Well Boris did say all those millions each week we paid to the EU could fund the NHS.

Blackandamber wrote:

DeePeeNCAFC wrote:Oh, and one last thought.

Gwent has been and continues to be badly hit by this cruel virus. It seems to attack anyone, young or old, healthy or not but, broadly speaking, anyone who is overweight or with other existing respiratory problems has a higher chance of getting infected it would seem.

When I first moved to this part of the UK about 16yrs ago, I was shocked at the level of obvious obesity and smoking amongst families. The amount of fast-food takeaways flooding our streets, I'd never even seen a Greggs before I lived here, now I can't turn a corner without seeing one.

I don't think this has worked in anyone's favour now we're in this pandemic. I feel bad for anyone and everyone affected and hope that when we come through the other side we can re-assess our lives, stop relying on bad food choices and illicit cigarette supplies which are prevalent in this part of the UK and maybe do more to make ours a more healthy community?

The last time I checked Gwent, and Newport in particularly, had the highest concentration of cases anywhere in the UK, but if you look at the graph from the Downing Street daily briefings, all they say is that London is the worst region followed by the Midlands. Their statistics merely indicate that London has a much higher population, and the Midlands too.

The government headline figures are for NHS England, they usually add a bit about the UK generally at some point in the briefing, if anyone asks about it.....

If you want to know about Wales, then watch the Welsh Government daily updates.

Wales as a whole has not been as badly hit as some other regions of the UK and deaths per head of population are only about two thirds the UK average so far. However, the Wales figures hide is a bad situation in Gwent effecting the RGH in particular. A consultant from the Gwent said on TV yesterday that the hospital had 40 people in critical care because of the virus.I believe that in normal times the capacity of the ICU is only 13 beds. The Welsh government do not make public where in Wales deaths are occuring, just the total number. But we can be certain that the Gwent is under severe pressure.

Just a comment on a fact. It is estimated that in the UK 96,000 will die prematurely because they smoke tobacco. This figure is declining because fewer people smoke. Now we know with the present virus that smokers are far more likely to die than non smokers. So is it the smoking or the virus which kills?

I don't know the answer to that.

G Guest wrote:Wales as a whole has not been as badly hit as some other regions of the UK and deaths per head of population are only about two thirds the UK average so far. However, the Wales figures hide is a bad situation in Gwent effecting the RGH in particular. A consultant from the Gwent said on TV yesterday that the hospital had 40 people in critical care because of the virus.I believe that in normal times the capacity of the ICU is only 13 beds. The Welsh government do not make public where in Wales deaths are occuring, just the total number. But we can be certain that the Gwent is under severe pressure.

Yes we are having it rough in the Gwent but I'm sure we can beat this

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/ ... t-newport/

Some good news anyway

Scathing article on BoJo in the normally Tory supporting Sunday Times today. Surprised also to see the Government issue a response on gov.uk.

One of the criticisms not addressed in their reply was a suggestion that our PM effectively took 3 weeks off at a key time, missed Cobra meetings and focused on the Brexit deal. Aside from saying other ministers attended the meetings in his place.

Another accusation in the Sunday Times has, bizarrely been accepted by the Govt's own reply. So, there was a practice for a pandemic situation a couple of years ago and the key conclusion was that the NHS wouldn't cope and would be short of PPE and ventilators. The Govt's response today -

"The Department for Health began work on boosting PPE stocks in January, before the first confirmed UK case.....
Discussions on PPE supply for COVID-19 began w/c 27 January.....
The first additional orders of PPE was placed on 30 January via NHS Supply Chain’s ‘just-in-time contracts’. BAU orders of PPE were ramped up around the same date.....
the government started to act as soon as it was alerted to a potential outbreak. Mr Hancock was first alerted to Covid 19 on 3 January.....
The Government has been extremely proactive in implementing lessons learnt around pandemic preparedness, including from (the 2016) Exercise Cygnus".

Bit flipping late Johnson? The exercise was in 2016 and HM Govt knew the conclusions and risks more than 3yrs ago. But did nothing until Jan20. Not sure how they can dare to say that was extremely proactive action. Ok, so a few hundred thousand masks, gowns and ventilators might have been sat in NHS storerooms for a while but they could've been used and replenished?

Ok it's probably not the appropriate time for blame right now, but we do need the media to highlight the Govt's faults as if we're going to invest in exercises to test for our ability to deal with a pandemic, flooding, nuclear war etc we really must act on the results not ignore them or slash NHS budgets. Every Health Minister since 2016 who has ignored this report needs to be sacked or prosecuted for misconduct in a public office.

DeePeeNCAFC wrote:Scathing article on BoJo in the normally Tory supporting Sunday Times today. Surprised also to see the Government issue a response on gov.uk.

