The collapse of the New Zealand health system

 

Or is it being collapsed? 

Seemorerocks 

Dedicated to the dedicated nurses, midwives and ambulance staff and to mandated practitioners. 

We have been told that the Pfizer mRNA "vaccine" is "safe and effective" and would protect against covid-19; that it would protect against serious symptoms and keep people out of hospital. 

Now we have a crisis in our hospitals "because of COVID". The truth is that in this country at least 80% of people in hospital because of COVID have been vaccinated.  

The data from Australia is even more stark; I came across the following just this morning:

It appears that we have a crisis in our hospitals and it is getting worse, week-by- week. For example this while I was compiling this article:

Dunedin Hospital closed to visitors

Dunedin Hospital is no longer accepting visitors to any of its wards because of an outbreak of Covid-19, combined with increased pressure on capacity. Visitors were turned away from the hospital yesterday after the restrictions were implemented at 6pm. Southern District Health Board chairman Pete Hodgson said there had been an outbreak of Covid-19 at the hospital, which was the reason it had to close the doors. **** I wish to start with some anecdotes from people that we know: 

  PATRICK'S STORY 

  I have a healthy 78-year old friend who we have been worried about for some time as he has had 3 doses of the "vaccine".  

A few weeks ago he had very sore feet and was getting round in woollen boots.  We immediately suspected blood clots. 

He had several on-line consultations with his doctor who could only suggest he bought some special boots but showed little interest in investigating further, something that has become the rule, rather than the exception.  

When he finally had to crawl to the bathroom and couldn't walk his family phoned for the ambulance. 

The ambulance staff did not believe that he was in pain and couldn't walk until they accidentally kicked him in the foot and he yelled out in pain. He was sent to Wellington hospital in our region and indeed, he did have blood clots, all to do with his smoking or his age and nothing to do with a vaccine booster of course!  

He had an operation involving the transplant of veins that appeared to be successful; he was recovering and was, according to his nurse-daughter due to have a second operation on his second leg on the Monday.  

We learned that on the evening before he was diagnosed with covid-19 and was put into isolation where he has remained for the week. 

During that time he has had no symptoms of COVID other than being irritable and stir-crazy from the isolation. 

The latest news is that he has been transferred to Hutt hospital - the one that, as you will see, is having its largest wing closed down soon. 

All this is because of a shortage of operating room staff at Wellington hospital. So he was down for an operation on Monday (because it was urgent) and by Thursday there is apparently no staff to do the operation. 

CEMETERY WORKERS 

  We have another friend who has worked outside for 35 years as a gravedigger - the one who reported that in his career he has never buried so many people as he has over the past months, especially following a "vaxathon" last year. 

He was done out of a job because he refused to have the vaxx and as far as we know has not been reinstated despite having heard (in the middle of the night of course!) reports of a shortage of crematorium and cemetery workers. 

They will never acknowledge or admit that cemetery workers have been mandated out of their jobs but instead produce human interest stories like this.

'I respect these people who are buried here' - Graveyards call out for volunteers

Public and community-run cemeteries around the country are struggling to recruit staff and volunteers 

  So,  folk just don't want to do the job any more? 

Is that it? 

  THE UNVAXXED NURSES 

 We have anecdotal information that after an unspecified (but considerable) number of nurses in the hospitals walking out of their jobs because they would not succumb to the vaxx no one has been allowed back to their jobs.  

  In an interview recently Liz Gunn said that far from people returning to work more and more are leaving the sector because the demands are becoming greater and greater so that those who have received three doses of the mRNA shot will be regarded as "unvaxxed". 

All the while, it seems that staff are allowed to work with COVID symptoms but are not allowed to be unvaxxed. 

A well-known figure in the movement and my former doctor, René  de Monchy had this to say when I asked him:

As to my situation as mentioned in the article, it is indeed so that on 18 November last year I was told that I was not able and permitted to work any more and the hospital said I was not allowed anywhere on the DHB grounds, which would be considered a criminal offense.....

