‘Fragile’ hospitals are struggling to cope, claims MP
CRISIS ‘REALLY EXPOSING SYSTEM THAT WAS ALREADY ON THE EDGE’
HOSPITALS in Greater Manchester are struggling to keep their head above water due to the volume of Covid patients, an MP has said.
Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West and Royton, warned that the region’s health care system is in a ‘fragile’ position, despite a fall in the number of Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.
The Shadow Transport Secretary said intensive care units are still packed with coronavirus patients – and said not enough is being done to articulate ‘the crisis going on’ in Greater Manchester hospitals.
It comes as an investigation by the Sunday Times’
Insight team revealed that at least one intensive care ward in Manchester reached full capacity by the last week of October due to the number of Covid patients, quoting a doctor who said patients were dying ‘without getting access to life-saving ventilation’.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, the Oldham MP said: “The second spike came and has seemed to affect the over 60s which is when you start seeing more hospital admissions.
“I think hospitals in Greater Manchester are really struggling to keep their head above water at the moment.”
At Oldham Royal Hospital on Sunday, December 13, there were 98 patients with Covid-19 and 13 intensive care beds were occupied, according to data provided to local leaders.
“That number is coming down but it is nowhere near where we need to be,” McMahon said.
“We are not doing enough to articulate the crisis going on in our hospitals and the situation is Greater Manchester is extremely fragile. Covid is really exposing a system that was already on the edge.”
The Manchester Evening News reported last week that patients at Royal Oldham were having to wait on trolleys for up to 12 hours as coronavirus pressures continue to mount.
A need for stringent infection control measures has exacerbated an existing lack of space at the hospital, leading to a deficit of beds.
It is understood that on one day last week health bosses planned for a deficit of 71 beds, although this number will fluctuate as patients leave or don’t turn up for treatment.
David Jago, chief officer at The Royal Oldham, told a meeting of the
Northern Care Alliance (NCA) that prior to the pandemic there had been a shortage of 20 beds, but this has now risen.
A Covid doctor in Manchester, who wished for his identity and the hospital he works at to remain anonymous, told the Sunday Times that from the end of October onwards a “good 70 to 80 per cent of Covid patients” who needed intensive care were denied it.
This included a 31-year-old female patient who died after being admitted to a hospital in Greater Manchester with Covid-19 at the end of October, he added.
“She didn’t get the care she needed and she passed away,” the doctor claimed.
But David Levy, medical director for the NHS in the North West, said the accusation that patients were denied care they needed was ‘simply wrong.’
“Everybody in Manchester and indeed across the country who would have benefited from Covid treatment has been offered it throughout the pandemic,” he said.
The number of Covid-19 admissions into hospitals across the country almost doubled between October and November, going from 24,848 to 41,218.
At the same time the region’s leaders were negotiating the terms of Tier 3 restrictions in October, some hospital trusts were already starting to run out of beds, the M.E.N previously revealed.
A leaked report warned that most trusts in Greater Manchester were at 90pc capacity in ICU at the beginning of November.
Hospitals in Wigan and Stockport were also forced to cancel some non-urgent procedures as a result of pressures on general bed capacity.
A government spokesperson said: “At each stage of the pandemic, we have sought to suppress the virus whilst protecting people’s jobs, livelihoods and the economy.
“As the chief medical officer has argued, the idea that there is a perfect time to act is a complete misapprehension.”