Hospital appointments, flights and hotels canceled as Britain grapples with how to pay tribute to the Queen
Non-urgent hospital appointments across the country have been postponed due to staff shortages, resulting in an already unprecedented healthcare waiting list in the UK. Holidaymakers have seen their accommodation plans torn up, travelers have been warned flights are being disrupted to avoid noise over London and funerals and panels brace for disruption.
“It’s sad that the Queen is gone, but it doesn’t help to leave someone to make them worse off,” photographer Dan Lewsey told CNN after a cancer diagnosis was postponed from a hospital in Shropshire, western England . “Normal life should be able to go on to some extent.”
The confusion reflects a country that has wrestled with how best to honor the Queen. Despite decades of planning for Elizabeth II’s death, the government has refused to issue clear guidance on what should and should not happen during the period of national mourning, leaving many decisions to providers.
This has led to very different approaches from companies and service providers. Brits have been asked not to cycle or forego weather updates. Some, like a supermarket’s decision to reduce checkout beeping, have been ridiculed online. But others have left people resentful about essential provisions.
“The closure of basic services such as food banks, scheduled hospital appointments and funeral services shows no respect for the Queen. It’s a show of disrespect for the British public,” said Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a political activist and author of This Is Why I Resist.”
Hospitals and holidays suspended
The suspension of some medical treatments has sparked widespread concern. “It is of course very sad that the Queen has died and a funeral is important but we are asking people to refrain from potentially life-saving medical treatment for the aristocracy,” Marcia Allison, 39, told PA Media after she learned she is 69-year-old father had seen a dentist appointment canceled on Monday.
“It is abhorrent to ask people like him to lose their teeth for an unelected head of state in the 21st century. It’s not democratic,” she told the news agency.
Holidays are affecting staffing levels across the country and have resulted in many hospitals being unable to keep their appointments. The health board at Aneurin Bevan University in south-east Wales has apologized for the “unavoidable disruption” and told patients it is postponing “all scheduled appointments and clinics” to Monday.
An NHS spokesman said that “As with any bank holiday, NHS staff will work to ensure urgent and emergency services, including urgent dental and GP appointments, are available – and patients are contacted where necessary by their local trusts regarding their existing ones Events.”
But while missed hospital appointments are usually due to sudden staff shortages, numerous companies have also made the decision to cancel their regular Monday services, often leaving customers in the dark.
Center Parcs, a company that operates several resorts across the UK, drew criticism across the country on Wednesday after announcing plans to close on Monday, leaving guests without accommodation.
The company has since reversed its plan to remove guests from locations for a day, but continues to not allow customers to arrive and check into their accommodation on Monday, meaning some have been forced to find alternative places to stay at short notice.
“It came out of the blue,” said David Grierson, 33, who was planning to drive across England this weekend, arriving at Center Parcs in Cumbria on Monday. “We now need to find additional accommodation… we are looking at over £200 ($230) a night (and) around Center Parcs availability is very poor.
“It’s a little bit disproportionate what they did,” Grierson told CNN. “I would totally understand if they made some changes that day, but shutting people out when they were already out stunned us.”
“Guests are of course allowed to leave their lodges,” the spokesman clarified.
‘Come with as you go’
The public space is now concerned with the question of how to honor the monarch and how not. Images and tributes to the Queen are practically unavoidable in British cities; Bus stops, train stations, shop windows and billboards bear her face. During her lifetime, the Queen became probably the most famous woman who ever lived – and yet she was even more visible in death.
Confusion also reigns over the other funerals due to take place across the country on the day of the Queen’s funeral. “If, for any reason, a selected crematorium or cemetery has made the decision to close, funeral homes will work with families to find an alternate date or location that they are comfortable with,” the National Association of Funeral Directors said (NAFD). in an opinion.
“The NAFD and other professional organizations in the funeral sector have advised their members that these decisions should be guided by the needs and desires of the bereaved,” the group said. It added that reduced public holiday services could prevent guests from catching funerals.
Monday’s funeral will be watched by millions of Brits. It will be the “biggest single police event” ever conducted by London’s Metropolitan Police, the force’s deputy deputy commissioner Stuart Cundy said during a media briefing on Friday.
But it has shaken companies not involved in the event as they balance their services and staffing with the magnitude of the Queen’s death.
“It’s a moment of great national importance, whatever your opinion on the monarchy,” Grierson said, reflecting on the disruption to his furlough and the cancellations across the UK in general.
“(But) a lot of companies may not have government guidance on what to do — so they’re just trying to come up with something over time.”