On the NHS front line, we’re braced for what’s coming

From the moment when Boris Johnson announced that the country was moving from containment to ‘delay’ in handling coronavirus, the world’s biggest healthcare organisation has been on a war footing. What doctors like me have witnessed over the past days and weeks has been nothing short of extraordinary. Trusts in the NHS declared a ‘major incident’ on the evening of the announcement, and emergency plans swung into action within hours. By the time I came into work the next morning, managers, who had been up all night, had already started to implement profound changes to the way in which the hospital and services were run, and this continued over the following days. It was replicated in every hospital across the country. We’re braced, now, for whatever might hit us.

I have my criticisms of the NHS but its behaviour now is a wonder to behold. Decisions that used to take months or even years because of endless pointless form-filling and meetings are now made in less time than it takes to boil a kettle. We have also had to wind down anything not judged to be critical. For example, I work in mental health. Patients on waiting lists for psychological treatment, many of them very unwell, are being informed that everything has been cancelled indefinitely. This has been heartbreaking, especially as many patients had waited months to start therapy. I don’t know how they will cope and worry that many will deteriorate. I fear that some will die.

Entire wards have been discharged in preparation for Covid-19 patients. Services have been reconfigured and reorganised, involving difficult and often uncomfortable decisions about having to redeploy staff and clear space. All in preparation for the tidal wave of seriously sick patients that is anticipated. In a matter of days, designated Covid-19-positive wards had been set up, with staff trained, and they had become fully operational.