Researchers at Oxford University have identified the Isle of Wight as a location where the NHS could come under the most pressure from COVID-19.
Sky News has reported on data from the Leverhulme Centre on Demographic Science which shows the Island is 1 of just 5 locations where the local hospital could easily become overwhelmed.
The list of hospitals, which includes St Mary’s here on the Island, has been compiled as a result of looking at both the capacity of the hospital and the age of the population. Other ‘hospital deserts’ include Powys, Northumberland, Rutland and Suffolk.
According to today’s figures, there are still just 2 confirmed coronavirus cases on the Isle of Wight. However, it is thought that many others are currently in isolation on the Stroke Unit at St Mary’s Hospital, which is being used to segregate and treat those affected. In addition, those who are self isolating at home and haven’t been tested will add to the overall figure.
As of 09:00 on 22nd March 2020, there were 5,683 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. 281 patients have died nationwide. No patients have died on the Isle of Wight.
The most vulnerable individuals are being asked to stay in their homes for the next 3 months under a ‘shielding’ plan announced by the Government today.
Maggie Oldham, Chief Executive of Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said:
“The health, safety and wellbeing of our patients, staff and the wider community is our top priority.
Article continues below this advertisement “The NHS is here for you, but we need you all to help us.
“Everyone should follow the national guidance on social distancing and self-isolation and stay at home wherever possible, to help limit the spread of coronavirus. This will help to protect the most vulnerable people in our community and ensure that the NHS can cope.
“This is a worrying time for all of us. But working together and treating one another with compassion and respect, we can rise to meet the challenges ahead of us”.
Why are we not being told how many cases there really are then ? Maybe people would start taking it more seriously then!
Yes would apear the numbers are not telling a true story
Harold shitman is no joke
No one knows how many cases there are because they’re not being tested!!
You should be taking it seriously NOW! How much more warning do you need? Are you not watching the reports coming out of Italy? You and this who do not take it seriously are playing Russian Roulette with our lives!
Just how much publicity do you need to take this seriously? Maybe a gun to the head? The country is in near lockdown, business’s and schools closed, constant TV updates. Jeez, how much more do you want?
Those proposing we seal ourselves off or thinking of ignoring the social distancing instructions would do well to bear this in mind.
My understanding is that we have enough ventilators for six serious cases beyond that we are reliant on mainland hospitals.
I think it wouldn’t harm for the Island public to hear some warning shots from the IOW Trust because the hospital is clearly vulnerable. The Island obviously needs to the EXTRA vigilant. Good luck to all the staff there.
Why are we still letting tourist come over? The caravan parks are still operating.
Because our mp won’t push for more restrictions he is quite happy to let people from London etc come here to their holiday homes to potentially spread Covid 19
No one should be Coming here from anywhere especially from London Our Dr nurses are already stretched stay home, there are other summers. Lock down the Island to holidaymakers
Because you keep saying there are ONLY two cases (& they are in hospital) – my 88 year old mother thinks she is safe to go to the shops. I cannot get her to understand that with all her health problems she is at serious risk. You must start giving more emphasis on the likely number of other sufferers and also on the incubation period, which means social isolation for those at risk categories like my mother.
Agree, there’s needs to be more transparency full stop. If they are worried about creating panic, I think that horse has bolted!
So now to suit your mother you’d rather facts be replaced with guesswork?
It would be unfair on those able to interpret facts and make informed decisions if all articles were penned with a vague artistic flair.
Urgent action is needed to stop holidaymakers coming here. Parkdean Resorts (Nodes Point, Landguard, Lower Hyde and Thorness Bay) have stopped taking new reservations up to and including the end of April and Warners (Yarmouth and Bembridge) too aren’t taking bookings till after 16 April but Aria Resorts (Colwell Bay, Rookley and St Helens) are still open and ‘welcoming’ visitors to their resorts on the island! They need to be stopped! Please exert pressure. Here is what they say…. https://www.ariaresorts.co.uk/faqs/
http://click.email.ipetitions.com/c/eJxdTs0KgzAYexq9Vdqvts5DD8rwtofo7Ff9Nv9oy3z9FWGXQQhJCCHO-MZJJ0oywIFzCUIo1Yi2EpVWObn3mYcOZN8UNcfV0lLRgYkS7Vusxn0tZ-NHDlrVT8UdgrSy5oA3aG-2BS1a7crFzCkdsZBdAUPGeZ5_Kzn8-SxTsB9cWMCYAo1Xie0bo7gg2z07aZoT8xgCYSyDedjw1vULvc8fp-tjnvwCx0NF1g
Well Aria have already shown repeatedly , how little they care about the Island residents. I am not surprised at all.
