Hacker News Reader

Comment by coconut_crab | Hacker News Reader

The 32nd patient here caught ncovid-19 and started showing symptoms on the the 2nd of March whole staying in the UK. But the hospital refused to test her and told her to self quarantine at home instead. Six days later her condition got worse and her family which is very rich rented an airplane to fly her back to our third world country for treatment. The girl now has damaged lung and is in serious condition. I just don't know what is wrong with the hospitals over there, why did they refuse to test her? It's very irresponsible and the situation seems much worse than it seems in the UK.

Oh and nearly half a dozen new cases here recently are all Britons too.

(Google for 32nd covid-19 patient in Vietnam if you want to know more)

View on HN

NHS advice is not to go to hospital or a GP's surgery if you suspect you have it but to self isolate, get in touch with them and take it from there:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Edit: It also occurs to me that if she is from a wealthy family perhaps she tried to use private healthcare - which would be definitely be the wrong thing to do in an emergency situation.

The NHS's approach to testing definitely isn't perfect, but it seems to be fairly well thought out and relatively aggressive. They don't want people going to hospitals or GP surgeries because that can spread the infection to more vulnerable people.

Also, if I'm understanding the news coverage correctly, all the cases of Covid-19 exported to Vietnam from the UK are related. More specifically, they're tied to one traveller who'd recently visited Lombardy in Italy, either by flying on the same plane as her back to Vietnam whilst she had symptoms or in the case of patient 32 by having met up with her in London. Having symptoms and having met someone confirmed to have the virus would definitely qualify for testing here or most places.

Testing is a furiously oversubscribed service. Capacity last week was 800 tests/day, and half that the week before. Nationally. You can't test everybody.

If you're sent home and told to self-isolate, you're essentially being told you're likely to have it. Go home and don't give it to anybody else.

UK hospitals have 160k beds, already 90% full of sick people. They can't admit people who present with a cough, risking existing patients and staff for somebody who doesn't need support.

The hospital did the right thing here.

The patient would have been admitted if and when they got to the point where they needed support. I'm not sure what you think they would have gained by being admitted before that point. But hey-ho. Instead she flew halfway across the world, exposing who-knows how many more people on her travels. Great!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com