I am a retired doctor and relative of a patient severely ill in hospital with Covid-19. The procedure for hospital admission could not have contrasted more starkly with that for our prime minister. My relative’s daughter had to spend long periods of time calling back NHS 111, repeating her story, and ultimately pleading for an ambulance to be sent. There was, as your article reveals (Fears that people self-isolating with Covid-19 may seek help too late, 6 April), no follow-up.
It is fortunate that someone in their community loaned them an oxygen saturation meter. His readings were dangerously low, and at that point they were confident to ring 111 for a fourth time in 48 hours and plead his case yet again. He was finally retrieved, given life-saving oxygen and admitted straight away to a hospital.
I can see the sense in not having patients queueing on trolleys waiting for treatment, as we witnessed in Italy. While our own homes may be better places to wait, relatives are not experienced in caring for loved ones with this severity of illness. In any other time, with any other condition, my relative would have been blue-lighted to hospital at least 48 hours earlier.
In my professional opinion NHS 111 is overstretched. There is no proper follow-up or registration procedure, rendering the hard work of those running the service not fit for purpose. And how have we reached this point? By not testing, testing, testing.
Name and address supplied
• Following the laudable efforts in creating the Nightingale hospital in London, is it time now to refer all Covid-19 cases there, thus allowing Royal Brompton hospital and other specialist centres to return to caring for their regular patients, before their health is affected adversely? It would also ensure there are no cross-infection issues in hospitals attempting to treat both Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients.
It is particularly galling for cystic fibrosis and heart patients to see NHS England in effect requisitioning the Brompton hospital for coronavirus use, having attempted to close this centre of excellence not once but twice. Patients now feel cast aside to fend for themselves. It is imperative that those who attend specialist centres for underlying health conditions do not become collateral damage in this crisis.
Alison Stannard
Upminster, London
