According to a video filmed at the Royal Infirmary, hospitals are alleged to be empty during the pandemic and media reports suggesting otherwise are dishonest. That’s wrong: news sources covered the real pressure British hospitals are experiencing.
The 15-minute clip was viewed 13,464 thousand times on Instagram and is captioned: “Manchester Royal Infirmary is NOT how the Mainstream Media portrays its capacity” (here).
The video shows a man walking through the hospital corridors and saying, “Like all the hospitals that other people have filmed, no one is here.” (10:28)
At one point, the man who recorded the video had an argument with a staff member, saying, ‘You’re complicit, you’re complicit in these lies. You know there is no one in the hospitals, you are lying, you are keeping this pandemic going, you are a disgrace. ‘(13:30)
However, the footage is not representative of the impact of the pandemic on hospitals. A spokesman for the NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester University, said: ‘The video was filmed in non-patient areas, such as corridors and stairs. Patients are based in wards, side rooms and in treatment areas, none of which were included in this film.
‘As a result of the pandemic, visitors were restricted and are currently applicable at the time this video was filmed, resulting in less footing in the corridors and public access areas. During this time, we have seen increased surveys for patients with COVID, which is reflected in nationally published statistics. ”
Just under 4,000 coronavirus patients are currently in the UK on ventilation with 355,143 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital over the past seven days, according to government figures at the time of publication (here).
Media reports also reflected that hospitals across the country are struggling. The BBC reported on 18 January that ten hospital trusts in England consistently had no extra beds for critical care for adults (here) and British scientific chief adviser Patrick Vallance compared hospitals on 20 January (here) to a war zone.
The video is the latest in a series of videos showing quiet corridors in some hospital buildings. The BBC News Reality Check team recently reviewed these videos (www.bbc.co.uk/news/55560714) and reported: ‘because of the way healthcare trusts reorganized hospitals, which often separated Covid patients from others and non- urgent care canceled. to free up capacity, some parts of hospital buildings will currently look empty. This does not mean that hospitals are not busy. ”
Reuters also published fact-checks in individual sections showing silent hospital corridors (here, here and here) and found that they provided no evidence that authorities or the media had lied about the extent of the pressure on health services.
VERDICT
Untrue. Official statistics and media reports show that hospitals are struggling with patient capacity due to the increase in COVID-19 patients. This is not refuted by a video tour showing part of a single hospital.
Read more about our work to reuter social media messages.com/fact-check/about.