Latest blog post as the Covid-19 crisis unfolds

….Not because I worry about the level of care by her care home but I worry about the level of support they are getting.

I found some excellent resources today about how to make decisions about whether or not to escalate someone to hospital or not. I looked this up because yesterday a letter was sent out from a surgery asking them to sign up to a DNR and not call 999 as they had underlying health conditions.The outcry meant the letter was retracted and apologies given. Quite right. These discussions need to be had but they need to be done individually, with due consideration and the opportunity to have questions answered. In the linked document, the key phrase for me is “these decisions will not be taken lightly”

In that document it links to the CFS which is a scale to help people make best decisions about the individual.

It is not always straightforward. My Mum would be level 3 which would give her more than a fair chance of recovery if she was admitted to hospital but (as I have said in previous blog posts) hospital on her own, with dementia would probably be totally inhumane..However, I still need to talk that through in detail with the care home and I intend to do so.

In light of that, I wrote to my Mum’s care home today with questions about her care should she contract the virus. It made me realise that most of my questions needed to be answered by my MP as a lot of it was not within their power. So I also wrote to Sheryll Murray again this morning.

We cannot give in! Give in to: lack of equipment, carers and health providers not being protected. We cannot let our elderly (and indeed people with other health conditions) be written off on mass. It is a dangerous shift of the Overton window and we will all lose if we let this happen, even once we have beaten the virus.

 

I processed the press briefing from Number 10 yesterday and how that impacts my family and others.

I am particularly perturbed by the untested protocols of ‘herd immunity’ in the context of a pandemic.

So with vaccination, the weakest are protected with herd immunity but in a pandemic, the weakest will most likely die. That means the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

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