UK Testing - Dont hold your breath

You do not have to be in the UK to see, read and understand the situation. Thankfully, most of us are able to make a rather more intelligent conclusion.

I agree with your points Ray. 

I forgot to mention in my original post that protecting the NHS was supposed to be about ensuring we have enough critical care beds in the event of a mass influx. For the first time since this was announced, the NHS has over 2000 spare beds in critical care and that's before we add in the newly sorted Nightingale hospitals. 

So, we have protected the NHS?!!!

I must also add, that there are now countless numbers of people who were awaiting treatment that required them to be in those critical care beds etc and are suffering as a result. I cannot begin to imagine their anxiety and trauma. 

It's so very true that whilst our own stress and worries are relative, there is always someone worse off than you. 

We can only hope that when the e-parliament takes some shape, that some challenges will be placed on the decisions being made by the current folk making the decisions. 

To be fair, damned if you do and damned if you don't springs to mind!

Which extreme cuts do you refer to? 

Hi UKHM4H  :o)

Did you watch the Health and Social Care Select Committee on Friday morning, 17 April?  After Matt Hancock proudly told the Committee that they have "more than 2,000 critical care beds" available, Dame Donna Kinnair, Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, told the Committee that they don't have enough ICU nurses to attend to the existing hospital capacity, let alone the new Nightingale hospitals...... 

Aside from the UK government's slow response, the u-turn in their strategy, their failure to stock-pile adequate PPE: they add insult to injury by failing to be honest.  Who's managing their comms?  The government's "spin", so easily challenged by those on the front line, is a further insult to the intelligence of the British people.  We know it's hard, but we need the government to be open and honest.  What happened to the 84-tonnes of PPE that was supposed to arrive in the UK today from Turkey?  Where is it?  Why didn't it arrive?  Sophy Ridge, interviewing Michael Gove on Sky News this morning, tried to get an answer from him, but he just refused to discuss it. 

None of this is "media hysteria".  I watched the Select Committee and interviews myself, live on TV, as they were being broadcast.  Repeatedly giving front line workers "assurances" of the government's "best endeavours" and then failing to deliver, without explanation, is inexcusable.

Best wishes,

Kim

I have to say Ray that some of your posts can be quite detrimental.

However...... I think this post is spot on and I whole heartedly agree!

Kim - if you watch the body language and listen to the tone during the Punch and Judy show, sorry, the daily briefings, you can actually see that most of the time the politicians dont even agree with what is coming out of their own mouth! 

They provide more spin than a 1970's DJ and it needs someone with enough magnitude and ability to challenge what is being done. Where is Corbyn when you need him (not)!!!

It is shocking how the public are being treated whilst these people ignore their own guides and rules (travelling to second / first home for example) and living with a full salary in a world where they want for nothing yet they try and make out they understand how we slowly peasants feel. 

I'm just hoping ISIS follows the rules and work from home!!! 

Despite all the extreme NHS cuts, the slow responses, the lack of planning and testing the UK death rate from Coronavirus is less than Italy, Spain, France and Belgium. So should how should we interpret that fact?

www.worldometers.info

Oh, and it cannot be because the UK is behind in the cycle because as it has been repeatedly pointed out on this forum the UK government were supposed slow to implement lockdown procedures implying that the UK must have been at the same point in the cycle.

Aitch. 

Hi Aitch,

As I said on another thread yesterday, there are many ways to cut the numerical data.  If you look at Death Rates as a percentage of Infection Rates, the UK's number is worse than Spain's - in the UK, 13.4% of those infected so far have died, against only(!) 10.4% in Spain.  If you look at Death Rate as a percentage of population, the UK's number improves.  

However, last week, the UK government admitted that the Office of National Statistics is reporting higher death rates than the NHS; the difference being that the ONS figures include Covid-19 deaths in settings outside of hospitals. And there's also about a 3 week delay in reporting the ONS figures because of the way the data is collected.

Kind regards,

Kim

An impassioned plea from Dominic Minghella, someone who's survived Covid-19, about why we shouldn't blindly accept what the UK government tells us:

https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/04/eleven-days-may-have-tragically-cost-uk-fight-against-coronavirus

Kind regards, 

Kim