Rose

 source: Libération

author: Nina Guérineau de Lamérie , Interim for the United Kingdom - 

January 10, 2021 

REPORT LONDON

In London, a state of emergency in hospitals despite mass vaccinations

A line of ambulances outside the Royal London Hospital in London, January 9, 2021. Photo Simon Dawson. Reuters 

Hospitals in the British capital are under intense pressure as infections with the Covid-19 variant are now "out of control" according to Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Karen blows on her hot chocolate. Despite the cold, the paramedic is taking a short break in the parking lot of St Georges Hospital in south-west London. A moment of calm before returning to the front line. In the British capital, hospital staff are strained by the coronavirus. The new variant of Covid-19 is now "out of control" , according to the mayor, Sadiq Khan.The rate of hospital beds occupied by infected people is higher than in any other part of England. 7,200 patients are currently hospitalized, 40% more than in April, during the first peak of the pandemic. At King's College London Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the capital, in the south, the number of patients on January 6 exceeded the number of available beds: 977 to 950. On Friday, Sadiq Khan declared a 'Major incident' . A kind of state of emergency which makes it possible to mobilize the entire public service to get out of this crisis. The Metropolitan Police have deployed 75 officers to drive ambulances. Despite these efforts, "hospital beds could be lacking in the next two weeks," he warned.

For its part, the ambulance service must manage around 8,000 daily calls, compared to 5,000 on a typical but busy day, excluding a pandemic. “It's very hard mentally and physically, you never stop. There is no more room in the hospitals, but we continue to bring back patients. Patients who are increasingly younger by the way… ”  explains Karen, who has worked for the National Health Service (NHS) for eighteen years, the public health service. To endure the pressure, this mater familias refuses to project herself into the future and takes "the days one by one", she explains. This Saturday afternoon, in an hour, five ambulances and a helicopter brought patients back to St Georges Hospital. Still far from the images broadcast last week on social networks, where ambulances lined up in front of hospitals.

The heaviest balance sheet in Europe

Alongside Karen is Rose (1). The former stretcher bearer opened the trunk of her ambulance, transformed into a small business. There, she offers some cookies and hot drinks to those who, every day and without respite, transport patients with Covid. “I go around hospitals to support them as best I can. Because of the confinement, everything is closed and they never have time to reset. Here they can take five minutes to drink tea and chat. It helps release the pressure , says Rose, a big puffer jacket with the NHS logo on the back. This pandemic is terrible and, above all, it is endless. Everyone is fed up, is tired. People are taking less precautions than before, which is dangerous. ”

Morale in the dumps, extended working hours, at University College Hospital in north London, nurses and doctors are also at their wits' end. Ashleigh cares for three or four patients on oxygen at a time, while usually she looks after only one patient. The nurse must choose between the patients, she confides, overwhelmed, on the BBC: “We are so stressed. We must prioritize patients. This is not the NHS where I started my career. People are calling for help and you have to choose who to help first. We shouldn't have to do that. ” On Friday, 1,325 daily deaths were recorded in the UK, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. In London, one in thirty is infected.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than three million positive cases for Covid-19 have been recorded in the country and 80,868 people have died, according to Public Health England. This is the heaviest toll in Europe.

All adults vaccinated by fall

This surplus of Covid patients has serious consequences. It is becoming more and more difficult to accommodate victims of car accidents or heart attacks, as most of the services are transformed into intensive care units. Hospitals now accommodate less than half of the cancer patients they normally care for, according to NHS England. In April, during the first wave of Covid, field hospitals were set up by the army to relieve congestion in hospitals. But due to a lack of staff - also increasingly affected by the virus - they have still not reopened, despite the dramatic situation in which the British capital finds itself. If last spring, the goal was to welcome patients requiring intensive care, this winter, priority will be given to cancer patients.

Only one hope remains to reduce the pressure on London hospital staff: the vaccination campaign. To date, around 1.5 million people in the UK have received at least a first dose of the Oxford or Pfizer vaccine. On Saturday, it was Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip who were vaccinated by the doctor of the royal family at Windsor Castle. Buckingham Palace insisted on making the royal couple's vaccination public, but declined to say what type of vaccine had been used. The goal is to vaccinate 15 million people across Britain by mid-February, the government said. Health Minister Matt Hancock went further on Sunday, saying all adults over the age of eighteen will be offered the vaccine by fall 2021.

(1) The given name has been changed.