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Post by marion on Feb 22, 2024 10:01:21 GMT
Anyone watch this? A three parter about life in the NHS during Covid. It starred Joanne Frogget as an acute medicine consultant and was based on personal testimonies from workers. Jed Mercurio was one of the writers (or producers, but he had a hand in it anyway). I didn’t watch that Jodie Comer Covid drama so this was the first I had seen (apart from Casualty) which was quite as vivid and detailed. It spliced in various film bits of politicians etc, including one which gave the distinct impression to me that even the sainted Jenny Harries had been economical with the truth. The one episode I wasn’t sure about was the third with demonstrations at the hospital of Covid deniers and anti-vaxxers, with horrendous and intimidating chanting and one even spat at Joanne! People were running round empty reception areas to film it and say hospitals were empty, it’s all rubbish! Well this was news to me but I didn’t look at any social meeja stuff or conspiracy theories so it could have happened I guess. I never saw anything going on at St George’s in Tooting or our local one in Roehampton though.
I found it a very compelling series and I watched the whole thing yesterday so it was a bit of a gloomy day to put it mildly! It was well put together though, very down to earth and didn’t seem contrived either.
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Post by sootycat on Feb 22, 2024 11:38:56 GMT
I found this compelling.
And I was not surprised to see it was written by Jed Mercurio
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Post by linseed on Feb 22, 2024 13:02:59 GMT
Yes, I did, very compelling. And yes, the covid denier/anti vax stuff outside hospitals did happen, those clips were all over twitter as it was then.
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Post by geometryman on Feb 22, 2024 14:33:48 GMT
I watched it and found it completely absorbing, if horrific. Based on Rachel Clarke's (third) book, "Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic" which is itself based on her own experiences as a doctor at the time, and those of colleagues and patients. Although the programme points out that the hospital itself and all the main characters are fictitious, I can believe that all the events we saw did actually happen.
The statistics at the end show what a huge toll was taken on the staff. More than 400 healthcare professionals died in the first wave to the end of 2020, and the following year an estimated 60,000 of them reported symptoms indicating PTSD.
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Post by kakewalk on Feb 22, 2024 15:26:48 GMT
It was quite shocking to see, although we’d all heard anecdotes I think. Quite a lot of the other ladies at netball are nurses and they were all talking about it on Tuesday morning after the first episode aired. They all agreed that it was very accurate in those early days with little or no support or guidance from government. And what did come out was less than useless.
I really felt for the chap who had a perfectly curable cancer, but couldn’t have the necessary surgery which would have needed ICU post-operative care because of the volume of Covid cases already in ICU. Effectively signing his death warrant. What a terrible waste of a life. I wonder if there are any stats for other cases like that. I bet not!
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Post by Miranda on Feb 22, 2024 16:36:29 GMT
I expect there's thousands of similar cases. Some things just can't be left for months without treatment.
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Post by beverley61 on Feb 22, 2024 21:41:17 GMT
Well, Kakewalk a colleagues f-in-law also had curable cancer and caught covid at his final chemo session. The cancer treatment had weakened his immune system and the hospital he was admitted to told his family he couldn't use ITU because he had cancer and it would be futile. The family spoke to his cancer consultant who very kindly offered to phone and speak to the consultant looking after him to explain that he wasn't a terminal cancer case, but they wouldn't budge and said resources were finite and cancer cases were excluded from ITU.
He was moved into a side ward and died about 3 weeks later.
The family are still very raw about the whole thing. He was a Nursing Lecturer and only in his 50s.
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Post by kakewalk on Feb 23, 2024 0:28:03 GMT
That is dreadful, beverley. So unnecessary and I’m very sad to hear about it.
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Post by beverley61 on Feb 23, 2024 11:52:57 GMT
It all came down to resources in the end. Who got into ITU was limited. A man in his 50s with no known cancer or a man in his 50s with cancer. And still there is no plan to increase the number of ITU beds across the country. We simply do not have enough. They are not just for emergencies, they support people with complex needs who are having major surgery. More people could get the surgery they need it they had more beds.
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Anymore to come?
