Forum Topic

Into battle

There's a really interesting article in this week's Spectator (you can download to Kindle). It's by a hospital doctor talking about how the NHS has leapt into action. He says that changes that would normally take months or even years of meetings and memos are being done in days as all the red tape is cut through, vastly increasing the NHS's ability to cope with this pandemic.He's impressed. So am I.We can do this.

Susan Kelly ● 2413d2 Comments

It's just a shame that the NHS didn't have this common sense approach 50/60 years ago.

Brian Coyle ● 2413d

Yet another senior official lying to you. On Monday they enacted the Flu Pandeminic plan into law. You can read the current flu pandemic plan from 2017 here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pandemic-fluIt mentions previous plans dating back to 2004, I would of thought the plans go back even further to 1918, but that is a guess. The Government and every department having been planning for this outcome for at least 16 years!“Past pandemics have varied in scale, severity and consequence, although in general their impact has been much greater than that of even the most severe winter ‘epidemic’.Each pandemic is different and, until the virus starts circulating, it is impossible to predict its full effects. As such, it is impossible to forecast the precise characteristics, spread and impact of a new influenza virus strain, however, based on historical information and scientific evidence we are able to predict the possible impacts:Many millions of people around the world will become infected, up to around 50% become ill with symptoms and a variable proportion die from the disease itself or from complications such as pneumonia.In the UK, up to one half of the population may become infected and between 20,000 and 750,000 additional deaths (that is deaths that would not have happened over the same period of time had a pandemic not taken place) may have occurred by the end of a pandemic in the UK.In the absence of early or effective interventions, society is also likely to face social and economic disruption, significant threats to the continuity of essential services, lower production levels, shortages and distribution difficulties. Individual organisations may also suffer from the pandemic’s impact on business and services.Large numbers of staff are likely to be absent from work at any one time.”“Taking account of this, and the practicality of different levels of response, when planning for excess deaths, local planners have been set the target of preparing to extend capacity on a precautionary but reasonably practicable basis, and aim to cope with a population mortality rate of up to 210,000 to 315,000 additional deaths, possibly over as little as a 15 week period and perhaps half of these over 3 weeks at the height of the outbreak.”

Colin Potter ● 2413d