A colleague of mine who is a gynaecologist and who was working in the same hospital, has not been able to work anywhere in hospital or do locum work as a specialist or as a doctor in general because he is unvaccinated.

(edited) 

  So we have a crisis in the hospitals due at least in good measure to Jacinda Adern sacking her most dedicated nursing staff.  

  All this is being ascribed to COVID amongst staff (which well might be the case, at least in part) while the other main reason is ignored or even denied. 

 *** 

This is further illustrated by this story: another acquaintance had to go to Accident and Emergency (ER) with a kidney infection was not responding to antibiotics. 

Although she was regarded as urgent she was shunted off to a room where she was left for a long period of time. 

She alluded to the fact that there were very few nursing staff and they were being moved from Emergency to other areas of the hospital. 

This was confirmed by her: 

  "The nurse said they were reducing the number of staff in A&E  - they already couldn't cope and reducing numbers would be diabolical". 

There have been accounts in the media of staff having to work very long shifts. 

There was a story of a woman working in a small rest home, of maybe 50 people, having to work 3 days in a row and grab some sleep in between and couldn't get home for 36 hours. 

She reported after having been at work for 2 whole days having to stay on because no one turned up to relieve her. 

Changes are being made to our work visas that allows the fast tracking of immigrants in professions where there is deemed to be an acute shortage - medical professionals, builders, project managers, engineers, dentists. 

Nurses were not on this list. 

A Swedish nurse reported she cannot practise nursing here because her qualifications are not recognised here, all that despite the fact that probably has among the highest standards of nursing in the world. 

Another Indian doctor we know who is working with immigrants in a poor neighbourhood reported she had to go "through hell" to get her qualifications recognised. She reported being bullied and generally treated very badly. 

AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE OLIVER 

Perhaps the clearest example of how run down the health system is comes from an interview of Steve Oliver with Liz Gunn where he describes his friend having a heart attack in front of him.

 

Getting only an answering service on 111 which said they were over capacity and to go to a GP. he set off taking his friend to the hospital in Whangarei. 

When they got to medical centre where they tried ringing emergency; the phone rang for an hour and a half without being picked up. 

His friend started to get anxious and instead of being sedated was told they would ring the police and have him thrown out ion the street.  

They managed to finally get an ambulance and when they got to the hospital there were staff everywhere, all clipboards whose only concern was if he had any COVID symptoms. 

Steve Oliver was told the hospital was 150% over capacity and he had better go home and see  his GP. 

 After sleeping for 2 days he was told the earliest he can get a PHONE consultation was Monday. The heart attack happened on the previous Thursday. Other comments were that:

• Health practitioners are still being mandated when we are being told the mandates are over. The exit from the health profession because people don’t want to take the boosters.
• The hospitals let people go to work if they have COVID symptoms. How will that stop people getting sick?
• The response from staff to question was “no comment” or that they can’t do anything other than just deal with the fallout.
• People are unaware that this is going on until they need the system.

 THINGS ARE ONLY GOING TO GET. WORSE 

 While we are seeing that there are greater levels of hospitalisations of the vaccinated and deaths are constant compared with when we had the original Wuhan strain of Covid-2 things are only going to get worse. 

We have not reached flu season yet. 

This prognosis came out a couple of days ago from a modeller who I have to say have never got things right 

Covid-19: Hospitalisations could be higher in second Omicron wave 

 Older people are expected to be on the list of people who will be eligible for a fourth dose of the vaccine later this month. 

"Offering a fourth dose of the vaccine as we go into winter for those groups is a really good way of mitigating the risk." (sic) 

This report from February from Dunedin Hospital which has just closed its wards to visitors is fairly typical of hospitals across the country.

Visitor access changes to southern hospitals

Hawkes Bay describe an increasing number of people admitted to hospital with flu although it has to be asked how they distinguish influenza from COVID seeing they have very similar symptoms. 

