• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Hospitals Clogged With ‘Well’ Patients – 16% of Patients Are Fit to Be Discharged But Are Blocking Beds

by Will Jones
8 April 2022 10:28 AM

NHS beds are being blocked by “well” patients, new figures show, with three quarters still on wards, adding to hospital pressures. The Telegraph has the story.

Of the 87,775 patients in ward beds as of April 5th, around one in seven (16%, 14,487) had Covid, the highest proportion since February 17th.

But separate figures published on Thursday by NHS England show 71% of patients deemed medically fit to leave remained stuck. 

Only 5,178 of the 17,968 deemed medically fit on April 3rd were discharged. 

In response to increasing pressures, one NHS boss has asked families to help discharge their loved ones from hospital even if they’re still testing positive. 

Dr. Derek Sandeman, Chief Medical Officer for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System (ICS), said staff sickness rates, rising Covid cases and “high numbers” of people needing treatment has created a “perfect storm” across the region.

If hospitals are ‘under pressure’, as was reported this week, then rather than telling sick people to stay away, promptly moving well people on would seem a good place to start.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Bed blockingCOVID-19Hospital pressuresHospitalsNHS

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

The 23,000 Unexplained Deaths in England and Wales That Raise Serious Questions of Vaccine Safety

Next Post

Boris Johnson Says He Will Lock Down the Country Again if it “Saves Lives”

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

43 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
3 years ago

“If hospitals are ‘under pressure’, as was reported this week, then rather than telling sick people to stay away, promptly moving well people on would seem a good place to start.”

Probably, except that the government’s own definitions of what constitutes well and unwell mean that we are all unwell most of the time. And for the rest of the time we they demand that behave as if we are unwell. For the greater good.

Last edited 3 years ago by Boomer Bloke
29
0
Star
Star
3 years ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

It’s like an insane abusive marriage. They tell you to test, test, test until eventually you get a result that’s positive; to imagine that means you might have a killer illness; and then they tell you you’re an antisocial b***ard for doing exactly what you were told.

16
0
HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
3 years ago

So, can’t get seen by a GP. Only go to A&E if you think you’re actually dying. MSM reporting record hospitalisations…of a lot of “well” people? So, why ARE they being retained in hospital? What is the real reason? My brain hurts too much these days to try to keep unravelling the lunacy of it all.

37
0
Liberty4UK
Liberty4UK
3 years ago
Reply to  HelenaHancart

Their messaging is so bad and fails to remember to speak to four groups of people:

  1. The worried well who think a minor graze is a death sentence
  2. The unworried extremely unwell whose motto is ‘soldier on till you drop.’ Also the head in the sand-ers.
  3. Those who don’t know whether or not they are dying.
  4. Those who have, or may have, broken bones, who are not at risk of dying, but should not be moved by any Tom, Dick, or Harry, lest they cause worse injury.
9
0
RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  HelenaHancart

That’s actually in even in excerpt: They’re COVID cases whose only health problem is a series of positive test results. Because of this, they probably can’t be discharged into care homes. Hence, a NHS boss has asked relatives if they might perhaps be willing to take them. Which they probably can’t because otherwise, they wouldn’t have been living in a care home prior to hospital admission.

The solution would seem to be stop treating Sars-CoV2 as the alien menace out of space, ie, stop general Sars-CoV2 testing.

7
0
caipirinha17
caipirinha17
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Or those relatives are switched on enough to realise that if they take the person in after discharge, they’ll lose their care home place, funding, or both. Not to mention the issues they’ll have to deal with if they then test positive themselves, again preventing their elderly relative from going back to the care home.

3
0
MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

Would the Government firing tens of thousands of people working in care homes for refusing to take the warp speed clot shot have anything to do with this?

The warp speed clot shot that is so effective that ‘Of the 87,775 patients in ward beds as of April 5th, around one in seven (16%, 14,487) had Covid, the highest proportion since February 17th.’

I would despair but I ran out of that emotion years ago.

31
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago

All the world is a hospital, and all the well and unwell merely players. They have their illnesses and their sicknesses, and one disease in its time plays many parts.

Sorry, Will.

