England plans to place Covid patients in hotels as study reveals deep trauma among ICU workers

The study – which has not yet been peer reviewed – was published on Wednesday by researchers at King’s College London. He analyzed responses to an anonymous online survey in June and July of more than 700 doctors and nurses working in intensive care units (ICUs) in six different hospitals.

Although nearly 60% of respondents reported good well-being, the study found that almost half of intensive care staff reported symptoms consistent with a probable diagnosis of PTSD, depression or severe anxiety. or alcohol problems.

Nearly one in seven ICU staff (13.4%) frequently said it was better to be dead or injured in the past two weeks.

About 45% of respondents reached the probable clinical significance level for at least one of these measures: severe depression (6.3%), PTSD (39.5%), severe anxiety (11.3%) or substance abuse problem alcohol (7.2%).

Nurses were more likely to report higher levels of distress than doctors or other clinical staff, the researchers found. Almost half of those who responded to the surveys were nurses and just over 40% were doctors. The researchers found that doctors consistently reported better health than nurses.

The study, led by Neil Greenberg of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, was published online in the journal Occupational Medicine.

“Our results highlight the potential profound impact Covid-19 has had on the mental health of UK frontline staff,” the study says.

“(The) probable rate of PTSD that we report was about nine times that seen in the general population and more than double that seen in recent veterans.”

Researchers note that intensive care staff faced many stressors during the pandemic, including staff shortages, fears of contracting the virus and endangering loved ones, concerns over lack of equipment personal protection and the distress associated with the loss of life of patients despite their best. efforts.

The results of the study will only heighten concern about the stress on NHS staff in England as they struggle to treat a record number of Covid-19 patients.

Hancock said on Wednesday that placing Covid patients in hotels was seen as a “back-up plan” by authorities across the country, but that was “obviously not what I want to do.”

“We are looking at all the options, it is not something that we are actively putting in place. But I would say it would never happen unless it was clinically correct for an individual patient,” Hancock told the BBC.

“There is a mismatch between the number of cases and the number of people coming to hospital. So we know these pressures on the NHS are going to continue to increase over the next two weeks,” he said. added.

Hancock said the temporary Nightingale hospitals set up by NHS England amid the first wave of the pandemic were there as a fallback solution for hospitals.

Asked what type of patients would be sent to hotels, the health secretary said “this would be for patients who have quit or been hospitalized, no longer need full hospital treatment but are no longer not quite ready to go home. “

London and the south-east of England are among the areas most affected by the new variant, although it has now spread throughout the UK and has been detected in at least 50 other countries, including the Ireland hard hit.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, declared a “major incident” in the English capital “on Friday due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus … and the increase in Covid-19 cases in hospitals, which has left the NHS in danger of being overwhelmed. “

The British government is basing its hopes of bringing the crisis under control on a mass vaccination campaign against Covid-19.

“So far across the UK, we have delivered 2.6 million doses to 2.3 million people, and we have protected more people with vaccination than all European countries combined,” said Hancock at a press briefing in Downing Street on Monday.

Hancock said the UK was on track to deliver a first dose of the vaccine to “all members of the first four cohorts” – which account for 88% of Covid-19-related deaths – by February 15. These groups include all care facilities for the elderly. residents and staff, all those aged 70 and over, and front-line health and social workers.

Two-fifths of those over 80 and almost a quarter of elderly nursing home residents had received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Monday, Hancock said.