How will we care for the dying when hospitals are stretched beyond capacity? | Brief letters

29 March 2020 05:47
Covid-19 | Sunderland football fans | Classic pop for coronavirus times | Could it get any worse for the PM? | Boris Johnson’s hospital promiseCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageI could not agree with Dr Lyn Jenkins more (Boldly facing a deadly virus, Letters, 20 March). I am a rapid-response nurse in central London, seeing acutely unwell patients in their own homes, to avoid harmful admissions to hospital. I saw a 90-year-old last week dying from Covid-19. She lived alone and had no family or friends. It was decided to admit her to hospital for palliation and a humane death – essentially so she wouldn’t die alone at home. Soon the hospitals won’t have the capacity to accommodate this. How will we care for the swathes of elderly people dying at home, particularly those alone without any family?Name and address supplied• As a long-suffering but loyal Sunderland fan and hence the butt of much so-called humour, it doesn’t help that the new series of Sunderland ’Til I Die airs on April Fools’ Day (Stress, spanners and dismay: another glimpse behind Sunderland’s curtain, 27 March).John HuntleyDidsbury, Manchester Continue readingreadfullarticle

Source: TheGuardian