They’ve now shut down as well. Just FYI.
I agree that we all need to be vigilant and take all the advice given. However there are many of us that still need to go out on a daily basis to care for the vulnerable people on the Island. Although we are not nurses, we are carers that can not just stay at home,- some people can not get up without us or take their medication safely. We are not nurses and absolutely know Drs, nurses or paramedics are putting themselves on the frontline every time they go to work, but we are out there come what may and doing the very best we can.
This is the reason why cafes along Ryde seafront today were open serving customers, including one run by a so called responsible iow councillor.
We are not being told the true information as to not cause panic, but by not telling us the true story and figures everybody is too relaxed and out walking, drinking tea at cafe’s and buying ice cream all within the permitted 2 metres. Shame on the owners of the cafes for putting profit before all our lives.
Responsible, what, employing cash in hand workers? Look a little closer, the DWP are to be handed relevant information from last Summer, should make page 8 in C.P, and maybe a new councillor position to.
So the Scottish Minister has said today that ferry companies to their remote Islands, are to be banned from carrying non-essential Travellers and will now only be open to ‘residents’ who need to travel eg. Key Workers and freight. B&Bs have been told not to accept new bookings. Time we did this, to protect our vulnerable residents and to ensure we can treat those who are in need of hospital care, in our already over stretched hospital. We can welcome our lovely Tourists again when this is over but, for now be need to protect our own!
Absolutely Jenny. How many times do we have to beg Bob Seeley to stop the ferries carrying all but essential passengers? People are still backward and forward to the Island like it’s Mardi Gras. People are dying, just the other side of the water, and every time someone steps off the Island and then back on again they are risking our lives! When are people going to start getting this?
Well surely those who are self isolating could shed some light on this??
If they have a fever and the persistant cough, surely they would of been in contact with the NHS!? And told to self isolate.
Isn’t it amazing…..every Winter when so very many come down with awful colds and ‘flu we tend to say something like…”Yeah,I know I had it last week. There’s obviously a bug going around,all the family’s come down with it at some point”….and no-one really has a second thought.
So why wouldn’t we be a little bit more wary of the fact that there surely must be more than a mere two cases of something rather more serious,more easily contractable than even those two miserable conditions?
We have become so very complacent in accepting how serious even the lesser illnesses can be and now we need to have transparency in any information in order to be aware and alert in order to at least have the opportunity to be able to try to protect ourselves as best we can.
I understand the desire in not bringing panic amidst all of us on a small Island but at the same time,David had bravery and forewarning to bring down the mighty enemy Goliath!
SO….we all deserve the fore-knowledge in order to give us an honest fighting chance,please.
What are we really up against here and how big?
Last year I was so grateful for the most amazing treatment that I know saved my life at St.Mary’s Hospital and I want to feel that trust and confidence is still justified with all my heart.
I feel certain that every single Islander would sooner have the facts so that they can feel assured and valued throughout our diamond-shaped community to take every means necessary to be able to look to a truly happy future even if that means it has to be in the Summer of 2021.
Can you just imagine what a year 2021 will be when the entire World comes through this….and it will if we all do our part. Celebrations will be as like nothing ever seen since the end of the World Wars 1 and 2.
Let’s none of us be selfish but look ahead at one more year…when you’re that little bit older it is as a week in time!!
Be safe,be well and let every single one of us,though “isolated” in one way or another right now nonetheless be united as never before. xx
Wednesday 16 you do have the facts! Watch the reports from Italy! Within a week patients are dying. During two weeks only one patient recovered. And we are only a couple of weeks behind them. Stay indoors and take it seriously.
???…sorry,you’ve lost me. At no point have I shown ignorance of the facts,Debby;quite the opposite in fact!
I’m a delivery driver for a supermarket yeah I know we don’t go into houses atm but I’m not gunna lie I’m shitting myself at work now
You are all the more appreciated because you are doing a job in highly risky circumstances,yet I feel sure you must be adequately protected by your Company despite feeling so understandably wary. All your customers are undoubtedly proud of you doing such a great job at every door…..do everything you’ve been advised and I’m certain you will be absolutely fine. This nightmare WILL end one day but all those who stilled carried on will never be forgotten for their kindness and determination to bring much-needed goods to others who need them. On all their behalf……a great BIG..”THANK YOU”.
