Haemorrhaging of the nation’s
health service has now started
A drowning person closes off blood oxygen supplies to their extremities in a bid to survive. So it is with health systems struggling to cope
9 January 2021 • 6:06pm
A nurse wearing PPE works on a patient in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) in St George s Hospital in Tooting, south-west London
Credit: PA
The NHS will not all of a sudden topple over, says a seasoned observer. It’s not what happens to overstretched health systems, not least a national service which can, for a time at least, transfer weight from one limb to another. Much more likely is that it will gradually “bleed out” over a period of a month or more if large parts become overwhelmed.
Oxford vaccine arrives at UK hospitals as push to protect vulnerable ramps up Assistant Technical Officer Lukasz Najdrowski unpacks doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine as they arrive at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex Credit: Gareth Fuller / PA Jordan Kelly-Linden
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Batches of the newly approved coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca have started arriving at hospitals ahead of the jab s rollout on Monday.
Posted: Fri 1st Jan 2021
Health boards across Wales are under increasing pressure and that “critical care staff have not had a break”, warns health minister
This article is old - Published: Friday, Jan 1st, 2021
“The coming weeks will be an extraordinary challenge for our health and social care services”, Wales’ health minister has warned.
Health boards across Wales have come under increasing pressure in December as more patients have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19, with the number of beds occupied in hospitals higher now than at the peak in the initial wave in April 2020.
Tougher coronavirus restrictions in Wales were brought forward amid concerns at the speed the virus was spreading. Changes to household mixing over the Christmas period were also changed.
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A year ago, no one had ever heard of COVID-19.
• 12 min read
Coronavirus explained
Early cases of COVID-19 are believed to be linked to a live-animal market in Wuhan, China.Eduardo Munoz/Reuters, FILE
On Jan. 9, the World Health Organization announced that a new coronavirus could be behind a mysterious disease that had sickened 59 patients in Wuhan, China.
Almost a year later, what is now known as COVID-19 has infected more than 80 million people globally. More than 1.7 million people have died, including more than 333,000 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University, and our lives have been fundamentally altered.
Hong Kong has entered the fourth wave of pandemic. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases around the world is close to 80 million, with the death toll exceeding 1.7 million. Countries are entering a state of emergency. Aside from worrying about it, why not take the initiative to improve health for fighting the disease?
According to a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), the elderly, people suffering from hypertension or cardiovascular disease are at high risk of severe effect of Covid-19 on their illness, even causing death. However, there is a group we might miss out easily, which has a high chance of being infected which is the obese people. Data and studies from various countries also show that obesity increases the physical burden, adversely affects the function of organs, and harms health.