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in hospitals
serene on the surface the drama of life
and death is often just around the
corner
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farley is the respiratory ward and the
place where most of the cobra patients
can be found
over the past weeks cases here have been
ticking
up we've seen that gradual sort of
increase
of positive patients of our test results
come in that positive
and that's what's happened do you have a
sense of when it might peak
um we think with the the data that
that's been shared
possibly by the end of this week for a
couple of months this summer
there were no covert cases at all in
this hospital
but now it's back patients are passing
away again
and even the indomitable matron here can
feel the disappointment
in the hospital you know we haven't had
the usual let up that we would in the
summer we do normally have a little bit
of a lull
we haven't had that so we know that
we're gearing up for winter
and yes we've got covered but we've got
all the usual winter pressures as well
so that just makes people that little
bit more tired
but this second peak is a relative high
and now it seems
quite a bit lower than the first
so they are reaching what the modelling
tells them will
be the second peak now but it's quite
different on this ward
to what we saw in april for a start
they've only got
half the number of beds allocated to
covered patients
and thankfully the numbers dying from
the disease are also much lower
so whereas 55 people died with covid in
this hospital during the first wave
the total so far in the second is seven
many here fear though that just as the
second wave ebbs away
the government's relaxation of
restrictions over christmas
could set them back i do worry about the
cost
to the community to the health service
of five days of
of people getting together i mean my
understanding is that some of the
high-risk
activities are households getting
together indoors
and and having you know different
households and often different
generations getting together for several
days over christmas my understanding is
that presents a serious risk to people's
health and yes i am concerned about that
this hospital often echoes to music as
part of a program that began before the
pandemic
but continues even al fresco to soothe
staff and patients
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up two levels in the cardiac unit we
filmed the resumption of day surgery in
june
shut down for months during the first
wave doctors were left counting the cost
of heart patients lost while the
priority was covered
the difficulty we've had of course is
people still
have the fear of covid there are still
some patients who
say actually i still want to wait for
another six months
before this is all over and then i'll
come and have my investigations and
tests done
but of course the flip side of that is
that we have seen
increased mobility and mortality in
patients who have been waiting
and they're presented with heart failure
and heart attacks
and in some cases patients have died so
it's it's still
a major problem the first lockdown
created a backlog
and it remains even though they're
working through the second
so how long await do patients now expect
i suspect we're probably looking at six
to nine months
so there's still a long way off um so if
you present
needing some a standard investigation or
a test
um we're still talking several several
weeks or months before we can
get to you unless you present with an
emergency
so it's we're nowhere near out of the
woods yet
they've managed to keep pretty much
everything open here during the second
wave and they're proud of that
achievement
like every other hospital they had to
shut down much of what they were doing
during the spring but the backlog from
then remains
and that's got to be cleared add to that
concerns that easing up over christmas
might even generate a third wave
hidden away from the hospital is a
secret store of ppe
laid in for the second wave there's
literally tons of it
from gowns to gloves gel to visors
they had to plan for the worst but it's
already clear
much won't be needed in this second wave
soon they'll emerge to tier 2
restrictions
so was the second english national lock
down a blunt instrument
in an area where mercifully this
hospital hasn't come
close to being stretched the difficulty
with
regional lock towns i sense is is it
becomes much more difficult to deliver a
message
consistently and in a way that people
will engage with and i i i
to me that's the nub of the problem up
on level three they've stepped up style
flu jabs
85 percent have had them and the target
is 90
there's a reason for the urgency they
want at least a week between
flu and covid vaccines and this work
hints
at just how imminent the kovid jabs may
be
the hospital wants to be ready by
tuesday and start administering one of
the new vaccines as soon as it's
certified
they hope before next week is out
i would absolutely have it i'd
absolutely have to you have to trust
that it's going to be safe it'll be
effective
and and it seems like it's a way out of
out of kobe cove it's going to be around
it's it's not going to not going to
suddenly go away so we've got to find a
way to vaccinate
same way as we do with flu if we fast
forward to the period where we have a
successful vaccine that
that protects people and stops the virus
being transmitted and
and can be delivered to a significant
proportion of the population then
you know that takes us into a very
different place from where we are now
definitely
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this winter promises all manner of
stresses and strains on the health
service
but once its staff are vaccinated the
kovid pinch on them will be eased
with vulnerable groups in the wider
public following soon after
all hopes have pinned on that plan as
they motor towards year's end