My friend in Portsmouth had it the doctors told him they were positive he had it but wouldn’t test him because he hadn’t travelled within the last 14 days he hadn’t left Portsmouth and at that time no one had tested positive for it in Portsmouth. That tells me there were many cases that hadn’t been reported which meant most people refusing to stay in and take it seriously.
Now a week later is it 5 or 6 deaths and loads of cases in Portsmouth I would guess there are plenty of cases here unreported and no one is told where the 3 people were from that had it here well we are pretty sure one was from cowes and one was definitely from freshwater but the people need to know this so they can be extra careful and not spread it further in those areas just try and stay safe and follow the guidelines set out by the government and take extra precautions assuming its 10 times worse than reported we are very under prepared so help each other!
I am vulnerable and self isolating but kids are still roaming the streets can’t the parents see what is happening why havnt we got testing kits on the Island !
Why are we waiting till it’s to late
Stop the ferries and coaches bringing over possible Death sentences to our weak and vulnerable people on the Island !
Same here mate. Not old, but genetic lung decease. Lucky I can work from home. But have to walk dog 5am and 9pm to avoid these zombies (people who ignore all advice) They are the walking (soon to be) dead.
Harsher measures are required to stop the spread, it isn’t rocket science and why doesn’t our MP do something? St Mary’s hasn’t had the capacity for the number of people living on the Island for years. They should never have sold off the cottage hospitals on Island which in this circumstance would have been ideal isolation places and in earlier healthy times areas for the bed blockers. How are they expected to manage with the pandemic? I am surprised no one has stood up and stated the Pop Festival, Cowes Week, all the usual gatherings during the summer months will be cancelled. This virus is NOT going away and a cure is some time off; I fear we are looking at a minimum of two years if we are lucky. At times like this life is more important than money – remember you reap what you sow, and if you are one of those stock piling you need to be ashamed of yourself the same as those not respecting social distancing in our supermarkets on the Island. To many meme’s around.
Juno, I agree. It’s interesting that most people writing here have lost the point……the NHS is in a very poor state (particularly on this island) and has been for a number of years. As for the MP, Seely is useless, all he cares about is the money people keeping him in power. I and many others have had cause to email him and not once has he ever replied except for the system auto response.
Of course our hospital will be overwhelmed, why does it take a study from Oxford University to bring this to everyone’s attention. Our island should have been out of bounds to mainland visitors weeks ago. Second home owners have flocked to the island over the weekend. Angry and let down springs to my mind.
I think us islanders need to be told the real numbers of people that have the virus!!! Stop all the bullshit! would much appreciate it!
,I think islanders need to be told the real story of how many people have the virus
YOU are people who voted this soulless, heartless moron as our MP!! NOW you complain!! Are you complete idiots! Of course he only cares about ” the economy ” , business, and saving as much of THEIR money as he can! The I.O.W. has been plagued by a series of “typical tories” for decades!
WHY hasn’t he moved to stop the influx of rich “part-time tourists”?
WHY haven’t we STOPPED the ferries, hovercraft and cats – EXCEPT, obviously, for food and medical supplies?
Wake up and smell the coffee people!
He, and this useless local authority we are cursed with, will never stop taking his, no doubt, “brown paper envelopes” , just to protect us “ordinary people”!!
We, in particular, those over 70’s who are already suffering from serious respiratory illnesses, will simply be left, in the words of Mr. Dickens, to ” reduce the surplus population!
God help us all – because on this beautiful Island of ours,- no one else will!
Stay safe, if you can, people.
Many will die here. The council have been told time and time again when having these massive building programes about the lack of infrastructure on the Island.
It is disgusting that our elderly will not die peacefully in a bed with family in attendance, but in their homes, isolated or in packed hospitals with doctors having the awful decision of playing God, deciding who can die and who they can try to save.
The UK and its useless Politicians have filled our country with the dregs of the world who have bred many areas into the vilest of crimes, overcrowding and disharmony forcing many to escape to the Island to avoid these beings.
This has created overcrowding, the loss of green field sites all encouraged by greedy councillors and Politicians.
I can only hope those who suffer the most from this are those who have ruined this country, not for a while but for the rest of time, just to get cheap labour, under the guise of needing more people to keep the growing elderly.
Well now the growing elderly are no more, so we need to rethink this flawed policy.
Wait and see ‘who’ riots, loots first, after being given a safe decent land in which to live.
See it how it is, NOT how you wish it were.