Good News, Surely?

[douglas9401]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52531845

Okay it and others have cost a few bob but the alternative of folk slumped over park benches, breathing their last or being treated on the pavement would have been a lot worse.

[Mamyalynne]

It has to be good news, yes - and whatever the cost it was worth it and may still prove to be needed again.

[retrocop]

Superb News. Makes a pleasant change.

//A spokesperson for the hospital previously said it would be a "mark of success" if the hospital did not operate at full capacity.

However Mr Knight said it would stand ready to be used again "as and when needed in the weeks and potentially months to come".//

[Canary42]

I'm a bit surprised Care Homes patients weren't shipped out to them, instead of dying in their hundreds at places presumably ill-equipped to deal with a pandemic. I guess logistics and/or transport would be an issue.

[jno]

yes, no begrudging the money. It was the state equivalent of panic buying.

[Ken4155]

If these Nightingale hospitals had not been built and we had needed them...…………...well, it just doesn't bear contemplation. Hang the cost.

[alavahalf]

It wont be long before a Covid expert turns up and tells us what a waste of money they were!

[retrocop]

I believe one of many lessons to be learnt after this eventually dies down is that we must continue to stockpile emergency commodities.

I recall having to attend 'War Duties' lectures during the cold war. The amount of gear that was stockpiled was astounding ,at the time, and then the govt sold it all as surplus.
Body bags were running low during this crisis.There were loads available during the Cold War period.
Operation Burberry ( Fireman's Strike) Green Goddess fire engines were brought out of mothballs. They were stored from the days of the AFS and the blitz.
Emergency bedding for Improvised Casualty clearing stations are now all gone.
We were prepared then for most crises. We should not be found wanting again.
As usual our brave NHS staff rose above those shortages, at risk to their own lives, and did this nation proud . I hope they are never expected to do this again without sufficient protection if there is to be a next time. It ain't over yet.

[naomi24]

Perhaps new Coronavirus patients should now be treated in these wards to free up hospitals so that they can get back to some sort of normality.

[NickorWan]

^^ That sounds like a plan.

[jno]

retro, I was interested to read how Tesco coped - they actually ran a disaster planning exercise a few years back and so they had a plan and the equipment they needed

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/03/how-tesco-doomsday-exercise-helped-it-cope-with-the-coronavirus

[bednobs]

"I'm a bit surprised Care Homes patients weren't shipped out to them, instead of dying in their hundreds at places presumably ill-equipped to deal with a pandemic. I guess logistics and/or transport would be an issue"
care homes are perfectly well equipped for people who are dying. Just because you can ventilate people does not mean you necessarily should. Taking people away from their homes when their life is ending into unfamiliar surroundings and subjecting them to painful, cruel invasive procedures until they die is not good in all circumstances

[woofgang]

dr Jenny was asked this question and she said that a serious consideration was what would be humane. I thought it wa s avery good answer.
Given that there were reports from Italy from medical staff saying they were having to choose who got the ventilator, although I am not sure how true the reports were...and there were discussions on here about it happening here. I think its excellent news and also that setting up the hospitals was absolutely the right thing to do

[tiggerblue10]

I read a news article about a nurse who said the Nightingale Hospital was a complete waste of money and I remember thinking there no pleasing some people. There are some that always find something to moan or complain about.

[lankeela]

Good news but it still smacks of the BBC reporting it as a criticism rather than a good thing. On their reporting of the Press Conference today the headline across the screen said that the government had not met their 100,000 testing goal yesterday - nothing about them reaching it when they said they would. I just find their reporting so negative. Can't remember what it was but they managed to also turn round what one of the scientists said today to make it sound negative.

[sp1814]

Why does the picture with the report look like the front cover of a 80s new wave album?

[jim360]

Yes, good to have had the contingency ready if needed, and better still that it wasn't needed.

As regards the testing, lankeela, it *is* troubling that the number of tests per day has dropped since the target was achieved. Not because criticising the government is fun, but because the entire point of the testing target ought to be to capture as much of the spread of the disease as possible. Meeting the 100k threshold for a couple of days and then missing it for a long time (potentially) afterwards is therefore less than ideal.

Maybe it's a blip, but the longer it goes on that testing capacity and test processing stagnates, the harder it will be to come out of lockdown safely.

[douglas9401]

That'll be the Memory Disruptor 2000, favourite tool of mainstream media, messing with your mind.

They bear watching I tell ya.