Protect the NHS, part 2. Reduce avoidable hospital admissions.

[Ming the Merciless]

Just set up my Rourke on the turbo trainer so that will be my lock down ride

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Accident waiting to happen 😁

 

[fossyant]

Ever tried golf on a bike?

I think it's coming to Zwift. They let runners on it.

 

[I like Skol]

In all honesty, I read your original post as a suggestion to stop cycling. I've genuinely no idea now what you mean at all. But that's fine.

So did I. So I'd love to know what you think we should do differently @I like Skol.

Ok, to be fair, my first post was maybe not well worded, but does not ask people to stop riding, and just a few posts down page 1 of this thread is some clear explanation of what I meant. I dont believe there can be any real confusion about what I am saying.

This has reminded me of the last Covid spike crisis in the spring when a lot of activity and sports enthusiasts cut right back on the amount and level of activity to reduce the chance of being hospitalised due to avoidable injuries and therefore avoid being a burden to the NHS at a critical moment.

Todays incident has reminded me that maybe it is time to revisit this strategy? Nobody ever really intends to injure themselves this way, but we all have an accepted level of risk, chances we are happy to take, or expose ourselves to risk through inattention or lack of foresight.

As cyclists is it again time we proactively reduce our exposure to injury risk in order to reduce avoidable hospitalisations?

I'm not saying don't exercise, just make sensible choices like going for a road ride instead of tearing across moorland and mountain tracks on an MTB, or switch off your Strava and forget and PBs etc? Just tone it down a bit to play it safe, small changes can make a big difference.

 

[classic33]

The spread is perfectly manageable. The numbers are sticking in the mid 20,000's a day and they are not shooting up through the roof, and the testing rates are much higher than they were six months ago so a higher proportion of the virus is being detected. The "experts" would like everyone locked down for the next year if they had it their way, they are obsessed by trying to suppress the numbers instead of just making the best of the situation. Johnson has shown he ain't no Mrs T when it comes to having a backbone. He just craps himself and panics as soon as he has to deal with anything unpalatable. It's the easy way out for politicians to hide behind "experts" and they are accountable to no-one for the damage they are causing. They don't care how many people lose their jobs as a result of the lockdowns, the taxpayer is still paying their wages every month.

You can of course back up those claims.

The hospital beds may well be there, but there's more in use, with fewer staff. Some of the staff that were there in April have been running round like the proverbial BAF. Doing the job they trained to do, but with less public support this time round.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

What Skol is saying is only indulge in activities at a level which is unlikely to result in you doing yourself a nasty injury and ending up hospitalised. Don't push your luck in other words. Whatever physical activity floats your boat just take it easy and use it to maintain some fitness. Don't try to beat records and don't do anything too hardcore.
He never said don't ride, just don't behave dumb when you ride.

 

[mjr]

Today a cycling buddy fell off his bike. No one else involved, just a mistake on his part or maybe some oil on the wet road and luckily he walked away and called his wife to pick him up. However, this could easily have had a different outcome and resulted in hospitalisation. This has reminded me of the last Covid spike crisis in the spring when a lot of activity and sports enthusiasts cut right back on the amount and level of activity to reduce the chance of being hospitalised due to avoidable injuries and therefore avoid being a burden to the NHS at a critical moment.

Cutting right down and making oneself unhealthier seems exactly the wrong way to try to avoid hospitals!

On average, you extend your life by cycling. Try to minimise risk while doing so (including paying attention!) and accept that some will still lose the bet, but take confidence you're doing the right thing overall.

Oh and if your buddy fell on oil, isn't that some motorist's fault? We should all be minimising motoring to reduce how many others we unwittingly hospital use, not only through oil drops causing crashes but also pollution and all that.

 

[mjr]

So did I. So I'd love to know what you think we should do differently @I like Skol.

Me three but I may have been prejudiced by the "lockdown means cycling is banned" posts by haters on other sites.

 

[mjr]

In a car or motorcycle?

Yes, bizarrely, if I read the draft regs correctly. Similar to how people were allowed to drive to exercise after the first relaxation of the spring lockdown. If you want to reduce hospital load, there's an easy thing to cut before exercise itself.

