• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Colleagues in tears and night panics – ICU doctors describe ‘utterly relentless’ covid despair

“I’ve never had a single issue with stress, anxiety or anything like that and yet even I find myself waking up regularly in the night with jolts of adrenaline as if I’m still on the intensive care unit and there’s another emergency.”

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2021-02-05 12:24
in News
Credit;PA

Credit;PA

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Intensive care doctors have described jolting awake at night and witnessing colleagues breaking down as they warned that specialist units are “not out of the woods” with coronavirus cases.

Despite a downward trend nationally in coronavirus cases and hospital admissions, consultant Dr Ben Attwood said intensive care units such as his at Warwick Hospital are yet to see the same level of reduction.

He told the PA news agency that staff will not be able to cope if policy-makers “take their eye off the ball” and remove restrictions too quickly.

Dr Attwood, 43, said the delay between transmission of Covid-19 and the deterioration of patients’ conditions means his hospital is still seeing people “who might have been infected in the Christmas period and just after”.

Dr Ben Atwood in full PPE (Ben Atwood/PA)
Dr Attwood in full PPE (Ben Attwood/PA)

“It’s rare at the moment to get through a shift where a member of staff isn’t on the verge of or actually in tears. That’s really unusual,” said Dr Attwood, who is associate medical director at South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust.

“We absolutely are not out of the woods. Whilst it’s really tempting to say we can now take our eye off the ball, we absolutely can’t.

“If we lose our focus now and people start to let up – and I don’t just mean public, I mean government – we are in danger of just essentially Groundhog Day of lockdowns and cycles.

RelatedPosts

You can not be serious! Boris Johnson refuses to resign under relentless pressure as Tennis quote rings true

Priti Patel turns on Boris Johnson leaving PM with only Dorries, Raab and Mogg left

Zahawi – made Chancellor by PM hours ago – at Downing Street demanding Johnson quits!

Watch: Chancellor hopped from TV studio to TV studio this morning ‘shamelessly debasing and humiliating himself’

“I don’t think the NHS is ready to cope with that. I just don’t think there’s enough fuel in the tank.”

Another ICU doctor from London, who wished to remain anonymous, told PA: “We expect to remain full with high demand for at least the next few weeks.

“A lot more help is needed, especially in critical care. The last year has been utterly relentless, and the vast majority of us are experiencing effects on our mental health.

Anxiety

“I’ve never had a single issue with stress, anxiety or anything like that and yet even I find myself waking up regularly in the night with jolts of adrenaline as if I’m still on the intensive care unit and there’s another emergency.”

As a smaller medical centre, Dr Attwood’s Warwick Hospital only had funding and staff to treat five critical care patients in 2019, but as with hospitals across the country it has doubled its capacity during the pandemic – treating as many as 13 at a time.

“In a larger hospital that would sound very small, but along with a small bed base you also have a very small nursing and medical staffing facility,” he said.

“If you’d said to me two years ago that (Warwick) would have more than double the actual physical number of beds available I’d have looked at you like it was madness.”

HEALTH Coronavirus
(PA Graphics)

Dr Attwood said the difficulties staff are facing are exacerbated by the fact many have been redeployed to intensive care, but all staff are under intense strain.

He said colleagues are not being afforded the usual time and energy to recover from the trauma of their experiences in ICUs.

“Intensive care staff are in usual times incredibly well placed to deal with this and extremely professional, but I think this has taken its toll on everybody,” he said.

Enormity

“The way in which nurses and medics normally can bounce back and deal with and start to process the enormity of what they’re doing usually involves debriefing either formally or informally.

“The trouble with this particular pandemic is there isn’t that opportunity.

“It can be as simple as having a cup of tea with somebody or meeting people informally (outside of work) – and of course we’re not allowed to do that.”

Related: PMQs 3rd Feb – Boris Johnson is creating troubles for himself and everyone else

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Prolific ‘jailfie’ back behind bars

Johnson interview showed a ‘chilling’ disregard for cancer patients

Prince Harry Hosts Remembrance Dinner To Celebrate The Gurkha Welfare Trust

Gin and Pink Tonic Baked Cheesecake

Why is the Irish backstop such a key issue in Brexit talks?

Five reasons to switch from paper to digital documents

Steve Baker tells Tories: ‘We urgently need to challenge our own attitude to people taking a knee’

Why You Should Take An Anti Money Laundering Training Course

An ex-cop reflects on Matt Ratana, BLM and ‘media negativity’

5 Hottest Summer Accessories under £200

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.