Breathtaking

?

Who has the keys?

I take it you mean the overly dramatised ITV drama that's on telly at the moment?

It's a TV drama, not a documentary

You need to keep up at the back. It's a mix of drama and fact written by a consultant who was at the sharp end.

You need to keep up at the back

Some of us don't watch itv

A 1988 episode of Dr Who is on my TV...

It's well presented, in my view. It's not an over dramatisation; everyone who worked in that environment will recognise aspects, features, incidents and characters.

Shortages, pressures, the brutality; how it feels to lose your first positive patient. And the next one...

I have a bloke fixing a 1967 big block Chevy on my TV(via YouTube), doesn't seem too outrageous apart from his haircut

Eh?

Breathtaking

Is this a sex thing?

"This book adaptation from Jed Mercurio perfectly captures the chaos, the impossible decisions and the utterly shameful government failings – even if it fails to transcend outrage

Breathtaking aired on ITV1 and is available on ITVX."

No sympathy for striking doctors? Watch ITV’s Breathtaking and ask: have we paid our debt to them? | Gaby Hinsliff | The Guardian

Breathtaking aired on ITV1 and is available on ITVX

as long as your device isn't one of the ones that ITVX withdrew support for.

ITVX

Crashes all the time... Removed the app from Roku.

I thought it was pretty good.  Not so much in the way of character development - but it's really about the chaos in the health service as the pandemic first hit, drama is a vehicle for exploring that rather than the characters as such

I'm not a fan of Rachel Clarke's writing. She errs too far towards medical martyrdom IMO.

Absolutely zero chance of me watching it, I’ve avoided the trailer but just caught it a few minutes ago. Put me in tear of anger and upset.

Yes, no doubt it will have been dramatised. I also don’t give a flying **** of you think it didn’t exist. What I can tell you is sitting in meeting daily, often 3 times in a shift for the latest updates. Carrying handfuls of PPE, think masks and aprons here not the later high level stuff. This was to drive to crew who may attending a Covid case but only if it met certain criteria.

I can tell you I sat with dying people in care homes as moving them would likely kill them, they’d likely die en-route to hospital or soon after. I can also tell you I’d ask the carers to allow me get their family in the room beside them, even when it wasn’t exactly allowed, none refused. I waited with them the patient so the carers could look after others, sweating, thirsty, hungry and exhausted as I couldn’t have a drink whilst waiting.

Then to hear those Tory ****s were partying away, making millions and waiting millions while my family sat at home wondering if I was Ok. Me getting home in different clothing, putting uniform in the wash and then having yet another bath all before I dared even kiss my family.

I will resent what they did for the rest of my days, yes it was a difficult time, yes they were in uncharted waters it was changing rapidly and they did well in many areas. However, the pure ‘evil’ of them doing as they pleased is unforgettable.

My OH*: I can see you twitching, you're going to get angry aren't you, it's going to get you on a soapbox isn't it.

Me: ~200,000 people died from a mix of chronic austerity coming home to roost and the governments acute inability to manage the situation, if that doesn't make you angry, what the **** will?

*the 2nd worst Tory I know, thinks Boris was treated unfairly and the Tories need more time to finish the job.

@Drac I hear you..  every word, every bit of anger and pain.

And that’s just a tiny part. There’s much more I can tell.

Yes, at times like on nights it could be eerily quiet but that’s because the public listened, they didn’t make unnecessary calls, less vehicles on the road and less activities so less injuries.

are we hoping for a Postmaster style effect from this - I do hope so!

Surprised the troll hasn't appeared yet though.

Absolutely zero chance of me watching it, I’ve avoided the trailer but just caught it a few minutes ago. Put me in tear of anger and upset.

Yes, no doubt it will have been dramatised. I also don’t give a flying * of you think it didn’t exist. What I can tell you is sitting in meeting daily, often 3 times in a shift for the latest updates. Carrying handfuls of PPE, think masks and aprons here not the later high level stuff. This was to drive to crew who may attending a Covid case but only if it met certain criteria.

I can tell you I sat with dying people in care homes as moving them would likely kill them, they’d likely die en-route to hospital or soon after. I can also tell you I’d ask the carers to allow me get their family in the room beside them, even when it wasn’t exactly allowed, none refused. I waited with them the patient so the carers could look after others, sweating, thirsty, hungry and exhausted as I couldn’t have a drink whilst waiting.

Then to hear those Tory * were partying away, making millions and waiting millions while my family sat at home wondering if I was Ok. Me getting home in different clothing, putting uniform in the wash and then having yet another bath all before I dared even kiss my family.

I will resent what they did for the rest of my days, yes it was a difficult time, yes they were in uncharted waters it was changing rapidly and they did well in many areas. However, the pure ‘evil’ of them doing as they pleased is unforgettable.

The Tories are hoping that the anger of the public (and the medical professionals) has faded over time. Not for most of us it bloody hasn't.

**** sake! Very poignant photos.

I was predominately one step back a lot of the time, arrive at cardiac arrests a small time after crews sometimes longer as the area I can cover is massive. Level 3 PPE was awful to wear, none breathable overalls, sealed masks, 2 pair of gloves and then your normal uniform which again isn’t exactly breathable material although many of us ended up carrying a breath shirt to quickly change into. Remember the heat we had at that time, crews were exhausted very quickly but would try to carry on, we couldn’t send the numbers we normal would to reduce infection risk until things were confirmed.

We carried bottles of water for them after the calls, to try and rehydrate them, try to reassure them and keep their moral up. I’m not saying covid was the cause of the cardiac arrests but the families not being able to console each other, even attend like they normally would or standing in the garden so they could at least talk to their relative is pretty hard to witness.

