UK Lockdown

[IndoMike]

I hear that Johnson is going to up the ante regarding Lockdown. It's gonna be Tier 5 but Johnson has decide to call it either the Norwegian, Australian, Canadian or FTA
Lockdown, in the hope that the folks won't think it's so bad.
Alcohol, sport, and all types of hanky-panky will be banned (but only for prols). People are requested to plant veggie in their gardens and eat their goldfish as a last resort.
All those refusing to have the vaccine, "Wombat", will be given a different injection ,"Wuhan", to counteract their fear of "Wombat".
On a brighter note, the football season will be completed. All league matches will be played out on subbuteo tables. These matches will be televised at a cost of 15 quid per match, guv.
Roll on 2022 : 2021 will just be the sequel to 2020.

 

[Alistair20000]

Nightingale hospitals being closed due to lack of trained staff. Letters in both the Torygraph and Times about retired qualified medical professionals who have volunteered to help but are either ignored or have ludicrous barriers put in their way by the dead hand of the NHS bureaucracy.

Save the NHS ? I wish it would do a bit more to help itself.

 

[IndoMike]

Nightingale hospitals being closed due to lack of trained staff. Letters in both the Torygraph and Times about retired qualified medical professionals who have volunteered to help but are either ignored or have ludicrous barriers put in their way by the dead hand of the NHS bureaucracy.

Save the NHS ? I wish it would do a bit more to help itself.

Don't we have a Minister for Health to sort this out? After all, it was the Govt. that called out for volunteers many moons ago.
Or is it yet another case, like the testing of pupils for covid, where the Govt issues a decree but does nothing to support its implementation?

 

[Alistair20000]

Don't we have a Minister for Health to sort this out? After all, it was the Govt. that called out for volunteers many moons ago.
Or is it yet another case, like the testing of pupils for covid, where the Govt issues a decree but does nothing to support its implementation?

In the sense that the Minister is responsible for his department this is true but he cannot do everything. Layers of bureaucrats are in place with expensive IT systems to deal with day to day matters. It has been clear for years that the management of the NHS is poor. However, there is a more fundamental problem. The NHS is a creature of the late 1940's and is no longer suitable to deliver first class health care. No other country does it the way we do it.

Nothing in this post is a criticism of the NHS workers at the sharp end. They deserve a better organisation but the NHS is a sacred cow that we are not allowed to criticise.

 

[tavyred]

Encouraging signs apparently that the proportion of infections for the over 80 age group is going down, probably not surprising as we’re three or four weeks into a vaccination program that’s targeting that group. Even just the one jab affords the recipient the sort of protection that avoids hospitalisation or serious disease, so with close to a million of our three million over 80’s having had the first jab now, perhaps we are seeing the first signs of the vaccines working?
I guess we’ll know when we see if the usual pattern of high infections followed by high deaths a couple of weeks later is less than we saw in the first wave.
Here’s hoping.

 

[IndoMike]

In the sense that the Minister is responsible for his department this is true but he cannot do everything. Layers of bureaucrats are in place with expensive IT systems to deal with day to day matters. It has been clear for years that the management of the NHS is poor. However, there is a more fundamental problem. The NHS is a creature of the late 1940's and is no longer suitable to deliver first class health care. No other country does it the way we do it.

Nothing in this post is a criticism of the NHS workers at the sharp end. They deserve a better organisation but the NHS is a sacred cow that we are not allowed to criticise.

It's true that excessive and unnecessary bureaucracy is a killer. It creates a tangled web, is slow, frustrating, unapproachable, and seemingly unanswerable. So I agree that if bureaucracy is a problem in the NHS then it should be solved.
However, the Govt has known for months that there could be a 2nd wave or even more waves. It was the responsibility of Hancock to make sure that here would be enough hospital beds and staff to.deal with
this. What was the point of building the Nightingale hospitals when there seems to be insufficient staff to operate it?
As I said above, he's had enough bloody time to sort this out. The trouble with this Govt is that it reacts rather than anticipates. Same with the nerd Williamson and testing for the school.kids. He says "do.it" but doesn't provide the staff and facility to do it. They think things can happen out if thin air.

 

[Avening Posse]

After seemingly dodging a bullet in Oz, it's beginning to creep up again in Sydney. Nowhere near European standards, but still a worry. No vaccine roll out here until march apparently

 

[Hants_red]

After seemingly dodging a bullet in Oz, it's beginning to creep up again in Sydney. Nowhere near European standards, but still a worry. No vaccine roll out here until march apparently

British backpackers not very popular at the moment I understand.

 

[Hants_red]

More areas moving to tier 4 to be announced this afternoon. Need a decision on schools as well soon.

 

[Avening Posse]

British backpackers not very popular at the moment I understand.

No, there was a big beach party at Bronte (one beach along from Bondi) and a lot of them were British by all accounts, really upset a lot of locals who have been playing by the rules