Coronavirus

[Story of O]

NHS bed numbers have decreased every year since the 80's, so Labour have to take some of the of the blame.

[Long slender neck]

Prove it.

[Story of O]

Title: Average daily number of available beds, by sector, England, 1987-88 to 2009-10
Source: Department of Health form KH03
Status: Published data including revisions up to 29th June 2010

Year All specialties (exc day only) "General
& acute" Acute Geriatric Mental illness Learning disability Maternity Day only

1987-88 297,364 180,889 127,616 53,273 67,122 33,421 15,932 2,000
1988-89 282,918 174,491 123,450 51,041 63,012 30,048 15,367 2,473
1989-90 270,301 169,901 121,170 48,731 59,288 26,406 14,706 2,861
1990-91 255,479 162,691 116,788 45,902 55,239 23,379 14,170 3,068
1991-92 242,677 157,247 115,140 42,107 50,278 21,383 13,770 3,399
1992-93 232,201 153,208 112,862 40,346 47,308 18,519 13,167 3,972
1993-94 219,476 147,153 109,713 37,440 43,532 16,269 12,521 4,908
1994-95 211,812 144,803 108,008 36,795 41,827 13,211 11,971 5,699
1995-96 206,136 142,624 108,296 34,328 39,477 12,676 11,358 6,541
1996-97 198,848 140,515 108,869 31,646 37,640 9,693 11,000 6,766
1997-98 193,625 138,047 107,807 30,240 36,601 8,197 10,781 7,125
1998-99 190,006 136,426 107,729 28,697 35,692 7,491 10,398 7,568
1999-00 186,290 135,080 107,218 27,862 34,173 6,834 10,203 7,938
2000-01 186,091 135,794 107,956 27,838 34,214 6,316 9,767 8,155
2001-02 184,871 136,583 108,535 28,047 32,783 5,694 9,812 8,036
2002-03 183,826 136,679 108,706 27,973 32,753 5,038 9,356 8,544
2003-04 184,019 137,247 109,793 27,454 32,252 5,212 9,309 8,813
2004-05 180,966 136,184 109,544 26,641 31,286 4,415 9,081 9,160
2005-06 175,436 132,826 108,134 24,692 29,802 3,927 8,881 9,726
2006-07 167,019 126,976 104,079 22,897 27,914 3,486 8,643 10,342
2007-08 160,891 122,374 101,644 20,730 26,929 3,147 8,441 10,479
2008-09 160,254 122,538 101,520 21,018 26,448 2,882 8,386 10,959
2009-10 158,461 121,756 100,867 20,889 25,503 2,809 8,392 11,221

[Story of O]

Labour came to power in 1997. Bed numbers went down every year they were in power

[Long slender neck]

Looks like you're missing a decade of post 2010 figures

[BoniO]

Labour came to power in 1997. Bed numbers went down every year they were in power

Can you post the numbers from 2010 onwards as well - ta

[Story of O]

My point was that Labour had a hand in shortage of NHS beds. We all know what the Tories have done.

[Long slender neck]

May as well post them so they're complete no?

[Story of O]

Its about 17,000 less since Tories came to power.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

Prove it.

This was raised on here not that long ago and yes, it’s true the drop in numbers also happened under Labour, but not to the same extent as under the tories, obviously. Blair was only a bit right wing.

[Story of O]

Here's an interesting number

On July 5 1948 the National Health Service took control of 480,000 hospital beds in England and Wales.

I know medical care has changed and in theory not so many beds are needed, but when you consider how the population has grown there is a big drop to what we have now

[Dunners]

Cabinet meeting at 2.00pm. Possible press briefing later.

[Long slender neck]

Sigh. Better dig out a suit and tie for the family business meeting on 25th then.

[Dunners]

Cabernet meeting, more like.

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Is the meeting stilt on?

[Story of O]

South Africa has only one restriction and that is wearing masks. So far Omicron has not seen an increase in hospital admissions, in fact they are less than during previous waves. Might not be the same result here but we can hope

[Long slender neck]

Guessing it isnt winter in south Africa?

[Rich Tea Wellin]

I think the disregard for what’s happening in South Africa is a strange one tbh.

Fully realise that there are lots of differences to here for lots of different reasons, but it should still give us some insight into omicron.

[Story of O]

Guessing it isnt winter in south Africa?

Does winter make a virus more deadly then? You see an increase infection because of more indoor mixing maybe, but infections increased in South Africa even with warm weather:

[Long slender neck]

Guessing it isnt winter in south Africa?

Does winter make a virus more deadly then? You see an increase infection because of more indoor mixing maybe, but infections increased in South Africa even with warm weather:

It'll spread a lot more quickly here because of indoor mixing. It looks like it may be milder, but the worry is the sheer number of people it will infect. It may hospitalise a smaller percentage of people than Delta but because of the numbers expected to be infected, this will still result in a lot of hospitalisations.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

Cabinet meeting at 2.00pm. Possible press briefing later.

Is this before or after the emergency cobra meeting Boris has called today, because he couldn’t be arsed to attend the emergency cobra meeting yesterday?

[Currywurst and Chips]

Omicron is doing a fine job of keeping multiple party/flat/Shropshire/Lazy oaf/resignation gate off the agenda

[Thor]

I was at Guys hospital today undertaking allergy testing and I was speaking to doctor in charge and she said that we have 9 nurses and 1 consultant to look after you today as people have not turned up for their appointments. I asked is it because of covid? She replied and I quote "we have less than a handful of people in this hospital with covid, Omnicron is not putting people in hospital and is very mild more like a cold than a flu. Let's hope it stays that way, but we are not struggling to cope.

I'm quite hopeful that this is the tail end of covid, not because of what the doctor said today, but due to the natural evolution of a virus as it burns itself out.

[Thor]

Omicron is doing a fine job of keeping multiple party/flat/Shropshire/Lazy oaf/resignation gate off the agenda

Absolutely. The old dead cat bounce has worked wonders for Boris the dimwit

[BoniO]

I was at Guys hospital today undertaking allergy testing and I was speaking to doctor in charge and she said that we have 9 nurses and 1 consultant to look after you today as people have not turned up for their appointments. I asked is it because of covid? She replied and I quote "we have less than a handful of people in this hospital with covid, Omnicron is not putting people in hospital and is very mild more like a cold than a flu. Let's hope it stays that way, but we are not struggling to cope.

I'm quite hopeful that this is the tail end of covid, not because of what the doctor said today, but due to the natural evolution of a virus as it burns itself out.

"I ran into this bloke/my neighbour said/I was in my local shop and/my mate, who's newly ordained/a doctor pal of mine said/I was with a gang of heath workers down the pub and they said"

Take your pick folks it's "Thoranecdote" time!