In any case it is leading to a call for  people to get the flu jab although there is evidence that it can only make matters worse

Spike in people admitted to Hawke's Bay Hospital with flu

As at Monday, there were 10 people in Hawke's Bay Hospital with influenza.

Four days later, there were 33 people in the hospital with influenza, with one of those patients requiring intensive care support.

It comes during the same week the hospital's ED reported its busiest days on record with almost 200 presentations on both Monday and Tuesday. Now we come to the big story.

THE IMPENDING CLOSURE OF HUTT HOSPITAL  

In the midst of a dire health crisis it was announced that the Wellington region's second largest hospital, the Hutt Valley hospital is closing its Heretaunga Wing, which houses 79 percent of the beds and services and 25 percent of the region's capacity as well. 

It contains the children's ward, the maternity wing, the coronary care unit and other wards and services. 

The reports say that the DHB used a 10-year-old seismic assessment to persuade the Hutt City Council to go easy on it in May 2021 

  Hutt Hospital to clear building after it is declared a quake risk Unclear how long services will stay at quake-prone Hutt Hospital's Heretaunga Building 

Of special interest is the birthing unit. 

If closed that would leave no maternity services in the Hutt Valley and people may have to go elsewhere where services are already stretched to the maximum. 

Everyone, right up to the Health Minister, Andrew Little says they want to keep a hospital in the region but reality on the ground paints a different picture. 

There had been talk of shifting birthing to a unit, te Awakairangi, owned by a charitable organisation, the Wright Family Foundation, was mothballed only last year due to lack of funding. 

Much-loved Hutt Valley birthing centre set to close next month.

However a motion to this effect was voted down by a majority nine members of the board at a special meeting just a day or so ago. 

Hutt Valley DHB declines to make maternity services move a priority 

However, as the following article makes clear the problems are not confined to the Hutt Valley but are across the region

 

  We are blithely told that services will be transferred to other hospitals . However, there are problems in Wellington as well

Wellington hospital staff shortages at 'critical levels' in midwifery, nursing, allied health

That leaves the only other hospital in the region - the small Porirua hospital. However, the media reports;  

  

"18 percent of health workers at a Porirua Hospital are absent as the impact of the outbreak continues to grow outside Auckland."

WHAT ARE THE ODDS? 

If you thought the problems were limited to the Hutt Hospital you would be wrong.

Within a very short period of time three other hospitals that I know of were singled out for partial closure - all because they are prone to earthquakes. 

Firstly there is Wellington hospital where they have discovered they have to move its emergency department "because its structure might fail in a quake" 

More shaky hospitals: Wellington emergency department deemed earthquake risk

That must be a really urgent problem that has to be solved immediately (sic)!

Then there is Hawkes Bay Hospital  where they have discovered its newest buildings (built in 2004) has been found to be "earthquake-prone" just a month before the Hutt Valley and Wellington announcements. It has been reported that they cannot install their new MRI scanner

One of Hawke's Bay Hospital's newest buildings was found to be earthquake-prone

Of course it is all a big coincidence and anyone who recalls the 1931 Napier earthquake will realise it is shaky.

But have you heard of any earthquakes in Auckland?

But within a day or so of the announcement about the Hutt Hospital it was announced that its Galbraith building is 'earthquake prone' ("just 20 % of the New Building Standard")

Building at Middlemore Hospital confirmed as earthquake prone

The building currently houses a birthing unit and two maternity wards. (Photo/ NZ Herald)

Again, we have a hospital catering for poorer parts of the population that includes a maternity wing. 

In 2019 they were going to scrap the building but once again it is in the headlines. The timing is amazing. 

The Hutt Valley Hospital issue has had quite a lot of press but the situation with the other hospitals are, on-the-whole well-hidden. However, this was reported

Seismic risk assessments exposing widespread shaky hospital issue 

Isn't it strange how at a time when the health system is in dire crisis and losing staff at an amazing rate that policies are being enacted that would reduce facilities and they would undertake a major reform of the system? 

