'No reason for hospitality and non-essential retail to be open' Dr Tom Black
Last updated 3rd Nov 2020
One of Northern Ireland's leading doctors believes there is no reason for the hospitality sector and non-essential retail to be open.
Dr Tom Black was speaking after Downtown & Cool FM's Exclusive interview with Dr Michael McBride on the possibility of another lockdown.
The Chief Medical Officer said that it would not be possible for the R number to go down with both the schools and the hospitality sector open.
Now, with less than two weeks to go to the end of the circuit-breaker lockdown, bars, hotels, and restaurants are all expected to open on Friday week.
But Dr Black, who is chair of the BMA Council in NI, said: "Children should be at school if at all possible but there is no reason for hospitality or non-essential retail to be open ..."
His comments come as a new BMA survey shows 70% of doctors in Northern Ireland are feeling anxious about the coming months.
The survey also found half of doctors say their mental health is worse now than before the pandemic.
Among the other findings are:
Speaking about the survey, Dr Black added : “This paints a worrying picture of the wellbeing of frontline medics just as the pressures of the second covid surge take hold.
“Every doctor I talk to tells me this second surge is by far worse than the first one,”
“Doctors, along with their colleagues across the health and social care system, responded quickly and selflessly to the challenges of the first surge of this pandemic. But these survey results tell us this has come at a personal cost of increasing levels of work-related depression, stress, anxiety and burnout across both primary and secondary care.”
The survey also found that the three biggest concerns doctors here currently have are staffing shortages (83%), how non-covid patient care will be affected to cope with the pandemic (63%) and how their own personal health and wellbeing is being affected (62%).
“Every doctor I talk to tells me this second surge is by far worse than the first one,” continued Dr Black.
“There is very real genuine worry among doctors that the system is on the verge of collapse across both primary and secondary care and this worry is reflected in these survey results. Our hospitals are at capacity or nearing capacity. We didn’t have enough doctors or nurses prior to Covid-19 and now isolation, illness and pandemic priorities mean we have even less. Patients with life-threatening non-covid illnesses are having to wait even longer for treatment and this is totally unacceptable.”
Dr Siobhan Quinn, who's a Associate Specialist in Emergency medicine in the Royal Victoria Hospital said she has 'grave concerns' about the incoming winter.
She said "In ‘normal times’ we usually have patients waiting on trolleys for a bed on a ward. It often gets worse over the winter months as we have more admissions. This results in crowding in the Emergency Department (ED).
“Since March we have tried to maintain some kind of social distancing in the ED. This has resulted in prolonged times for patients arriving by ambulance to enter ED. So, we have a cohort of patients who are in ambulances who have not yet been assessed by a triage nurse or seen by a doctor. This creates a lot of uncertainty and it is very stressful for our medical and nursing staff. I think it's probably also very stressful for the ambulance crews.
“I have seen an increase in Covid cases both young people and the elderly (also in staff). Every morning we have a list of patients waiting to be assessed by the mental health team. There are people who have taken overdoses, are feeling isolated and anxious, have alcohol or drug problems or an exacerbation of their chronic mental health issues. It doesn’t feel like people are staying away, as they did in the first wave.
“It's quite exhausting to work all day in a mask. For confused patients it must be very frightening, and it’s hard to try to reassure them when they can’t see your smile.
“I would say morale is low. When you aren’t confident that you will be able to keep patients safe in your department it’s worrying.”
Her worries have been echoed by Dr Maysah Salman, a Junior doctor in Cardiology, Ulster Hospital.
“Anxiety is high, morale is low. It is extremely tiring to be at work most of your days and nights, feeling that the hospital is your new home.
“With the increasing number of patients and many healthcare workers being off due to sickness or isolation, you feel that you are failing at your job whenever you can't provide the care you should. Not to mention being scared, scared of the unknown, scared of what the next day or week could bring, with more patients, less staff, and consequently less capacity to take care of them.”
Dr Tom Black said the findings should “serve as yet another red flag to our Executive”.
“The feeling of frustration amongst clinicians as they do their best to care for their patients during this second surge while mindful that winter pressures have yet to take hold cannot be understated,” he continued.
“This is further compounded by the fact that many of them are concerned about having to make difficult choices on patient care, choices they otherwise would not have had to make had the health and social care system and its workforce not been subject to years of chronic under investment. Furthermore, many are still waiting on payment for additional hours worked during the first phase, leaving them feeling undervalued and contributing to low morale and leading them to consider reducing their hours in the coming months which is the last thing we need.
“The Executive owe it to frontline health service staff - and to the sick and vulnerable these staff care for - to do everything in their power to support our health service over the coming months. If we continue the way we are, while this virus is still in the community, there will be no health service left to save.”