Bloody ell, where are you located?
No way? You're still working?!
Sorry but that is a fecking joke. you should be tested immediately and isolated
I've discussed it with a Respiratory Registrar of mine in the same hospital, and she says that because I don't have a temperature and aren't coughing - it's not 100% that I have it.
I understand where you guys are coming from, and your reaction mimicked mine when it dawned on me that I may have it.
When breaking it down - it's actually even more daunting to a certain degree. This guy was admitted with a hip problem as mentioned previously. He had no cough, but when seen in the Emergency Department he recorded a temperature of 38.3. It was a single reading, and following a repeat observations he went down to below 37.5. Although in addition to this, he was hypoxic (low oxygen saturations) despite an absence of a chronic respiratory condition. This was somehow missed - but then again, he came in with a complaing regarding his hip and didn't mention that he felt unwell or mentioned any symptoms concerning Covid.
The issue that some hospitals have is that not everyone gets swabbed when they get admitted to hospital.
So this gentleman developed another temperature spike pre-op, and once again post op. If we roll time back 6 months, this would not be a scary sight as we see hospital/community acquired pneumonias in 75+ year old quite often. The doctor on the weekend prescribed some oral antibiotics covering a chest infection and went from there.
During my on call yesterday, he developed a temperature of 39.3. I noticed the oxygen requirement through a nasal cannulae, and alarm bells started to ring with me. It was only then made obvious to me that he had a temp spike during his admission in the emergency department. This is 5 days after he presented to the emergency department.
So - how many people have been in contact with this gentleman over the last 5 days? Here's a list of people who I know for a fact have:
Me (junior doctor), the consultant, two registrars, two other junior doctors, 5+ nurses, 2 phlebotomists, radiographers (when doing xrays over the weekend), the anaesthetist (who would have been standing over his mouth while intubating this guy), the anaesthetist's assistant, nurses in recovery.
Since that day - how many people have we been in contact with in the hospital? For example, I spent a good few hours today working with 4 other doctors of my team.
So do all these people that I've listed isolate from work for the next 2 days while we get await a swab result? You practically annihilate half a speciality's cohort right there.
What is sad is that the vast majority of us healthcare professionals have conceded that we will all get it at some point over the next few weeks/months. It's inevitable. We go into a "hot bed" of virus every day. We don't do this out of choice - it's our job. If one doctor gets it without knowing, then how many people will get infected by that doctor? We work in an environment which is completely opposite to the "isolation" tactic the government is trying to implement.
That's why we try and tell people to completely avoid coming to hospital until they really have to because the fact is - you won't find more of a "hot zone" than a hospital at the moment.