If it is not by design it seems to me that if there nefarious aims this is just how they would go about collapsing a health system that was already in a parlous shape 

THE REST HOMES 

 The situation in the rest homes which was previously almost intolerable has only got worse.

NZ Health Group Managing Director on inadequate funding for home and community support that contributes to staff shortages and affecting future age care options

The article reports that the New Zealand Health Group, the largest provider of home support services has had to suspend referrals in Auckland, turning away 20 to 30 a day, due to the lack of registered nurses needed to supervise carers. 

Furthermore they report the vaccine mandate took out more than 400 caregivers, and they have lost about 20 per cent of nursing staff to district health boards (DHB) over the past six months because of the pay gap. 

In this regard, a friend's mother has been in hospital taking up bed space that is already in short supply while they look for a bed in a rest home. 

However,  there have been none available anywhere near where she lives. 

There was also a story of a woman working in a small rest home, of maybe 50 people, having to work 3 days in a row and grab some sleep in between and couldn't get home for 36 hours. 

She reported after having been at work for 2 whole days having to stay on because no one turned up to relieve her. 

Another friend has a friend in a Lower Hutt rest home and reported that the old people are underfed and going hungry. 

I have looked to see if these shortages are affecting the private hospitals as well. 

 

However, I  can find no indication of any problems being identified in the media connected the private system.  

QUESTION: If staff are succumbing to COVID in the public hospitals would this not affect the private hospitals as well? 

But that is not what we hearing. 

Are we being herded into the private system? 

  A GOVERNMENT SHAKE-UP OF THE HEALTH SYSTEM IN THE MIDST OF CRISIS 

  

A major health reform in the midst of a grave crisis? 

In response to the article above, Lower Hutt mayor Campbell Barry said that the Hospital Board needed to make a strong stance about retaining health services in the Hutt Valley while it still had the power to. 

This is because the decision-making powers will be transferred to the new government organisation, Health New Zealand, next month.  

This move is away from local decision-making towards a single centralised, govenment-controlled organisation, Health New Zealand. 

  Major health sector shake-up: DHBs scrapped and new Māori Health Authority announced 

  Just like this government relies on a "single source of truth" its response is always to regulate, legislate and centralise. 

DEBT 

All of the above points to a problem across the sector with funding, from private rest homes to the public health system. 

Debt across all the health boards reached $237 million in the last financial year, compared with Government predictions of $210 million. 

Some of the hospitals badly need input, as shown by this article:

Whangārei Hospital: Leaky roofs, dodgy lifts, waiting lists and Covid-19’s here

It is unclear what the government has spend on COVID - on propaganda, buying in vaccines and what have you - I recall a figure of 100 BILLION. I  came across the following official item that is designed to confuse as much as it is to reveal.

Controller update on Government spending on Covid-19

To put a $237 MILLION debt into context in 2020 the government expanded their money-printing (QE) to $100 BILLION. 

Covid 19 coronavirus: Reserve Bank expands QE to $100 billion

 According to the debt clock New Zealand's national debt (which represents 42% of GDP stands at NZ$ 120 billion with interest payments of $5 billion. 

To put this into perspective NZ cannot rely on a petrodollar backed by a huge military. 

Instead, it does not earn enough from dairy and tourism (which has been closed down for 2 years) to make ends meet. 

It does not take a genius to realise that this situation must have a huge effect on the public health crisis.  

We can cover hospital debts only by still more borrowing. 

Or we can tighten our belts but it will never be enough. 

Conclusion 

  I am leaving it up to readers to decide how to interpret what I have reported - the degree to which the health system is collapsing or is being COLLAPSED. 

Perhaps the fact that they announced the closure of several hospitals all within a short period of time is just a giant coincidence.? 

Perhaps the fact that we have a shortage of nurses, cemetery workers etc. is just happenstance? 

That is what the media would like you to believe. 

They will go anywhere in their explanations other than so much as mention the mandated health workers. 

They simply don't exist. 

But I for one don't believe in "coinkydinks". 

Perhaps I can finish with the following? 

