep/13/acute-hospital-care-brink-collapse-doctors

28. They could actually be on to something this time - 170 operations are being cancelled daily in 2013 due to a chronic lack of beds: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516764/NHS-forced-cancel-170-operations-day-lack-beds.html

NHS forced to cancel 170 operations at the last minute every day - the most since 2001 - because of...

A total of 30,415 scheduled operations were cancelled in English NHS hospitals between April - September this year - largely due to a shortage of beds and staff and emergency cases taking priority,...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516764/NHS-forced-cancel-170-operations-day-lack-beds.html

29. Max Clifford goes directly to jail without passing Go in 2014 & the Telegraph finally 'exposes' the hospital bed shortage scandal. About time someone did: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/10768844/Hospital-bed-shortage-exposed.html

Hospital bed shortage exposed

UK has second lowest number of beds per person in Europe, report shows, as NHS overcrowding breaches safety limit and raises risk of superbugs

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/10768844/Hospital-bed-shortage-exposed.html

30. Nobody's surprised when Gary Glitter is found guilty of child abuse in 2015. Similarly, there's no surprise that a winter crisis is underway & the NHS has a bed shortage. This is probably why this Independent is fookin' massive: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-winter-crisis-underway-figures-show-hospital-trusts-running-out-beds-a6770041.html

The NHS winter crisis has begun

Official NHS England statistics show 12 trusts became too full to admit any more patients last weekend

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-winter-crisis-underway-figures-show-hospital-trusts-running-out-beds-a6770041.html

31. The Guardian have such an amateur dramatics vibe going on, don't they? Like, they're shit, but they always put in the effort: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/11/hospitals-run-out-of-beds-as-nhs-strained-by-norovirus

Hospitals run out of beds as NHS strained by norovirus

Health service figures show several casualty units were shut around the country and no spaces free even before onset of full winter conditions

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/11/hospitals-run-out-of-beds-as-nhs-strained-by-norovirus

32. The mystery of the missing hospital beds is still going strong in 2016, which is the year Lord Lucan is declared dead. There's irony there, if you like that sort of thing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38330110

Hospital beds shortage in England 'an infection risk'

A shortage of hospital beds in England is putting patients at increased risk of infection, a report says.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38330110

33. The Guardian & the Red Cross join forces in 2017 & put on a Broadway worthy production of '99% Capacity NHS: A Humanitarian Crisis'. The critics didn't rate it: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/07/nhs-bosses-sound-alarm-over-hospital-bed-shortages-patient-safety-concern

NHS bosses sound alarm over hospitals already running at 99% capacity

Bed shortages prompting concern for patient safety even before onset of winter weather and anticipated major flu outbreak

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/07/nhs-bosses-sound-alarm-over-hospital-bed-shortages-patient-safety-concern

34. Theresa May is at the helm, waging a war against plastic in 2018. Meanwhile, the battle to save the NHS is being lost: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/02/nhs-hospitals-ordered-cancel-routine-operations-january/

NHS hospitals ordered to cancel all routine operations in January as flu spike and bed shortages...

Every hospital in the country has been ordered to cancel all non-urgent surgery until at least February in an unprecedented step by NHS officials.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/02/nhs-hospitals-ordered-cancel-routine-operations-january/

35. By 2019, after 2 years of rehearsals, the Guardian have their 'NHS Crisis' headlines word perfect: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/10/thousands-of-patients-die-waiting-for-beds-in-hospitals-study

Thousands of patients die waiting for beds in hospitals – study

Doctors’ report finds 5,449 deaths since 2016 followed delayed admission to A&E

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/10/thousands-of-patients-die-waiting-for-beds-in-hospitals-study

36. As 2020 arrives, Harry & Meghan fuck off & we finally leave the EU. So many comings & goings. It's kind of comforting that the MSM & the NHS are still a shambles: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/girl-11-glandular-fever-forced-21262080

Girl, 11, with glandular fever forced to sleep on hospital floor in bed shortage

Lacey Taylor lay on the floor of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in her pyjamas and waited for five hours before she was eventually seen by an 'overstretched' doctor

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/girl-11-glandular-fever-forced-21262080

37. By March, Covid-19 is killing more grannies than Harold Shipman & the NHS has about a fortnight left in it: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/24/nhs-hospitals-could-run-out-of-coronavirus-beds-in-a-fortnight

NHS hospitals could run out of coronavirus beds in a fortnight

Doctors say critical care places will run short if cases increase on the same scale as Italy

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/24/nhs-hospitals-could-run-out-of-coronavirus-beds-in-a-fortnight

38. In swoops Matt Hancock, cape & all, to save the day & the NHS (you mean, clapping doesn't work?) with the Nightingale field hospitals. We're definitely going to need those. Aren't we?? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/do-many-nhs-nightingale-hospitals-remain-empty/

Why do so many NHS Nightingale hospitals remain empty?

Some officials believe their Nightingale hospital may never have to treat a Covid-19 patient

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/do-many-nhs-nightingale-hospitals-remain-empty/

39. Apparently not. Not being one to learn from their mistakes, the cabinet doubles down: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/liverpool-nightingale-hospital-covid-cases-beds-shortage-tier-3-restrictions-719145

Liverpool 'could get new Nightingale Hospital' as soaring Covid cases cause beds shortage

Intensive care units in the city are at 90% capacity and two entire floors of a new hospital are out of action due to construction work

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/liverpool-nightingale-hospital-covid-cases-beds-shortage-tier-3-restrictions-719145

40. Where have they been hiding all these beds? Call me crazy, but they could have been used to treat the thousands of people who have died unnecessarily due to cancelled appointments & fear of seeking medical attention: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/almost-10000-excess-deaths-not-recorded-as-covid-related/

Almost 10,000 excess deaths, not recorded as COVID-related

Early results from a study led by University of Manchester data scientists has shown that of the 47,243 excess deaths in England and Wales in the first nine weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, 9,948 –...

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/almost-10000-excess-deaths-not-recorded-as-covid-related/

41. Falling for & sharing this old, worn out narrative is killing people. We should expect nothing less from the bought & paid for media, but we, as citizens, have a choice - be complicit in the sham or fight against it.

Ignorance is no longer an excuse!

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