Last edited 3 years ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
13
0
Star
Star
3 years ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

“All the world is a hospital”…and look who works there (note for those who don’t already know: this is Nurse Ratched):

comment image

Last edited 3 years ago by Star
5
0
GlassHalfFull
GlassHalfFull
3 years ago

The ward clerks who administer the discharges are probably at home because they tested positive but have no symptoms.

The NHS is a basket case.

24
-1
unmaskthetruth
unmaskthetruth
3 years ago

I think wearing masks all day has restricted oxygen to their brains and sent all the NHS staff loony tunes. Perhaps that was the intention after all.

18
-1
Francis64
Francis64
3 years ago
Reply to  unmaskthetruth

Family member continues to wear a mask even after three jabs – complains of headaches … I told them to ditch the mask but they won’t do it.

There is no helping some people.

23
0
caipirinha17
caipirinha17
3 years ago
Reply to  Francis64

Same here – ‘just in case’. It’s mostly a lucky talisman now.

3
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago

Thought this was the plan, ‘hospital staff unable to cope, no beds available’

5
0
loopDloop
loopDloop
3 years ago

‘Act as if you have the virus’, said the government advertising billboards in 2020 and 2021. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy right there. So the sick people are the ones walking around. Meanwhile the people in hospital are fit and healthy. Everyone down the supermarket: diseased, infectious, and riddled with sickness. Everyone in the wards: in tip-top health and on top of their game. Sounds about right. Bizarro world 2022.

Meanwhile the schools are designed to make our children stupid. The courts are designed to protect the guilty and blame the innocent. Slightly more pleasant weather is a catastrophe, and we need to embrace freezing winters without heating. Beautiful is ugly, ugly is beautiful, up is down and down is up.

28
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago
Reply to  loopDloop

Makes a change from ‘Act as if you have a bad back’, I know 2 nurses who have done that for at least 4 years

3
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

I remember a policeman in his 20’s who was off work with a “bad back” for weeks and spent all that time working (underneath) on his caravan.

1
0
Star
Star
3 years ago

You know what it means when the authorities start declaring that hospitals are “clogged” with patients? That the idea has been put “out there”? Never mind that supposed “critics” can link it to completely accurate observations about the testdemic. That’s not the effing point.

A leading Scottish nurse back in March 2020 jumped for joy at the thought of a pandemic, saying it would kill loads of elderly bed blockers in care homes, not realising she was on tape. Murder, celebrated by “professionals” like herself, was apparently just like coming over all stern and ripping a plaster off. That’s what she said. Whoop whoop whoop. Watch the video.

Within a few weeks, tens of thousands of elderly people in care homes had been murdered.

This is not a joke. This is not a debating point. This is not graphs versus graphs.

This is how you change a culture – you turn the ratchet bit by bit, while introducing legislation to remove liability (also known as an “enabling” move) and telling local authorities to get ready for mass corpse disposal work (which puts them in the same seventh heaven as the aforementioned nursing professor).

Last edited 3 years ago by Star
14
0
Old Maid
Old Maid
3 years ago

What sort of ‘well’ person remains in hospital willingly?

This is a matter of definition. When the NHS says ‘well’ what they mean is there’s nothing more they can or want to do for them. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is able to go home and look after themselves.

12
0
Woodburner
Woodburner
3 years ago
Reply to  Old Maid

What sort of person remains in a hotbed of infection a minute longer than necessary?

5
0
caipirinha17
caipirinha17
3 years ago
Reply to  Woodburner

Someone who can’t afford to put the heating on at home or buy food. Also hospitals often won’t discharge unless the patient has someone to accompany them home, and many these days just don’t have anyone.

7
0
Lilacblue
Lilacblue
3 years ago

Significant numbers of patients coming into contact with covid +ve in hospital and then made to isolate there even though well.

5
0
oblong
oblong
3 years ago

Can’t people who are well just walk out. Why would anyone want to dwell in a hospital bed

6
0
John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  oblong

It’s not that simple, if a patient requires equipment at home or carers then that needs social services. If the patient was allowed to walk out and was readmitted within 48 hours then that is a failed discharge. The discharge destination has to be deemed safe. Technically any patient can leave at any time, particularly if they are to be discharged, and may suggest that relatives can look after them

9
0
John
John
3 years ago

This is not a new phenomenon. Bed blocking has always occurred during the winter. We regularly kept patients in A&E for hours waiting for beds.
When patients were ready to be discharged but required a care package in the community which was delayed there were specific regulations, cannot remember which exactly, we could invoke to push the process along, one was a section 5 which meant social services had 7 days to assess the patient and put any measures in place.

