Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => COVID-19 => Topic started by: katieHaylor on 04/11/2020 12:51:23
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Tim says:
The problem in hospitals is the distancing and reduced throughput due to Covid-19 patients. I'd add the hospital acquired Covid-19 too. The Victorian solution to infectious disease was to separate it. Shouldn't we do the same? Easy in cities with 2 or more hospitals, or county 'nightingale' units. Staffed by antibody positive people where possible. Doctors, nurses, physios, occupational therapists, ancillary. Acute to convalescent. Completely separate. Your opinion?
What do you think?
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I think less easy than it appears. The Nightingale hospitals may be a mirage, they probably can't deliver the needed care. I take questioner's point, seperation would be best. So too would be hospitals with windows which open.
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I'm just in secondary school, but I believe that COVID patients, wether being treated for COVID or mending a broken bone, should go to their own hospital/s. However, there might be some difficulties in this:
1:Logistics- extra patient transport/ambulances needed when there is no extra capacity. Also, if you live in an area where there is no "COVID hospital", you are in a sticky situation...
2: Extra staff- the extra hospitals will need more cleaning staff, doctors, nurses, administration and other staff to keep it working. The Nightingale hospitals might not be effective as there is not that much extra staff.
In my opinion, the NHS is doing an excellent job of separating COVID patients with non-COVID patients, but there needs to be an increase in capacity in all areas to relieve some pressure off crammed hospitals.
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No problem with treatment at Nightingale units, since there is no treatment for COVID. All you can do is supply oxygen to anyone whose breathing is compromised, and prevent and treat the secondary bacterial infections that do most of the killing.
Isolation hospitals were common when tuberculosis stalked the earth and the principles and practice of barrier nursing are well understood, but it needs an awful lot of PPE, as can be seen in ebola units.
Talk about hospitals being crammed to capacity must be taken in context. NHS acute hospitals normally run at 85% capacity in the summer and over 90% in winter: like any other industry, idle plant and empty space is a waste of money, but you need 10% down to allow for repairs and upgrades. So it doesn't take much of an epidemic to reach 100%.