  We do not know what Jacinda Adern signed up to with Pfizer in 2021 

 We do not know what she signed to in America in the last week. 

We do not know what Jacinda talks about in her daily breakfast discussions with former PM Helen Clark.

Helen Clark on Jacinda Ardern at the White House – how it works and why it matters now

But I can tell you what has been revealed about Helen Clark. who after being prime minister of New Zealand cut her teeth at the UN and other globalist organisations.

She is listed as a major participant of a WEF "Preparing for the Next Pandemic" stakeholder meeting at Davos.

You can find out more at AmazingPolly's video, BOOM! Caught Red Handed Planning Monkeypox Pandemic. 

  I think I will leave things there.

NZ: Up to 100% of Covid-19 Hospitalisations are among the Fully Vaccinated

Here is the smoking gun.   It's genocide.

New Zealand’s Pandemic of the Fully Vaccinated 

Up to 100% of Covid-19 Hospitalisations are among the Fully Vaccinated according to official data

Official data hidden within News Reports published by the New Zealand Ministry of Health has revealed that the fully vaccinated population account for the vast majority of Covid-19 hospitalisations in New Zealand, with some days seeing the triple/double jabbed account for 100% of people admitted to hospital.

On the 16th Feb 22 the New Zealand Ministry of Health published a News Report containing information on Covid-19 Hospitalisations by vaccination status. In it they confirmed that of the current hospitalisations among the Northern Region, the unvaccinated population accounted for 2 hospitalisations, whilst the fully vaccinated accounted for 23 hospitalisations.

So we took a look back at previous news reports published by the New Zealand Ministry of Health to paint a picture on the current alleged Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the country. These are the reports we analysed, dating back to 25th Jan 22 –

• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/record-day-boosters-and-paediatric-doses-25-community-cases-10-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-100000-first-doses-5-11s-90-auckland-maori-fully-vaccinated-23-community-cases-6-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-30000-boosters-given-yesterday-103-community-cases-11-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-13000-boosters-given-yesterday-91-community-cases-10-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-22000-boosters-given-yesterday-126-community-cases-8-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-38000-boosters-given-yesterday-142-community-cases-6-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-36000-boosters-given-yesterday-147-community-cases-13-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/record-day-boosters-more-66000-doses-given-yesterday-243-community-cases-10-hospital-1-icu
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-48000-booster-doses-given-yesterday-208-community-cases-12-hospital-1-icu
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/almost-25000-booster-doses-waitangi-day-188-community-cases-14-hospital-1-icu
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-200000-paediatric-doses-and-over-16-million-boosters-now-given-202-community-cases-14-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/big-boost-week-kicks-all-dhbs-reach-90-fully-vaccinated-pacific-peoples-204-community-cases-16
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-56000-boosters-given-yesterday-306-community-cases-12-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-50000-boosters-given-yesterday-446-community-cases-23-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-57000-boosters-given-yesterday-454-community-cases-27-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-49000-boosters-given-yesterday-810-community-cases-32-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-20000-boosters-given-yesterday-981-community-cases-39-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-47000-boosters-given-yesterday-744-community-cases-40-hospital
• https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/more-two-million-boosters-given-1160-community-cases-56-hospital

The following chart shows the total number of Covid-19 hospitalisations by vaccination status each day in New Zealand between 25th Jan 22 and 16th Feb 22 –

As you can see, every single day has seen the fully vaccinated account for the vast majority of Covid-19 hospitalisations, and as of the 16th Feb 22 things look like they are getting progressively worse for the fully vaccinated but improving for the unvaccinated. 

 On the 25th Jan 22 just 6 people were hospitalised with Covid-19, with the fully vaccinated accounting for 5 hospitalisations, and the unvaccinated accounting for 1 hospitalisation. 

But by the 16th Feb 22, there were 25 people hospitalised with Covid-19, with the fully vaccinated accounting for 23 hospitalisations, and the unvaccinated population accounting for just 2 hospitalisations. The following chart shows the percentage of Covid-19 hospitalisations by vaccination status in New Zealand between 25th Jan 22 and 16th Feb 22 –

Six of the 19 days have seen the fully vaccinated account for 100% of Covid-19 hospitalisations, this is despite approximately 79% of the New Zealand population being considered fully vaccinated. 