11
0
Effingham Hall
Effingham Hall
3 years ago

We can provide free accommodation to uninvited people who ferry themselves across the channel but can not for someone trapped in the hospitals.

12
-1
John
John
3 years ago

Patients may be medically fit for discharge. That is the medical view. However, physiotherapist and occupational therapist input is required, maybe requiring alterations to the house or the provision of a hospital bed at home. Then there’s community nursing involvement or hospice at home. Finally there’s the involvement of local authority or private arrangements to provide carers, up to four times a day.
Discharge is a multidisciplinary team effort.
Unless you’ve actually worked on a ward it is difficult to understand the actual complexities involved for what is apparently a simple process of Mrs Smith going home.

Last edited 3 years ago by John
7
0
MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

If you are so decrepit and there is no one willing to look after you isn’t it time to stop coffin dodging?
I don’t want any money I have accrued during my life to be used up keeping me alive in some cabbagey smelling nursing home where I am surrounded by dementia patients.
I’d much rather have the option of punching out at the time of my choosing without it having to be a DIY job that may go hideously wrong.
The one thing the NHS is good at is killing people, why can’t this be a legitimate option?

10
-3
Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 years ago

Global populist uprising is accelerating as people of the world reject tyranny
https://naturalnews.com/2022-04-07-global-populist-uprising-is-accelerating-against-tyranny-corruption-perversion.html
by: Mike Adams

Stand for freedom with our Yellow Boards By The Road next events 

Saturday 9th April 2pm to 3pm
Yellow Boards 
Loddon Bridge, A329 Reading Rd, 
Winnersh (Outside Showcase)
Wokingham RG41 5HG
  
Tuesday 12th April 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Yellow Boards
Junction Broad Lane
A3095 Bagshot Lane
Bracknell RG12 9NW 

Stand in the Park Sundays from 10am – make friends & keep sane 

Wokingham Howard Palmer Gardens 
(Cockpit Path car park free on Sunday) 
Sturges Rd RG40 2HD   

Bracknell  
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA

Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell

3
0
Lister of Smeg
Lister of Smeg
3 years ago

According to one Telegraph reader (comment to be found on today’s [08/04/22] Letters Page in the BTL Comments area) it appears to becoming ‘standard practice’ for local authorities to null and void any OAP’s care plan as soon as they go into hospital for anything meaningful, and demand a ‘review’ to be held before they will ‘accept’ them ‘back’ and of course, delaying said review (the save money), hence the bed blocking.

Where is the outcry in the MSM? The only journo of note in the MSM I see picking this up is Alison Pearson of the DT, one of (sadly) a very small number of decent ones left at that paper.

Last edited 3 years ago by Lister of Smeg
8
0
NeilofWatford
NeilofWatford
3 years ago

Hattie Jaques would soon have this sorted.
Bring back matron.

7
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
3 years ago

Could it be that sacking all those care staff is having an effect on the amount who can go into care from a hospital?

6
0
Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago

Point of order.

“Only 5,178 of the 17,968 deemed medically fit on April 3rd were discharged.”

So, 12,790 fit people were not discharged, out of 87,775.

I make that 14.57%, not 16%.

0
0
Crissylis
Crissylis
3 years ago

Bed blocking? Never heard of it.

1
0
eyesee
eyesee
3 years ago

9 year old family member has very strange surges in heartbeat. Suddenly 180, then instantly dropped to 28. That kind of thing. Doctors want to capture an event on an ECG. Fair enough. Except they can’t find an ECG that he can wear constantly at home. So today, an ambulance was called after an event to see if they can capture the event. They want him admitted so that he can be put on an ECG.

That’s an ambulance deployed and a bed taken up, for diagnostic purposes only, because the NHS, despite even the John Radcliffe asking for one urgently, can’t find a portable ECG for a child with a heart issue.

