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Sadly, the situation currently facing the UK and those working in its health and care services as we enter 2021 does not really fit with the traditional new year message that I might write.
Just before Christmas I wrote about the need for caution and the ongoing need to support health and care staff, despite the sudden hope surrounding the first of the vaccines. Now things are
worse. Coronavirus cases are rising fast again, driven by the new, more easily transmissible variant of the virus. A further 62,322 confirmed cases were announced by the government on
Wednesday, the highest daily figure reported since testing became more widely available. While the huge numbers associated with admissions, cases and the awful death toll are rightly the
headline figures, I think sometimes it takes something more manageable to get the message across. For Christmas, my daughter was given a book in which the world’s population was reimagined
as a village of 100 people to help explain population and cultural trends, and other factors, like access to food and education, to children. For example, it described the number of people
living on each continent as a number out of 100, so 20 in Africa, 10 in Europe etc. Likewise, it was a smaller number revealed on Monday that I found most concerning, namely 21. Just 21 days
– three weeks – was the period until the health service was potentially “overwhelmed” by Covid-19 pressures unless another national lockdown was imposed, according to the UK’s chief medical
officers. > "This clear and chilling analysis from the four CMOs stood out > dramatically" In a joint statement, they said: “Cases are rising almost everywhere, in much of
the country driven by the new more transmissible variant. We are not confident that the NHS can handle a further sustained rise in cases and without further action there is a material risk
of the NHS in several areas being overwhelmed over the next 21 days.” This clear and chilling analysis from the four CMOs stood out dramatically for me amid the understandable stories about
the unhappiness of a nation facing another sustained period of lockdown. I could visualise what 21 days – even less than that now – looked like. Unfortunately, something else that got my
attention were videos of protesters standing outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London shouting at exhausted health professionals coming off shift that Covid-19 was a ‘hoax’. They were followed
by stories of idiots taking pictures in hospital corridors in Essex and the West Midlands, apparently in a bid to prove the health service was not under pressure. The mind boggles. I have no
words to do my feelings justice about this behaviour and the level of ignorance that it represents. I wonder if those people can visualise what the NHS being overwhelmed in 21 days looks
like. Perhaps they don’t want to try, as believing in a conspiracy theory is more convenient. To try and end on a positive, it was reported on Wednesday that over 650,000 people over the age
of 80 in England have now been vaccinated with their first dose. Put another way, that’s 23 out of every 100 people in that vulnerable age group. Meanwhile, staff Covid-19 vaccination
programmes are getting underway across the NHS. However, for now, nurses and all other health and social care staff must have the support of the nation and its governments.