 

[mjr]

To quote from that article:

"But as in the nationwide lockdown earlier this year, to date there is little clarity on whether there is a limit on how long you can exercise for, or how far you can travel from home while undertaking it. "

Which is nonsense.

The law during the earler lockdown (in England) did not put any limit on how long, how far or how many times you can cycle. There is no reason to believe that the latest lockdown will be any different.

The law didn't but Gove did, sort of, in an interview. I think CUK are trying to avoid a repeat of that. Not sure it's the best way but they tried not asking last time and it didn't really work.

 

[mjr]

Are you denying displays of animosity directed at visiting cyclists, anywhere in the UK?

https://road.cc/content/news/live-blog-14-april-2020-272699

View: https://twitter.com/gsholling/status/1249659263695433728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

[Kingfisher101]

I don't know where you get your info, but the above is pure rubbish. Since a visit to the doctor on the 12th October, I've had four hospital appointments covering an initial assessment, MRI scan, covid test, biopsy and bone scan. I couldn't have been looked after better. The NHS, staffed by caring, competent professionals, is definitely there for those who need it.

You've been lucky, a lot depends on where you live. Many people have had important operations cancelled and other procedures.You cant have failed to read about how its affected a lot of cancer patients and women having miscarriages/still births etc. Its totally harrowing.

 

[Hicky]

NHS has been an unworkable bureaucracy for many years, and now accounts for ever growing proportions of public spending. Yet 7 months later and with unlimited additional cash they still can't do basic things like test and trace or GP appointments. For most of the year we haven't had a functioning health service, just a National Covid Service to manage a disease which is low risk for most people. Turning their backs on all other health conditions is a national disaster created entirely by the NHS. Within a couple of years Covid will look irrelevant compared to the excess deaths from other causes, and NHS managers are already lining up their excuses for how these aren't their fault.

I'm not quite sure where to start with this, ok.....saying it's the "NHS fault" is just like saying the Police/Army etc are shite. It's a terrible argument.
Have a little more thought to it rather than blaming a huge entity which has enormously differing protocols for patient acceptance/management. Now so many individuals are of the idea C19 isn't a thing the A&E dept are over run with the usual dross/farkwits contributing to the waiting times along with the illness/isolation of the staff within hospitals it isn't helping. You can have all the Nightingale hospitals you want...where are the staff coming from...?
In the first lockdown these people kept away from increasing the footfall within hospitals plus winter pressures aren't helping.
Blame recruitment, blame the Gov for removing the bursary/incentives for going into a caring profession.....remove the permanent threat of assault in ED depts by self entitled bellends !!!!!
The track and trace isn't the NHS fault.....there isn't unlimited cash been given to the NHS wtf!!!
From my family alone hospital appointments have been maintained for pregnancy, investigative post op for knee replacement, chronic pain clinic. I realise many areas have suffered with appointments cancelled many are life threatening but we've had a national emergency and staff often have specific skillsets that aren't readily transferable to different depts. I'll stop now as you can't cut staff in half and double the numbers

 

[mjr]

You've been lucky, a lot depends on where you live. Many people have had important operations cancelled and other procedures.You cant have failed to read about how its affected a lot of cancer patients and women having miscarriages/still births etc. Its totally harrowing.

But what is really due to c19 overload and what are the "usual" postcode lottery? Hard to tell.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

We've received an email from the local NHS to say last lock down they had zero cases now they have 30 cases with 2 in ICU

 

[palinurus]

We have been asked to stay at home and only make essential journeys for food or work, or did I miss something?

I don't think there's any restrictions on those things being essential: If your workplace is open and you can't reasonably work from home you can go to work. My work is very far from essential- but it's open, and I can't do much of it from home. Cycling still seems a good way to get there given my other options are the bus or train.

"(4) Exception 2 is that it is reasonably necessary for P (person concerned) to leave or be outside P’s home—

1. (a) for the purposes of work or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where it is not reasonably possible for P to work, or to provide those services, from home"

The only use of the word essential in the regulations relates to essential voluntary services- food banks, blood donations, in relation to these being acceptable reasons to open a community centre or library.