5
0
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
3 years ago
Reply to  eyesee

Get a fitness watch with ECG next day delivery online.

It’s probably more accurate than NHS tat.

0
0
John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  TheyLiveAndWeLockdown

Probably doesn’t work on a paediatric patient. Is John Radcliffe a paediatric cardiac centre?
I know Birmingham childrens hospital covers the West Midlands and Leicester Royal Infirmary provides paediatric coronary services covers the East Midlands, Papworth for the Eastern region and Great Ormond Street in London. If the Radcliffe doesn’t provide paediatric services then they won’t have access to an appropriate cardiac monitor, but they could have contacted Birmingham or Leicester or one of the other centres that do provide childrens services.

3
0
Judy Watson
Judy Watson
3 years ago
Reply to  eyesee

That is disgraceful
When I was in general practice we had a 24hour ecg machine that the patient wore.

A valuble diagnostic tool. Note -I retired from general practice ten years ago so what the hell has happened?

1
0
Bobby Lobster
Bobby Lobster
3 years ago

They have finally got to the stage that OUR NHS wants more patients, to prove that they are useful.

Defund the NHS, covid was a lie!

3
0
James Kreis
James Kreis
3 years ago

If previous governments hadn’t closed all the convalescence homes then hospital wards would not be clogged up. In the early seventies I spent 5 days in hospital after an operation then a further 4 weeks in a convalescence home with daily physiotherapy and occupational therapy before being discharged. The system worked very well.

5
0
John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  James Kreis

The community hospitals which acted as step down facilities have been closed down as well. Our community hospital had three sub acute medical wards plus one psychiatric ward, we now have one ward.

6
0
cloud6
cloud6
3 years ago

This has been going on for yonks, nothing new here…

1
0
marebobowl
marebobowl
3 years ago

Why is every single person we know right now infected with covid? Why is taking up to 11days for them to test negative? Why just two weeks ago were 90% of pts in hospital and dying infected with covid. All either double or triple jabbed. Why has the UKHSA stopped their weekly counts. Simply because they know the vaccines do not work and they are causing serious adverse events and deaths. How horribly sad is this?

2
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

The Sceptic EP.37: David Frost on Starmer’s EU Surrender, James Price on Broken Britain and David Shipley on Lucy Connolly’s Failed Appeal

by Richard Eldred
23 May 2025
7

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

News Round-Up

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

How Jubilation Turned to Tragedy on Liverpool’s Darkest Day Since Hillsborough

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

What Happened to Systemic Common Sense?

26 May 2025
by C.J. Strachan

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

32

How Jubilation Turned to Tragedy on Liverpool’s Darkest Day Since Hillsborough

30

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

26

What Happened to Systemic Common Sense?

53

Tory MPs to Boris Johnson: Thanks, But no Thanks

21

Alasdair MacIntyre 1929-2025

27 May 2025
by James Alexander

Lies, Damned Lies and Casualty Numbers in Ancient History

26 May 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

Lord Frost: “The Boriswave Was a Catastrophic Error”

26 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

The Legal Case Against the AfD Has Collapsed

25 May 2025
by Eugyppius

Plebeians Can No Longer Rant About Bloody Murder

25 May 2025
by James Alexander

POSTS BY DATE

April 2022
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Mar   May »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

POSTS BY DATE

April 2022
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Mar   May »

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

News Round-Up

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

How Jubilation Turned to Tragedy on Liverpool’s Darkest Day Since Hillsborough

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

What Happened to Systemic Common Sense?

26 May 2025
by C.J. Strachan

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

32

How Jubilation Turned to Tragedy on Liverpool’s Darkest Day Since Hillsborough

30

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

26

What Happened to Systemic Common Sense?

53

Tory MPs to Boris Johnson: Thanks, But no Thanks

21

Alasdair MacIntyre 1929-2025

27 May 2025
by James Alexander

Lies, Damned Lies and Casualty Numbers in Ancient History

26 May 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

Lord Frost: “The Boriswave Was a Catastrophic Error”

26 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

The Legal Case Against the AfD Has Collapsed

25 May 2025
by Eugyppius

Plebeians Can No Longer Rant About Bloody Murder

25 May 2025
by James Alexander

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences