A Sunday Times Insight investigation can today reveal that thousands of elderly people were denied potentially life-saving treatment to stop the health service being overrun - contrary to the claims of ministers and NHS executives

Read this Sunday Times insight article. It doesn’t tell us much we didn’t know at the time, but it is beautifully researched and deeply disturbing

This is an excellent piece of utterly bleak reporting. I wonder if the government's "NHS wasn't overwhelmed" mythology has also helped to contribute to the current minority opinion that maybe the pandemic isn't all that big a problem anyway.

"Don't kill granny" they said... and then worked out a triage system to do just that! 😡

While ministers delayed lockdown, soaring cases were putting immense pressure on hospitals. Our investigation shows officials devised a brutal ‘triage tool’ to keep the elderly and frail away

Way back in April we reported on an elderly patient allegedly denied hospital care who died days later. This has been a hidden crisis of COVID for months. Important journalism from @thesundaytimes

So here is my take on that Sunday Times front page (thread)

Lengthy rebuttal to the Sunday Times front page from NHS Eng & critical care bodies. Story claims a brutal ‘triage tool’ was devised which kept the elderly and frail away from hospitals in the first wave thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/r… pic.twitter.com/XP79IuUjbH

This age discrimination is inhuman. Straight out of the pages of the crudest, weakest, medical ‘ethics’ articles—written by people who see these things as number games—into the NHS, leaving some of our most vulnerable without treatment or compassion. Vile thetimes.co.uk/article/reveal… pic.twitter.com/Fk0iavMSYC

A weeping nurse said, ‘They are all going to die — no one is doing anything about it’

How elderly paid price of protecting @NHSEngland from Covid-19: While UK ministers delayed lockdown, ⬆️⬆️ cases were putting ⬆️⬆️ pressure on hospitals. Officials devised a brutal ‘triage tool’ to keep the elderly & frail away thetimes.co.uk/article/reveal… via @Arbuthnott et al

'Vivien says she was told by the doctor that her father would not be given intensive care treatment or mechanical ventilation because he “ticked too many boxes” under the guidelines the hospital was using'

“It is manifestly the case that large numbers of patients did not receive the care that they needed, and that’s because the health service didn’t have the resources. It didn’t have the infrastructure to cope during the first peak.” Sorry for paywall.