Hammersmith Hospital's Urgent Care Centre Closed
Imperial and NHSE have made the right decision.We are still in the initial phase (seeding and exponential growth), where the corona virus grows in small clusters from one person. It is still appearing strongly in the richer counties of the UK and richer boroughs of London: Hampshire at the top, then Westminster, then Kensington & Chelsea a bit lower and finally Hammersmith & Fulham with less than half the number of cases, i.e. a long way down the list. See https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f94c3c90da5b4e9f9a0b19484dd4bb14. The virus came with travelers from China to Italy and to South Korea at about the same time, and then spread all over Europe and then finally to the USA (although Dr Clare Gerada caught it during a trip in New York OR on the flight back over two weeks ago when officially the US had no cases). We went to prevent the mixing of people further afield which spreads the virus to poorer areas. The overriding message is "Don't mix".Parsons Green Walk-in Centre is closed to the public as an UCC. It has been turned into a "Swab Hub" for gathering samples for Covid-19 testing by appointment only (http://www.fulhamsw6.com/default.asp?section=info&spage=common/hfhospitals2003.htm)The purpose of closing the Hammersmith Hospital UCC is to keep the public away from a medical facility which would otherwise, by its very nature, be filled with people with reduced immunity and with medical staff. Actually NHS medical personnel are at particular risk right now because they are not being tested regularly in order to keep themselves, when infected, away from patients. See this article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/17/there-is-a-policy-of-surrender-doctor-on-uks-covid-19-failures.Imperial is keeping normal appointments going: http://www.fulhamsw6.com/default.asp?section=info&link=http://neighbournet.com/server/common/hfhospitals2003e.htm.Anything very serious like appendicitis, septicemia, severed limbs (!) is going to the A&E depts. The closest UCCs are at Charing Cross or Central Middlesex at Park Royal.
Una-Jane Winfield ● 1497d0 Comments