Croydon University Hospital among worst hit by coronavirus in London
Croydon University Hospital is one of the worst hit for coronavirus in London, with 27 deaths at its London Road centre up until yesterday.
One of those infected is Dr Lydia Osei-Boateng who was taken to the hospital by ambulance on March 21, where she was told she has the virus.
She is one of 289 cases in the borough, up until Monday morning, according to the Public Health Authority stats.
But she was struck with how calm the hospital was – and she suspects people who may have normally come to the hospital are staying away.
But she was not admitted to a ward – she was not deemed unwell enough and returned home after six hours.
Many of the people dying from this virus are the elderly or those with underlying health conditions – but it does not mean that young people are not at risk.
And this fact is brought home by what Dr Osei-Boateng was told when she was at the hospital.
She said: “It’s something we’ve never ever dealt with. I never thought I would experience something like this – as a doctor, mother, wife.
“The lady who discharged me said they are getting a lot of young people with coronavirus, she had a 30-year-old asthmatic dying last week, she said there was a 24-year-old coming in when I was there.
“We need to stop the spread, everyone needs to stay home, it is the only way.”
Croydon is London’s second most populated borough after Southwark, with 385,346 residents, according to Croydon council’s director of public health report 2019.
A document from the Croydon Health Services Trust in 2017 described the catchment area as being as big as Bristol.
Croydon has the highest youth population, but also a higher than average population of older people.
It is likely that the pandemic is yet to peak and the hospital is preparing for a surge in cases.
Last week, Elaine Clancy, chief nurse at the trust, said: “In line with national NHS guidance, we are scaling back non-urgent appointments and looking at new ways in which we can run routine appointments with patients by phone or screen.
“We are also dramatically increasing our critical care capacity to provide life-dependent respiratory support to patients when needed.”
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#stay in and stay safe. people need to understand the value of life and of others.we need to respect the law . there r not many ventilator and beds and doctors and nurses r doing thier best .Please help urself to help NHS . Don’t let it say “I told you so”.
Stay at home not hard spend time with family .
Please stay home as per advise.This way you safer from any infection and IF you are positive which is not aware then you save infecting others in the community.
The care at this hospital is known to be awful and I can confirm this after they nearly killed my dad by purposely ignoring a heart mummer he developed in their care and were trying to send him home when he couldn’t even move. Really not surprised by the high death rate. If you end up here good luck!
Not surprising Croydon University Hospital is one of the worst hit with the virus, it’s all the lowlife who are still continually walking around North End Croydon with little regard for anyone!!! The same ones who were in the bars and pubs right up until the end, when they had to finally close.
Where are the police in Croydon, stopping this and fining the many persistant offenders, as there are normally plenty of police around that area? Plus the many who say they can’t pay as they are on benefits, just advise them that their benefits will be withdrawn if they don’t stay home, your soon see them moving swiftly off!