HALF OF all patients in Buckinghamshire’s packed hospitals are being treated for coronavirus. In a hard hitting video released yesterday a leading medic said staff were “reaching the end of their reserve” and she pleaded with the public to follow lockdown rules “to the T”
Dr Mitra Shahid, the consultant in charge of caring for respiratory illnesses in Bucks, criticised those who say the pandemic is exaggerated, using as their ‘evidence’ the fact that hospital car parks are largely empty. Here’s what she says, in full:
“Covid is very real. There’s nothing fake about Covid at all. This time (compared to the first lockdown) is much busier, patients are much sicker and staff are much more tired. So everyone is reaching the ends of their reserve.
“To hear that people think this is a hoax is so demoralising. We really don’t need it. We have got hundreds of patients…50 per cent of our patients are now Covid patients. We are struggling with staff numbers because our staff themselves are going down with Covid.
“So this is very real. If we are seeing empty car parks it’s because patients are coming in by ambulance and the normal patients that we would see for outpatient appointments and operations… we cannot see those patients. We don’t have the capacity to see those patients. We’ve had to postpone and delay many, many operations; many many outpatient appointments. This is why our car parks are empty.
“It’s a horrible illness. Many people don’t suffer major problems but the people who end up in hospital are very, very ill. Once they come into hospital they have a very high mortality.
“You need to follow the lockdown rules, not bend them. Follow them to the T. If you are unwell call NHS 111 unless it is a real emergency in which case, of course, call 999.
“It’s desperately sad watching these people fighting for every breath, longing to see their relatives, not sure if they ever will see them again. It’s quite frightening for them and for us watching them.“
You can see the video for yourself on the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Facebook page.
Coronavirus update
- The slow fall in the number of new local Covid cases continued on Wednesday with 94 in the Wycombe area, which includes Tylers Green and Hazlemere, 49 in the Chiltern area, the includes Penn and 36 in the South Bucks area which includes Beaconsfield. However, seven people who tested positive in the previous 28 days were recorded as dying from the infection on Wednesday.
- People in Buckinghamshire in the highest priority groups aged over 75 are due to be sent invitations for vaccination this weekend. Everyone is being urged to wait for an invitation and not ring their GP surgeries. The council said yesterday around 20,000 in Bucks have so far been vaccinated.
- Arriva Buses is changing its timetables from Sunday to reflect fewer travelling passengers. It means just six services on Sundays from Penn to High Wycombe, with the final bus from Wycombe at 6.20pm and the final bus from Widmer Pond on the Common at 6.44pm. There’ll be seven services on the no.31 route on Saturdays. Weekday services remain hourly in off-peak but half-hourly in the morning and evening peak period.