Been catching up with some family members today to see how covid19 is impacting them.
My sister and her daughter work in admin roles for the NHS and are both based at the Royal Liverpool. She said they're gearing up for an expected big increase in cases from next week. If it happens, she and the rest of the clerical staff will be taking over some of the tasks from the day wards, releasing the medical staff for virus duties. Things like feeding patients, portering, answering phones etc. She normally takes minutes for the finance director so she won't know what's hit her
. Seriously though she's understandably more than a bit concerned from a health perspective.
One of my brothers was diagnosed with leukaemia in December. He's had one intensive bout of chemo and went back into the Royal yesterday for a further in house chemo session, and was due to be in for another 3/4 weeks. He's been tested for covid-19 (because the chemo wipes out his immune syndrome and would kill him if he had the virus) and is waiting on the results. But he's just been told that, even if the test comes back clear they still might decide not to go ahead with the chemo because they might need the ICU bed he will be taking up for the coronavirus patients. It's a conundrum for them. The last chemo session was a great success and they wanted to follow it up quickly whilst they were winning the fight. But the flip side is that, apart from taking up a potentially crucial ICU bed, he'd also be in an building swimming with covid-19 with little or no immune system. These are the sort of decisions our doctors are having to make daily and the epidemic is nowhere near anticipated levels yet.
www.theguardian.com
www.bbc.co.uk