The most recent 2 days of data has seen the fully vaccinated account for 90% of hospitalisations on the 15th Feb and 92% of hospitalisations on the 16th Feb 22. 

 The New Zealand Ministry of Health has refused to publish the number of Covid-19 deaths by vaccination status, but we think it’s plain to see by the very limited data they have quietly published on Covid-19 hospitalisations, that the country is very much in the midst of a Pandemic of the Fully Vaccinated, and it looks like Covid-19 vaccination has offered zero benefit in preventing hospitalisation. In fact, from the numbers given it appears vaccination has made things worse.

Are British hospitals overwhelmed?

Is the NHS overwhelmed by 

incoming COVID-19 patients?

Ludovic Noble

Off-Guardian,

28 January, 2021

A woman was arrested in her home after she posted a video of herself wandering around an apparently empty Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. The video appears to conflict with the impression left by the mainstream media: that hospitals are full with COVID-19 patients and can’t cope.

It appears to conflict with the reports of doctors and nurses who are insisting that they are indeed busy and are working overwhelmingly long shifts to keep up with the added stress caused by COVID-19. So what’s going on?

The answer appears to be complicated. Here’s a summary of the situation according to the data:

Hospitals are overwhelmed but not due to an influx of COVID-19 patients.

They are overwhelmed because the NHS is already overwhelmed and has reduced bed capacity and are sending people home who test positive for COVID-19.

The number of people with COVID-19 in hospitals is large but the number of people coming into hospitals with COVID-19 is about the same (a bit worse) as a bad flu season.

According to the NHS official spreadsheet Beds Time-series 2010-11 onwards (XLS, 93KB) (download here), the overnight bed occupancy rate is actually lower than in previous years [1].

The reason why is more or less explained in this BBC article: beds are being removed so that the remaining beds can be spaced out to prevent infection.

The reason why staff are so busy, despite there actually being fewer patients in hospital than normal, is because of the measures being taken to prevent infection spreading. This involves sending doctors and nurses home when they test positive for COVID-19, making them go through anti-infection procedures and, as mentioned, reducing the total number of available beds so that they can be spaced out (the total number of overnight beds was reduced by about 10,000 in this period).

In addition, the NHS is already an overwhelmed health system. Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM), said in 2016:

The volume of patients and disease severity is so much that we are now functioning at the edge of what is possible.

 In 2018, the Guardian reported:

four in five intensive care units (ICUs) are having to send patients to other hospitals as a result of chronic bed and staff shortages.

It is plausible, therefore, that reducing the capacity of beds and sending staff home would make the NHS even more overwhelmed than it was before. The question now is: Are incoming COVID-19 patients contributing in a significant way to the overwhelming of the NHS?

According to this NHS official spreadsheet January 2021 COVID Publication (XLSX, 12.8MB) (download here), the number of people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 daily in England was about 300 at the start of November. It reached about 1,000 in early January [2].

This number of people being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 is comparable to the number of people admitted to hospital with the flu during a bad flu year. I couldn’t find official data on historic flu admissions. However, if we use this BBC article as a reference:

around 5,000 people were admitted to hospital with flu in the first week of January [in 2018].

2018 was a bad flu year. The number of people being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in England during this winter has reached about 1,000 people a day, so about 7,000 people a week. 2018 was a bad flu year, so we can say this year is comparable (a bit worse) to a bad flu year.

In conclusion, the NHS is overwhelmed but not because the public are being hospitalised with SARS-CoV-2 at an extraordinary rate. The NHS is overwhelmed because (1) it is already an overwhelmed system and (2) the hospitals are working at a reduced capacity.

Of course, this discussion introduces more questions, namely, would the hospitalisation rate be higher if it weren’t for the restrictions and, regardless, does the possibility of the NHS being overwhelmed justify these restrictions? It is not the aim of this article to answer these questions.