One of the criticisms not addressed in their reply was a suggestion that our PM effectively took 3 weeks off at a key time, missed Cobra meetings and focused on the Brexit deal. Aside from saying other ministers attended the meetings in his place.

Another accusation in the Sunday Times has, bizarrely been accepted by the Govt's own reply. So, there was a practice for a pandemic situation a couple of years ago and the key conclusion was that the NHS wouldn't cope and would be short of PPE and ventilators. The Govt's response today -

"The Department for Health began work on boosting PPE stocks in January, before the first confirmed UK case.....
Discussions on PPE supply for COVID-19 began w/c 27 January.....
The first additional orders of PPE was placed on 30 January via NHS Supply Chain’s ‘just-in-time contracts’. BAU orders of PPE were ramped up around the same date.....
the government started to act as soon as it was alerted to a potential outbreak. Mr Hancock was first alerted to Covid 19 on 3 January.....
The Government has been extremely proactive in implementing lessons learnt around pandemic preparedness, including from (the 2016) Exercise Cygnus".

Bit flipping late Johnson? The exercise was in 2016 and HM Govt knew the conclusions and risks more than 3yrs ago. But did nothing until Jan20. Not sure how they can dare to say that was extremely proactive action. Ok, so a few hundred thousand masks, gowns and ventilators might have been sat in NHS storerooms for a while but they could've been used and replenished?

Ok it's probably not the appropriate time for blame right now, but we do need the media to highlight the Govt's faults as if we're going to invest in exercises to test for our ability to deal with a pandemic, flooding, nuclear war etc we really must act on the results not ignore them or slash NHS budgets. Every Health Minister since 2016 who has ignored this report needs to be sacked or prosecuted for misconduct in a public office.

Did I imagine being told that we had plenty of PPE because we had stockpiled last year for a no-deal Brexit?

Quote Did I imagine being told that we had plenty of PPE because we had stockpiled last year for a no-deal Brexit?[/quote]

Yes, we had a small stock of PPE ready for a no-deal Brexit scenario but no spare ventilators. And then we gave it all to China in January (according to Matt Hancock) to aid their fight against covid-19. He has said the Chinese have now replaced it all as a gift to the UK.

My point is, it is/was clearly insufficient for any virus-related pandemic as per the test exercise findings.

Shortage of PPE.

Shortage of immediate NHS beds (although I recognise the exceptional efforts to procure private hospitals and build new Nightingale hospitals, the number of ICU beds per 100,000 of population 'league table' shows the UK languishing way below Germany, Scandinavia etc).

Shortage of NHS staff, 30,000 nursing vacancies, I wonder why?

Lack of commitment to take any pandemic exercise findings seriously, until the 'real thing' actually happens.

It looks like Rhyl FC have folded after 140 years. The virus was the last straw.

BBC News | Coronavirus: Outcry after Trump suggests injecting disinfectant as treatment - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-can ... ink1_.auin

The bloke needs to retire ASAP

I guarantee some Americans will inject bleach now watch this space

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald ... s-n1191216

UPTHEPORT wrote:

G Guest wrote:Wales as a whole has not been as badly hit as some other regions of the UK and deaths per head of population are only about two thirds the UK average so far. However, the Wales figures hide is a bad situation in Gwent effecting the RGH in particular. A consultant from the Gwent said on TV yesterday that the hospital had 40 people in critical care because of the virus.I believe that in normal times the capacity of the ICU is only 13 beds. The Welsh government do not make public where in Wales deaths are occuring, just the total number. But we can be certain that the Gwent is under severe pressure.

Yes we are having it rough in the Gwent but I'm sure we can beat this

The last time I looked (which was about a week ago) the number of covid cases per head of the population was higher in Wales than in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Blackandamber wrote:

UPTHEPORT wrote:

G Guest wrote:Wales as a whole has not been as badly hit as some other regions of the UK and deaths per head of population are only about two thirds the UK average so far. However, the Wales figures hide is a bad situation in Gwent effecting the RGH in particular. A consultant from the Gwent said on TV yesterday that the hospital had 40 people in critical care because of the virus.I believe that in normal times the capacity of the ICU is only 13 beds. The Welsh government do not make public where in Wales deaths are occuring, just the total number. But we can be certain that the Gwent is under severe pressure.

Yes we are having it rough in the Gwent but I'm sure we can beat this

The last time I looked (which was about a week ago) the number of covid cases per head of the population was higher in Wales than in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Just looked on Sky News - cases per 100,000 of population: Wales 274, England 182.6, Scotland 178.3, N Ireland 160.3.
Wales has also more deaths per head than the other UK nations.