Hospitals reaching crisis point

Frontline medics say things are getting worse:

DOCTORS in Greater Manchester fear the impact of Christmas mixing and a fast-spreading variant of coronavirus will soon lead to chaos in hospitals.

Exhausted medics based in a coronavirus ward and in A&E told the M.E.N they are facing a range of mounting challenges.

Over the past couple of weeks, cases have been rising sharply in all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester, although latest figures show lockdown has started to slightly slow this down.

More than 12,700 people tested positive for coronavirus in the region in the week ending January 8, according to Public Health England.

An increase in people falling seriously ill with coronavirus means many planned operations have been cancelled to free up hospital beds.

Andy Ennis, Chief Operating Officer at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “As always at this time of year, our hospital is extremely busy and this has caused delays at times.

“Our staff are working incredibly hard to make sure that our patients receive timely care as much as possible.

“Infection rates are still on the rise in Bolton and, as a result, we are seeing an increase in the number of patients who need to be admitted to hospital with Covid-19.

“We know that 20 to 49-year-olds are the biggest group by far to be infected with the virus at the moment so we would ask everyone to think like they have Covid, to increase our chances of being able to stop the virus from spreading.

“Unfortunately, we have had to take the decision to postpone all planned, non-urgent operations at our hospital.

“This is not a decision that has been taken lightly but we must do all that we can to keep people safe and at this current time, this includes limiting the number of people coming into the hospital for treatment.

“We know how difficult this is for patients and their families, especially if they have already been waiting some time for treatment, which is why we have tried to keep everything going for as long as we could.

“Urgent treatments, including cancer operations, continue to take priority and go ahead as normal and as soon as we are in a position to restart our non-urgent operations, we will.”

A spokesman for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) said: “Due to the increase in Covid-19 cases, MFT has had to take the difficult decision to cancel some planned operations.

“This decision has not been taken lightly and we appreciate how distressing this will be for individual patients. We have written to patients and their GPs.

“Anyone who needs urgent or emergency care must continue to attend through emergency and urgent care departments or by dialing 111.”