Notes & Sources

1. The occupancy rate of overnight beds is usually around 85%.
   However, it was at 50% at 2020/21 Q1 and 70% at 2020/21 Q2. In otherwords: The have been proportionally fewer people in hospital at the endof 2020 and start of 2021 than in previous years. [[BACK]]
2. If you use this spreadsheet Daily Admissions and Beds 21 January2021 (XLSX, 164KB) on the same page you may be led to believe that
   the number of people being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 daily in
   England has been around 4,000. However, this is the number of
   admissions and “diagnoses in hospital.” [[BACK]

Children become targets too in Ukraine

Shells hit hospital as Ukrainian army resumes strike on Slavyansk

RT,

30 May, 2014

Kiev’s troops renewed the shelling of Slavyansk on Friday morning, residents told RT. A local children's hospital and a clinic came under fire. There are no reports of injuries.

“This morning they hit the children’s policlinic in the center of the city and the reception ward of the children’s hospital. It was at 5 am,” Vladimir, a Slavyansk resident, told RT.

“The hospital and the policlinic stand close to each other. The hospital was damaged worse than the policlinic,” another resident said. “There were no victims.”

image from vkontakte by user Yarik Musaev

There were some children staying in the hospital at the time of the attack. They were all taken to the building’s basement for cover after the shelling started, said Olga, a nurse working there.

“I’ve worked here for 30 years, and I never thought I would have to come to a ruin to do my job. That’s our government and our ‘valorous’ Ukrainian troops for you,” she said.

Kiev said it did not use artillery on Friday and claimed that it was the militia, who trained their own guns on the hospital to put the blame on the Ukrainian military.

Troops loyal to Kiev intensified the military crackdown on the militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in mid-April. They are using artillery, aviation and armor in a bid to take control of the restive region.

The military operation in eastern Ukraine will continue until the region“can live and function normally and the people are calm,” acting Defense Minister Mikhail Koval stated on Friday.

Slavyansk has been in the focus of the confrontation, which has claimed dozens of lives, both among the belligerents and local civilians 

СЛАВЯНСК @Sloviansk

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Детская больница после утреннего обстрела. 30.05.2014 #Славянск

7:15 после полудня - 30 мая 2014

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Детская больница после утреннего обстрела. 30.05.2014 #Славянск

7:16 после полудня - 30 мая 2014

The militias are holding off the attacks through a combination of guerrilla tactics and weapons seized from the Ukrainian troops. They scored a major success on Thursday, when they shot down a helicopter carrying one of Kiev’s generals.

Some people in Slavyansk believe that Kiev’s troops will now retaliate for the general’s death and devastate the city.

7 children injured in 

Slavyansk as Ukrainian 

army shells residential area

RT,

30 May, 2014

Seven children were hurt as the Ukrainian military shelled the city of Slavyansk, a stronghold of the protesters, in the country’s South East on Friday night, Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, said.

“According to the public health department of the Donetsk regional administration, seven children were injured by bullets and shrapnel during the bombardment by the Ukrainian army,” Astakhov wrote on Twitter.

Self-defense forces in Slavyansk say the Ukrainian military shelled the town’s residential area during the night, with one of the shells hitting a children’s hospital.

 

May 30th combat SITREP by "Juan"

Sporadic and heavy at times fighting around Slavyansk and the outlying villages on 29 May with no notable successes for the Nats Army and national guard units. Some losses reported for the national guard units.

2. A half battery of Grad missile launchers, BM-21, is in position within range of Mariupol. As of this morning that unit has not fired. Range of Grad missile is up to 35 kilometers.

3. A half battery of Grad missile launchers is in position within range of Slavyansk.

4. I have no positive verification of a Grad missile attack on Slavyansk. This does not mean an attack did not occur. Something very large and multiple did hit the outskirts of an outlying village but I have no source at the impact spots to verify what the impacts were.

