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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Sian Burkitt

Unvaccinated patients seriously ill in hospital with Covid 'refusing modern medicine', ITU consultant says

An intensive care consultant has said that some patients in the third wave have refused "modern medicine."

Dr Ami Jones, an ITU consultant who works with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, explained the dangerous misinformation she has heard from patients during an interview with BBC Wales.

"The third wave is the only time I've really kind of had patients who are like, 'this is rubbish, I'm not getting vaccinated, I don't believe in this, I don't want your modern medicine,'" said Dr Jones.

Read more: Mum-of-three, 32, loses hands and feet after contracting Covid

"That's really tough I think, particularly by the third wave because it's almost a kind of treatable disease now."

She added: "If you have a vaccine then you're pretty likely to not die. If you don't have a vaccine, we're back into wave one and we don't know if you're going to live or die. But it's really, really hard when that patient is looking back at you saying: 'This is rubbish, I don't believe you.'

"We've even had people who won't have the vaccine, don't believe in that, but then want experimental [treatment]."

Dr Jones added that some patients have asked for ivermectin and particular vitamins.

Dr Ami Jones, intensive care consultant with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (BBC Wales)

"A lot of people question my integrity," she said.

"Like: 'Why was I lying? Surely I'm going to get struck off. Why am I lying for the government? I'm just a shill of the government. How much am I getting paid?'

"If we don't keep talking about it, all that's left is the miscommunication and the kind of skewed data. So I think you do need clinicians to keep standing up."

She added that it's important for clinicians to explain the data and also to describe what they're seeing within hospitals.

"I'm seeing the vast proportion of ITU patients are not vaccinated. There are some people who are vaccinated and, hands up, some of them do die. But it's much, much, much smaller numbers," she said.

Dr Ami Jones has been outspoken about her work since the coronavirus pandemic began.

In September, she told BBC Wales that her team were seeing patients under the age of 16 being admitted for treatment for coronavirus in a stark warning.

The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to October 8) now stands at 522.9.

The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales is now Torfaen with 720.5 cases per 100,000 population over seven days followed by Vale of Glamorgan with 703.7 and Cardiff with 650.6. Cases for your area are here.

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