Did Ireland's long, harsh lockdown work?

[Elwyn]

I have heard that patients are treated on the ambulance, as admission to hospital practically guarantees Covid infection.

And, have you forgotten the headlines we have every Winter about 'Insert hospital name here' under crisis, waiting 12 hrs etc?

You may have heard that, but it’s not the case at Antrim hospital (I know staff who work there). It definitely wasn’t the reason for keeping patients in ambulances. There were simply no beds.

Maybe where you live patients have to wait in ambulances for 12 hours every winter but that has not routinely been the case in Northern Ireland. So things are much worse here this winter than in previous years. Covid is the simple cause.

At the beginning of the epidemic patients who were admitted to hospital frequently died. Now that treatment has got better and also because the average age of Covid patients is much lower now, most are surviving but need longer spells in hospital than if they had conveniently died. This is putting pressure on the hospital system in a way that is different to the normal winter crisis. Plus they are short of oxygen too, due to the vast numbers of patients needing it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55668225

 

[102 fan]

You may have heard that, but it’s not the case at Antrim hospital (I know staff who work there). It definitely wasn’t the reason for keeping patients in ambulances. There were simply no beds.

Maybe where you live patients have to wait in ambulances for 12 hours every winter but that has not routinely been the case in Northern Ireland. So things are much worse here this winter than in previous years. Covid is the simple cause.

At the beginning of the epidemic patients who were admitted to hospital frequently died. Now that treatment has got better and also because the average age of Covid patients is much lower now, most are surviving but need longer spells in hospital than if they had conveniently died. This is putting pressure on the hospital system in a way that is different to the normal winter crisis. Plus they are short of oxygen too, due to the vast numbers of patients needing it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55668225

I know staff who work there, and what I said is what they said. One of respective friends is wrong!