5. Sources report that the Donbas Army action at Donetsk Airport was a trap involving proposed negotiations with certain Ukraine Army units under the auspices of a western organization in Donetsk at that time. Sources report that shortly after the negotiations started the Ukraine Army sent in by air strong reinforcements to their unit in airport as the Ukraine Army units in airport attacked the Donbas Army unit.

6. The transport of the Donbas Army wounded in convoy out of the airport area late Monday evening was arranged as a truce to succor the wounded. The two Kamaz transport trucks were each flying a red cross flag and a white flag of truce. They drove in to an ambush set up by right sector/national guard units. The drivers of both trucks were killed. One truck overturned after striking a curb. The other truck was hit by an RPG round. The surviving wounded were killed by right sector on the spot. As the wounded were being killed the two flags were removed from each truck by right sector operatives.

7. Partisan activity has started 3 days ago in Kharkov Oblast around Kharkov City among other areas targeting national guard/right sector units. 29 May losses to two national guard/right sector units were heavy in ambushes.

8. Vostok Battalion 29 May started an operation around Donetsk Administration Building of the Donbas Republic to stop looting by certain Donbas Army members after strong complaints from citizens. Metro supermarket near the airport was heavily looted by Donbas Army members as were several other shops and stores and much of the loot was stored in 3 tents in the area of Donbas Administration Building, one tent having the contents and perpetrators shown on video. Reports are 7 looters were arrested and are awaiting trial. Reports from Ukraine and west media that the looters were shot are false.

9. After the anti looting operation was completed Vostok Battalion had the square in front of Donbas Administration Building cleared of the barricades to provide access for citizens to the facility and to facilitate easier defense of the area in the event of a Ukraine attack.

10. Civilian casualties in Donbas are mounting with the random artillery attacks by units of the Ukraine Army and national guard/right sector. 29 May saw 8 civilians killed in Donbas and a like number of wounded. Some of these casualties were caused by air burst antipersonnel rounds fired from howitzers of the Ukraine Army. Targets are living areas with flats buildings with no visible Donbas Army units in the areas.

12. Families of mobilized Ukraine Army reservists held a large demonstration in Kiev at the Ukraine Parliament Building demanding the return of their husbands and sons. By Ukraine law reservists can not be mobilized for more than 45 days without a declaration of war against another sovereign state by Ukraine. This declaration of war has not been made. Kiev has ordered the mobilization extended indefinitely.

13. One of the two Ukrainian helicopters shot down on 29 May was carrying the commanding general of the 'national guard' who was also 'the commander of field operations for national guard units'.

14. Ukraine has rejected the offer of humanitarian aid from Russian Federation for the two Oblasti of Donetsk and Lugansk.

15. An attempt on 29 May to evacuate children from certain areas of Slavyansk was unsuccessful. Ukraine Army units blockading the city refused passage to the buses carrying the children.

16. A refugee processing center has been set up in the Federal City of Sevastopol of the Russian Federation to aid in the settlement of refugees arriving from areas of fighting in Ukraine. Several hundred refugees have arrived in Sevastopol as of 17:00 29 May and are being housed and fed in the city. A like number are being succored in Simferopol, the capitol of the Autonomous Republic of Krimea of the Russian Federation. A processing center is schedule to be set up 30 May in Simferopol to help the refugees. More refugees are expected in both cities. A like facility for refugees will be set up in the eastern Krimea city of Kerch if needed.

Postscript

Seemyovka, Slavyansk, Kromatorsk and Donetsk City are under heavy artillery bombardment and aircraft  bombing attacks for 2 hours and continuing. Civilian areas targeted. Civilian casualties are mounting, Donbas Army casualties unknown. 

Data provided 25 Brigade located on Karachun Mountain overlooking Slavyansk has been order to fire Grad systems early morning 31 May 2014 in full salvo. 3 launchers in place. Commander refused the order and was removed.

Systems have been zeroed in and are ready to fire. Intent is 'flatten Slavyansk'.

Source is reliable but not 100% verified

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