Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Barnfred 55]

The NHS is a frustrating topic in so many ways. We've also seen during this outbreak the roll out of telehealth on a mass scale in a matter of weeks. I've had firsthand experience of the glacial pace of that in 'peace time', despite the technology having been around for a decade or so. Similarly, I expect the notion of using mobile apps to monitor the health of people to become widespread by the end of this, which is also something that has been feasible for ages, but the pace of change has been soooo slow.

When we're out the other side of this, hopefully there will be some vital takeaways for how health can be done better and more efficiently.

Was it about 10/15 years ago that they tried to automate the NHS and found it too impractical because all the hospitals and health departmentss used different computers, systems and software, none of which was compatible with each other. They wasted billions at the time and simply gave up.

They need to bite the bullet and have another go. It will be so worth it in the end.

 

[Harryflashman]

Listening to radio 5 and a virologist was on talking about the recent data coming out of tests indicating people have been reinfected after testing clear , I believe it was 91 in South Korea . This blokes opinion is he feels given the timescales involved he thinks that’s very unlikely and a more probable explanation is that the first test was inaccurate , for a variety of reasons , and that the virus had consistently been present and the second test just picked it up .

 

[JLW]

Guesswork maybe. I suppose in their game they need to plan ahead and are trying to predict when restrictions will be less imposing. They can always cancel again if they are wrong.

Hopefully they aren't being too optimistic

It’s a tough one opening fully the airports again. Will we have something in place for people coming into the country or some kind of screening/quarantine procedure? If we don’t we and every other country run a huge risk of this all kicking off again.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

The wrong strategy - and the one criticised initially and why we're now one of the worst countries in Europe to be hit by this - was the "do nothing" mitigate one

Lots of our media was so excited that we were not following the populist movement of going into lock down they were practically drooling and lapped up by some... Still they must of got a sense of a back lash probably from social media. Our Local Authority went from commissioning leisure centres and such like for morgues to looking for appropriate temporary ward settings, it did cause absolute chaos, a welcome one I might add.

 

[tsubaki]

It’s a tough one opening fully the airports again. Will we have something in place for people coming into the country or some kind of screening/quarantine procedure? If we don’t we and every other country run a huge risk of this all kicking off again.

Aren’t the airports still open and still don’t have screening or quarantine procedures, though? Sure I saw reports that flights were still coming from NY without checks this weekend.

 

[mahermi1]

Aren’t the airports still open and still don’t have screening or quarantine procedures, though? Sure I saw reports that flights were still coming from NY without checks this weekend.

That's pathetic if true, there is no hope, NY is one of the hotspots of this virus.

 

[Walken]

Aren’t the airports still open and still don’t have screening or quarantine procedures, though? Sure I saw reports that flights were still coming from NY without checks this weekend.

There is not so much as a temperature gun at the UK arrivals in airports, I have no problem with the repatriation of workers etc who might find themselves in nations with little medical resources, but surely we could at least check for the very basic symptoms and allow for contact tracing

 

[COYBL25]

So what your basically saying is your mate has broken the Official Secrets Act

Lol.

She only told me after her death, that they’d all had to sign it and by then the red tops had got hold of it anyway.

 

[PhilM]

There is not so much as a temperature gun at the UK arrivals in airports, I have no problem with the repatriation of workers etc who might find themselves in nations with little medical resources, but surely we could at least check for the very basic symptoms and allow for contact tracing

This is should be the bare minimum and it’s a massive misjudgment (failure) of the government to not have implemented it.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

It’s a tough one opening fully the airports again. Will we have something in place for people coming into the country or some kind of screening/quarantine procedure? If we don’t we and every other country run a huge risk of this all kicking off again.

With Johnson and Cummings now soon to be back at the helm the mistakes will again soon start to rack up at a rate.
Remember 23rd January, the UK government stated we were very low risk to this pandemic, Whitty the next day reaffirmed this low risk bias belief. Litany of mistakes has continued, leopard's and spots.

 

[Billy Dean]

Loads of replies like that.

On another planet I tell ya

If you spend all your time on this forum or Twitter you'd think Boris is on the ropes, but actually I fear this is the real prevailing mood in the country right now.

The funny thing is, in many ways, Germany has been able to test large numbers of people because they have a much less centralised system than here in the UK. I wonder if those among the 'State/NHS is best/privatisation of healthcare is the devil' group would now accept that testing could have been done far faster in the UK if the state didn't try and monopolise it all and let university and pharma labs do their bit? Equally, state run hospitals only account for around 50% of beds in Germany (which has quite a few more ICU beds per head of population than the UK). Again, not a model I can imagine many going for in the UK.

Do you know what the comparative state spending on healthcare is in the 2 countries Bruce? Genuine question, I don't know and wouldn't know where to look. Germany certainly seems better equipped in terms of hospital and testing capacity. Away from the context of the pandemic there are definitely some problems with the German system but to be fair when it comes to their hospitals they're good (in my experience at least). They do have a certain "2 class" system which can make things difficult for those who are not privately insured to get appointments with specialists. Doctors are incentivised to do what makes them more money rather than helping their patients etc. There are some aspects in which the NHS puts the German system to shame.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Was it about 10/15 years ago that they tried to automate the NHS and found it too impractical because all the hospitals and health departmentss used different computers, systems and software, none of which was compatible with each other. They wasted billions at the time and simply gave up.

They need to bite the bullet and have another go. It will be so worth it in the end.

The procurement of patient record systems has been a balls up in my opinion. Interoperability seems minimal, much less any integration with more modern forms of delivery. Care.data was heading in the right direction a few years ago, but that was mothballed as well because the public engagement was messed up. Technology and the NHS has been a litany of disasters for decades.

 

[COYBL25]

 

[daza_1973]

View attachment 83389

Looks like Blue Bill got dressed in the dark this morning.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

If you spend all your time on this forum or Twitter you'd think Boris is on the ropes, but actually I fear this is the real prevailing mood in the country right now.



Do you know what the comparative state spending on healthcare is in the 2 countries Bruce? Genuine question, I don't know and wouldn't know where to look. Germany certainly seems better equipped in terms of hospital and testing capacity. Away from the context of the pandemic there are definitely some problems with the German system but to be fair when it comes to their hospitals they're good (in my experience at least). They do have a certain "2 class" system which can make things difficult for those who are not privately insured to get appointments with specialists. Doctors are incentivised to do what makes them more money rather than helping their patients etc. There are some aspects in which the NHS puts the German system to shame.

https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/news/bundeshaushalt-2020-beschlossen-1641384 says the following. No idea how much of health spending is done by local governments, but 4.3% is quite a bit lower than here, so I would imagine local spending is higher.

After all, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...espendingcomparewithothercountries/2019-08-29 says UK spending per capita is £2,989, which compares to £4,432 in Germany.