Living on Plague Island

The last week has witnessed increasing calls, including from the BMA and RCN to improve safety measures to prevent the spread of Covid in healthcare settings. This follows on from a statement by WHO which classified Covid variant JN.1 as a variant of interests, which is being assessed.  This was further fuelled by the publication of the eye popping results from the ONS Winter Covid-19 infections survey for England and Scotland, and also the hospital admission figures for England which show a 22% rise in admissions due to Covid.

Clinically vulnerable families and other groups have, of course, been calling for better protections against the spread of Covid-19 in healthcare settings for many months. As discussed in a previous blog on healthcare our petition calling for the introduction of good quality masks did raise over 10,000 signatures, but it fell on deaf ears as far as the government was concerned.

Many of the short videos produced by CVF to coincide with the appearance of Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson at the Covid Inquiry, and streamed across social media platforms whilst both of these people were giving evidence, highlighted the lack of safety measures in healthcare and the consequences of this.

Nevertheless, the Spring, Summer and Autumn have felt like a losing battle, against a wall of indifference, in terms of healthcare safety. We have engaged in a significant degree of lobbying, for example, I and others have attended meetings via zoom with our respective health authorities, and we have tried to raise issues in the media, and call them out when they get it wrong, but it have felt like we were facing a brick wall of indifference and hostility.

Meanwhile Covid-19 infections contracted in healthcare have continued to have a devastating impact on the lives of real people. Indeed, last month a member of my family died of Covid-19 in a hospital on the South Coast of England after being admitted following a fall at home.

Signs of Change

It is only in the last week that things seem to have start to change. On 19 December the World Health Organisation declared the Covid variant JN.1 a variant of interest and, amongst other measures, called for masking in crowded indoor settings, including healthcare, and better ventilation.

Then on 21 December the results of the Winter Covid-19 Infections Survey, were published. This showed a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections, and the hospital admissions figures published last week show a significant rise of 22% in hospital admissions due to Covid.

The BMA was first off the mark with the following letter to the head of the NHS calling for a revision of the existing Infections Prevention Control (IPC) manual for England which the BMA believe has contributed to the lack of protections. The second paragraph on page 2 is significant because it highlights the confusion in the existing manual about how Covid is spread and spells out the relevance of this to the type of protections that need to be put in place.

This was swiftly followed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) letter which echoes what the BMA letter says.A summary is below.

It remains to be seen what will happen and how long any extra protections are kept in place for.

Concluding Remarks

We are now into the Christmas period and it is unlikely that any actions will be taken until the New Year. Meanwhile, people will be gathering in tightly packed indoor settings ideal for the virus to spread. The young, who currently have the highest level of infections, will be mixing with the old and vulnerable. This will inevitably lead to ruined festive periods for many, and a rise in hospital admissions, at their busiest time of the year and when existing protections against the spread of infection are flimsy.

We had hoped to stop this happening and I fear it is too late to do anything about the current JN.1 Covid-19 variant ripping through the UK. What comes after this I don’t know.

So what can we do to protect ourselves? If you need to attend healthcare over the festive period please wear a good quality mask and challenge healthcare providers to wear one if you feel able to. Otherwise, try to stay safe and healthy and heed advice the advice in my blog on Avoiding Covid and elsewhere.