Then the crews would be expected to return to clean their equipment, the vehicle all before being properly rested or time to console themselves. Once done off they’d go again to another case.

It was shit beyond shit.

are we hoping for a Postmaster style effect from this – I do hope so!

I suspect the effect will be the same. Joe Lycett is on tonight covering sewage leaks and discharges. If TV gets it right with drama and factual programme releases there'll be sufficient outrage generated all the way to February next year.

@Drac seeing the frankly piss poor PPE issued to my son in a care home as a supervising nurse I am astounded that they did not kill more of the care workers. It can make me run white hot with rage when I hear "oh we did the best we could" from those in control. No you bloody didn't, you were complacent, with Dunning-Kruger incompetence.

And breathe. . .

Just watched part two.

The detail applied in this production is excellent, took me straight back, even though our unit was a lot calmer. Yes, I am angry again, upset, struggling to stop looking at some patients and making judgement on the character's likelihood of their survival. It may be a few years ago but I can still see some faces, certainly remember how it felt to be there and trying to do your best for some very frightened people.

watched the first two last night with sofagirl. she works for a mid sized trust in the north, not front line, but a role focussed on clinical staff resource, support and well being. she too got angry and upset watching it and felt that it rang true of the chaos at the time. she was in the hospital throughout and used to come home each day with tales of the senior management meetings where national PPE advice had changed yet again and was clearly in a response to shortages that no one would acknowledge at the time, the contradictory and deliberately ambiguous  guidance on what symptomatic staff should do when there was no testing available leaving them in a personal catch 22 and days where she spent 8 hours on the phone calling all the local building and construction firms asking them to donate any FFP3 masks that they may have in stock. what really hit home was that they were having to spend a a considerable amount of their well being budget on PTSD councillors for the staff

Fair to say it left Mrs Scud pretty upset, she is a consultant on a cancer ward, they operated a red and green area, and she helped run the red for those with COVID and cancer, struggling to get PPE as they were second in line to A&E and the actual COVID wards who were struggling themselves to get it, with a friend who works in the asbestos surveying industry helping her out when they couldn't find further.

She watched her own aunt die of bone cancer that spread because she kept putting off going to the doctors and hospital mostly due to fear, so "soldiered on".

Of those she worked with in 2020, very few remain in the NHS, they are simply burnt out, she is left with doing the job of three consultants, still working 80 hour weeks to try and get patients into clinic in a timely manner, often on her laptop at home from 8am to 9-10pm saturday and Sunday unpaid. Her work has dominated our lives for last few years

I was one step back from the frontline and I remember the fear.

And the hardest part is that the public has very much forgotten the sacrifices many NHS staff made and continue to make, all they see are waiting lists and long waits for ambulances, staff are often taking abuse now because of it, they are expected to do a lot more work, with less funding, staff and resources.

Fair to say it left Mrs Scud pretty upset, she is a consultant on a cancer ward, they operated a red and green area, and she helped run the red for those with COVID and cancer, struggling to get PPE as they were second in line to A&E and the actual COVID wards who were struggling themselves to get it, with a friend who works in the asbestos surveying industry helping her out when they couldn’t find further.

And you still get morons claiming that the rest of the hospital was empty, so all the other doctors were just lounging about at home throughout the pandemic.

Bad enough for those accustomed to busy A&E environment, but imagine being a non-intensivist doctor or nurse for years and then getting chucked into a virus war-zone wearing uncomfortable and often inadequate PPE, with terrified patients dying horrible deaths left, right and centre. Wondering if today was the day you'd received a massive viral load. And then having to go home to your families and strip out of your clothes in the porch and scrub every inch in the shower before you could get a hug. Then back on shift a few hours later. No wonder so many staff are still so utterly traumatised by the whole thing.

And all the while effectively getting a year-on-year pay cut. And then later getting viciously attacked just for asking if your pay could be raised to pre-2010 levels.

But we banged some pots and pans on a evening for you, you ungrateful bastards.

A pal was a charge nurse (now taken early retirement) on a general surgical ward in a small hospital.  She was drafted onto taking charge of a covid ward in a nearby, large general hospital. She hadn't had a single death on her ward in over ten years.

Her first shift there was a night shift; 4 patients died that first night.

At that time April and May '20, being a part time EMT, I was asked in to help within a major hospital's covid assessment unit.  We lost two patients on my first shift and the fear in everyone's faces will stay with me. Receiving big sick new patients referred from NHS24 in a car park, into the unit for assessment and support, taking those deemed +ve back out to say goodbye to families at the back door of the truck.  Then drive around to red zone admissions/resus, queue in the vehicle, into the chaos, handovers, often delayed and waiting with the trolleys and struggling, breathless frightened patients.  Back outside, clean down the truck, park. Into fresh PPE, meet the next patient, being as sensibly positive with them as possible, do it all again.. Over and over.  12 hour shifts. Drive home 50 miles on empty roads; strip on the doorstep. wash. eat.  Sleep some in the spare room; get up; do it again.

We were lucky, always having sufficient PPE but know that this was a bit of an exception.  The team were absolutely exceptional though.  ANPs, paramedics & techs, GPs, bank nurses doing extra shifts.  All doing as much as we could.  Meanwhile BBC news was on in the ready room, with regular briefings from our trustworthy politicians.

Bad enough for those accustomed to busy A&E environment, but imagine being a non-intensivist doctor or nurse for years and then getting chucked into a virus war-zone

This was what I feared.  It never came to that in Edinburgh but I was on the list to be transferred if too many staff became ill

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