The tireless hacks at the BBC have emerged from their bunkers once again to terrorise the public by bravely touring the hospitals and whipping up hysteria about the latest outbreak of flu.
It seems “literally hundreds” of patients have been bombarding A&E
departments, according to Health Editor Hugh Pym and Chloe Hayward who
have been courageously touring the front line:
As one patient leaves his room at Leicester Royal Infirmary’s acute unit, cleaning staff are waiting outside.
He is barely out of the room before the bed is stripped and bleach is sprayed. The next patient is already waiting to come in.
Over
two days the BBC was given access to the hospital to witness first-hand
how it is coping with an early surge of winter bug cases.
Flu
season has hit a month earlier than normal this year, with experts
warning there appears to be a more severe strain of the virus – mutated
H3N2 – circulating.
Hospitals around the country, like this one in Leicester, are doing all they can to avoid becoming completely overwhelmed.
“Completely overwhelmed.” Sounds familiar?
They’re
at the Royal Infirmary in Leicester, and after citing some choice case
studies, miss no opportunity to make it sound like the end of the world
is imminent:
“There are patients in every cubicle,”
Consultant Saad Jawaid says, as Paige is wheeled in. “Another ambulance
has just rocked up.”
We watch as he works with colleagues in the resus unit to find desperately needed bed spaces.
“When
beds are full we have to move people – sometimes that means those who
can sit are moved out of beds and into chairs,” he says.
Regardless
of the situation in the hospital and the range of conditions people are
turning up with, on closer examination it things aren’t quite as bad as
the story’s florid copy suggests:
Richard Mitchell has
been the Chief Executive of University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust
since 2021 – and has witnessed first-hand how it gets harder to cope
with each winter that passes.
”We are already seeing very high
levels of flu,” he tells us. He expects numbers to climb into January.
“That is one of the many things I am concerned about at the moment.
“At this point I feel we are working at the limits of our ability.”
What
exactly was he expecting? An idle coast through to April before going
on a well-unearned summer break? It raises the interesting question of
what people who work for the NHS think they are likely to be confronted
with in 21st century Britain.
The story ends up with the predictable exhortation to get a flu vaccine...<<<Read More>>>...
