INTENSIVE CARE UNIT BEDS NOW AT 180% OF NORMAL CAPACITY AND ‘NEAR SURGE LIMIT’

CRITICAL care beds at North Wales’ major hospitals are currently running at almost 180% of normal capacity.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s primary and community service director, Dr Chris Stockport, broke the news in a stark update during Thursday’s meeting of the North Wales health board when he outlined the current situation.

Dr Stockport said that across the three main hospitals in the region, a total of 64 critical care beds are being used – almost 80% above the usual 36 available.

Critical care beds across Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor, Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Bodelwyddan and

Wrexham ‘s Maelor hospital have also reached 90% of the board’s “surge capacity” - the amount of extra beds laid on to help meet high demand - leaving 10% currently available.

He said the worst rates of infection had been recorded in the east of the region, predominantly in Wrexham and Flintshire.

Wrexham’s Maelor hospital is currently seeing the most inpatients admitted weekly – around 60 this week and the same number last week.

Dr Stockport warned that despite what appears to be a levelling off of new infections, hospital admissions attributed to coronavirus would continue to rise “for a number of weeks”.

He said: “I am concerned the Covid admissions in the last couple of weeks to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and Ysbyty Gwynedd are rising and that’s something we will have to keep a close eye on.”

Dr Stockport said that although half of all hospital admissions involved patients over the age of 70, admissions were not just limited to older people and warned young people if they thought they were not at risk from the virus they were “simply wrong”.

Dr Stockport revealed a “disproportionate number of patients” were being looked after at Wrexham Maelor where more than a third of the 284 inpatients are currently being treated for Covid.

The prolonged pandemic was also affecting staff, with the largest number of health staff testing positive for Covid found in the east of the region.

The availability of around 280 staff is affected by shielding advice, further depleting numbers on call.

Because of the pressures on the eastern area of the health board, some planned care had been moved from Wrexham Maelor to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and Ysbyty Gwynedd for a two-week period, with staff redeployed.

The situation will be reviewed on Monday next week.

Dr Stockport praised the work of critical care teams as he revealed in excess of 20 patients had spent more than three weeks in the board’s intensive therapy units (ITU).

He said: “It has been a phenomenal response from the intensive care and respiratory therapy teams.

“They have witnessed some tragic stories which takes a psychological toll – 16 people under the age of 40 have been in critical care.

“Staff have been engaged in 18 national and international research trials at the same time.

“If you need critical care you will receive some of the best critical care anywhere in the world in North Wales.”