THE debate over where
people are doing their dying from covid-19 (coronavirus infection) is
fascinating since it exposes a reality that is not all that it seems.
It is entirely
reasonable that, since the sickly elderly move from their own home to
a care home, they should die there. When from natural causes that is
proper. With their family, their friends and in a familiar
environment.
Annually in the UK
several hundred thousands of people die in their own home, in care
homes and in hospices. And their end of life care is either in their
own family's hands or in professionally qualified hands. So well and
good.
But coronavirus is not
a natural death by any means. Indeed it is, from all reports, far
worse than even double pneumonia. The patient is either gasping
desperately for breath and in severe pain or is, mercifully, sedated
to oblivion.
However there is a but
to all this. The purpose of living is NOT dying and thus we expect
our elderly to be given their best shot at surviving whatever comes
to ail them. When the point naturally arrives that this is no longer
possible then where they are when they die may not matter a huge
amount to the nation.
But if they have been
suddenly struck down in the midst of life with a disease that is
highly contagious and spread widely in the community it most
certainly does.
If a single patient
were to be suddenly struck down by a dread disease that was life
threatening would they not be expecting, and their loved ones
expecting, that the 999 call would be answered? The paramedics would
arrive and the effort to save them would begin. To hospital and
assessment, to ITU (ICU or HDU – you choose). Into a ventilator or
into surgery. Out for more intensive care. And thus to live or die by
the hands of the medics who serve them.
But today it seems that
will not be the case. As many as 10,000 people, all old, all unwell
and many in close attention care, have been struck down in this way
and they have died where they lay. With whatever medication was
available or possible but without mechanical intervention or possibly
even additional oxygen. Is this how it should be? Or was meant to be?
The NHS has shown that
it had only been provisioned to escalate resources to be able to deal
with as many as 15,000 ventilated cases at a time, with more in ITU.
But it had not been provisioned (as BBC Panorama showed only too
well on Tuesday) to go on doing this for days on end.
Their PPE, meant to
protect them from infection AND to protect our front line was
utterly inadequate. And had been poorly managed by people and by
resource supply. Infection began to decimate the front line, some
even died. More than 100 it would seem so far.
These are terrible
prices for our nation to pay for the open global travel that we so
enjoy. They are a terrible price for the bereaved, cut off from the
final farewell, to have to bear.
This is a national
disgrace that we cannot allow to slip away like Grenfell or
Hillsborough.
Too often we fail to
act quickly enough to bring those responsible to book and thus to
inform those who follow them that we will not tolerate such failures.
We too often sweep the
mess under the Kingdom carpet, saying in pious arrogance: “Now is
not the time for the blame game”.
But if not now, when?
Not never surely.
Across the continent a
bridge fell down in Genoa. Before the dust had fully settled those
responsible had been charged and bailed. What price Grenfell? What
price covid-19?
This time, maybe this
time, things will be different. Maybe.
(BBC Panorama 'Has the
Government failed the NHS?' is available on iplayer until 2021)
No comments:
Post a Comment