NOW HOSPITALS RATION OXYGEN

... as one in four Covid admissions are for patients under age of 55

HOSPITALS started rationing oxygen yesterday as Professor Chris Whitty warned the NHS is entering the worst weeks of the pandemic.

The grave development came as it emerged one in four of those now in hospital with coronavirus is under 55.

One NHS trust in Essex said its oxygen supplies had reached a ‘critical point’ and told staff to reduce the amount they use to treat patients. Doctors in London have also been asked to conserve oxygen to prevent hospitals running out.

Boris Johnson said the shortages highlighted how the NHS has ‘a really tough fight on our hands’.

He said: ‘[Vaccination] is a race against time because we can all see the threat that our NHS faces, the pressure it’s under, the demand in intensive care units, the pressure on ventilated beds, even a shortage of oxygen in some places.’

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust wrote to staff at Southend Hospital telling them the target of oxygen saturation had been reduced from 92 per cent to between 88 and 92 per cent.

It said any patients who are above 92 per cent should ‘immediately’ be weaned off oxygen.

The letter added: ‘ We have reached a critical situation with oxygen supply. It is imperative we use oxygen safely and efficiently.’

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said other hospitals had experienced similar shortages – in some cases meaning they had to transfer patients to neighbouring hospitals.

Latest NHS data shows there are a record 32,070 Covid patients in English hospitals, up 81 per cent from Christmas Day and 53 per cent higher than the peak of 18,669 during the first wave. Around 4,000 a day are being admitted with Covid19. On a normal winter day there would be around 1,000 admissions for respiratory illnesses.

Professor Whitty, the chief medical officer, said this winter ‘is in a completely different league’ to normal. He said: ‘The next few weeks are going to be the worst weeks of this pandemic in terms of numbers into the NHS.’

Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, said the number of patients being admitted is unlikely to reduce before next month.

‘As the vaccination programme builds momentum, we will inevitably begin to see a reduction in hospitalisation, but we’re not going to see that now, we’re not going to see it next week or the week after, it won’t be until we get to February that we will start to see the early signs of it,’ he said.

Head of the NHS Sir Simon Stevens told MPs that a growing number of the patients hospitalinfected ised with coronavirus are under 55 ‘so this is something we have to take extremely seriously’. He warned the public accounts committee that in many parts of the country the virus ‘is spreading out of control’ with up to one in 15 in parts of London. ‘If you look across other regions of England the issue is that coronavirus is once again on the rise,’ he said.

‘In Merseyside in just the last week there has been a further 50 per cent increase in the number of Covid hospitalisations. So this is a very serious moment for the country and for the NHS.

‘It’s worth remembering that this affects all ages – a quarter of the Covid admissions to hospital right now are for people aged under 55.’

Professor Whitty also rebuked senior NHS doctors who are continuing with non-urgent private work, saying: ‘I certainly think that this is a point in time when medical professionals should be trying to prioritise what they do for the sickest patients, who aren’t all people who have got Covid.’

NHS bosses in London have criticised private hospitals and doctors for failing to cancel non-urgent operations as hospitals are forced to postpone cancer surgery.

They wrote to hospitals asking them ‘not to support’ private work for the next month due to the ‘unthinkable pressure’ on the NHS. The letter said: ‘It feels profoundly uncomfortable to us that some elective work... is continuing in the independent sector.’

Almost all non-emergency NHS surgery has been cancelled in London, including hundreds of cancer operations.

‘Spreading out of control’