yes John this was a sober and quite
upsetting experience in a way I mean
I've been on to intensive care units
before but there was nothing like this
these people were so unutterably
desperately ill but one of the uplifting
parts of this was just how smoothly and
well all the staff worked together and
don't forget this is these are many of
these people had never been onto
Intensive Care Unit they're not even
trained nurses or doctors they've been
brought in to help but when I spoke to
those staff they too were really feeling
some of the difficulties of this like
not being able to talk to the to the
relatives not having the relatives at
the bedside now let's get this straight
the reason that we were allowed onto
that Intensive Care Unit to film in the
first place was because it serves as a
warning a real warning that you simply
do not want this to happen to you
the front line wants an orthopedic
center now a Red Zone the entry to
intensive care and in this changing
World once they were reception and admin
staff now they're the Guardians the
protectors against coronavirus we are
going into the back of theaters
and this is how we get into the internet
okay unit Epsom and Saint heliers in
South London and Surrey the wave of
covered patients came to this trust
earlier than the rest of the capital or
indeed the country
this is Richard Hughes the head of
nursing so one of the big things that's
been said about ICU is that where it
would be normally one-to-one support
what staff ratio have you got now so for
six patients we'll have one iTunes
supported by four at minimum four
trained staff members and bedside
buddies Healthcare assistants as well
[Music]
the words of War are often used in this
pandemic a battle they call it a fight
but no theater of war was so calm just
the machines
a nurse quietly speaking to a comatose
patient I saw you brushing her hair and
looking I mean it was quite good it's
you know not just down to equipment it's
about dignity and providing the best
personal care for your patients
obviously
yeah I'm fine I'm fine I feel really
privileged and so you won't come back
and to be able to sort of contribute
sorry
they made
it's really amazing when you talk to
some of the staff who've come back here
who haven't been on an itu units it's
actually quite upsetting quite emotional
quite actually it's a privilege to meet
them
there are so many statistics in this
pandemic and then there is the person in
the bed right in front of you but it is
worth saying that the survival rate here
for patients on ventilators is now 60
which is above the national average okay
so this this person is prone which a lot
of people have talked about haven't they
it's of laying them on there from on
their chest and how does that help it
helps because it redistributes the
um
the fluid on the chest so it gives them
it's a different way of breathing again
completely
for the entire time we were on the ward
a team so many of them was dealing with
this patient adjusting and replacing his
breathing tube suctioning fluid off he
was presumably unaware of the intensity
of his care
Rebecca Ellis is the nurse we met
earlier caring so tenderly for her
patient all the staff need to take
regular breaks wearing those masks for a
long time is too hard
these meals are donated every day and
will be for the duration
cakes drinks sandwiches
if you want to see love and gratitude
it's here in abundance
how's it been this morning yeah yeah
it's okay what does okay mean
um
it's emotionally hard
but yeah we're it's calm up there
what is it what is it that's intense
well they're all so sick
um
and so helpless
and I think not having family around is
very very difficult speaking to family
on the phone is quite tough
because it's really sad no one they're
not able to be here for them and I think
that's quite difficult
and there is a particular cruelty of
this disease as they lie in intensive
care there's some of them near the end
their families can't be with them hold
their hands tell them they love them so
this nurse does it for them
there's something quite Difficult about
end-of-life conversations and trying to
facilitate conversations of goodbye from
families over loudspeaker on phone for
example and doing that important thing
on behalf of a family when they ask you
to give a message to their loved one and
they're you know I always take the names
of the daughters the sons and they I say
exactly what they want me to say even
though their loved ones unconscious on a
ventilator to to say that goodbye on
their behalf as being you know quite a
privilege and it's something I've taken
really seriously so I've always done
that and offered that for them and then
gone back on the phone and reported back
to say I've done it and you know told
them I held their hand for example I've
given the message and sort of left it at
that so you were you were meeting some
relatives this morning yeah one of the
family members literally showed me some
pictures of her husband with his
grandchildren just to help me understand
and share how they were as a person and
and how they were loved and valued by
the whole family around them so it's
been quite important for me to do that
as well psychologically we are weeks in
now to this epidemic yet there is still
that air of bewilderment
how did we get to this are we really
doing this is this where we've got to
and
you know that's the reality of it so
it's just about gauging what was normal
and none of it's normal at the moment
and what'd you see you hit them there
with a family in the key thing I think
that with we think about the family how
hard like losing a mum losing it down we
can't get time to speak to them
personally but doctors count everyone
how do you feel when you get home each
night I feel like I still wear a mask
yeah you can see you can still you can
feel it for the night on your face you
know it's just yeah so tight all the
time indeed the marks left on their
faces when they come off the ward are
like a badge of honor
the pictures the children the Clapping
all of that's really kept us going and
made a massive difference when we come
through the other side of this I think
we'll all be really glad we were here
and we were able to do what we've been
able to do maybe on the way we wanted to
but we've been able to make some small
difference along the way to the patients
and the families
now Downing Street have said today that
there will be an inquiry to investigate
why it appears but people from black
Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds
are disproportionately affected by the
coronavirus what can you tell us about
that Victoria
yes well Professor Chris witty the chief
medical officer for England said today
that there are three risk factors uh age
and we'll hear more about that later
being male and having an underlying
health condition like cardiovascular
disease but he said being a member of an
ethnic minority group is less clear that
the thing is we are seeing day after day
those galleries of photos of healthcare
workers who are disproportionately it
certainly appears to us of black and
minority ethnic groups and now is the
time they have decided the government
that they need to actually drill down on
this and to have a look so the vast
Public Health England and the NHS to do
an investigation into this and to report
back because we will need to know if
this is the case and it certainly looks
like it is what can be done and what has
caused this
and Victoria the office for National
statistics really has released a more
comprehensive breakdown of those who
have died what have we learned from
those figures
well this is just England Wales to to
remind ourselves um that this was
looking at sex age and regions now we
can have learned but we already knew
this actually that men are twice as
likely to die and we could already as
women we could already see that from the
China figures it was the third most
common cause of death behind dementia
Alzheimer's and heart diseases so not
not in the top but critically just over
90 percent of people who died did have
an underlying health condition and the
fact is the risk factor one of the big
risk factors was the older you get the
higher your risk