The NHS's forgotten patients: Thousands of operations are cancelled and heart, stroke and cancer victims miss vital treatment - because managers 'threw everything' at coronavirus (while dancing nurses find time to make viral videos)
Figures suggest that up to four times the number of beds are free than normal for this time of year after a huge slowdown in non Covid-19 admissions as health bosses aim their focus at the pandemic response. Hospitals have cancelled 'thousands' of their non-urgent surgeries - like hip and knee operations and IVF treatment - to free up space for infected patients, and operating theatres, equipped with oxygen supplies, have been turned into coronavirus wards. Nightingale hospitals , built for the expected surge in coronavirus victims, are also largely empty, and private hospitals taken over by the NHS at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds are also barely being used. The cancellation of treatments has sparked fears among doctors about the impact on the health of patients with non-coronavirus symptoms - like those suffering with heart attacks, strokes or tumours while many delay seeing their GP in lockdown. Experts warn up to 2,700 cancers are being missed every week as the numbers being referred by doctors for urgent hospital appointments or checks had dropped by 75 per cent. Meanwhile NHS staff have been accused of making a 'mockery' of the health service as they faced a barrage of criticism for posting 'tone deaf' and 'disrespectful' videos of dance routines on coronavirus wards while seriously ill patients have their medical treatment delayed.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...beds-lie-operations-treatments-cancelled.html