Hospital pressure is still increasing
HEALTH BOSSES WARN PEAK IS YET TO COME
HOSPITAL bosses in Nottinghamshire battling with the busiest-ever winter for the NHS fear Covid patient numbers will keep rising for weeks to come.
Dr David Selywn, medical director at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, said the county’s hospitals were still seeing rising numbers of over70s and over-80s with the disease.
His comments came as hospitals faced overwhelming demand with coronavirus patients in wards this winter.
Some general surgeries have had to be postponed during the busiest time for the health service as staff have to be moved to treat the sickest patients with the virus.
The county’s hospitals at the moment are having about 70 Covid deaths a week, which is likely to continue for another four or five weeks, health bosses have said.
“I think we’ll be nervous over the next two weeks about when that peak is going to be but we think we’re going to see more patients over those next two weeks,” Dr Selwyn said.
“The more concerning fact is really around the critical care capacity which is incredibly stretched.
“What we see is, even if the numbers peak, there’s a lag of usually around 10 days or so before patients actually deteriorate to needing critical care.
“We’ve got huge activity in our critical care units across the patch. We’re likely to see that increase as we get to the peak but there will be that slight delay.
“We all have got collective ownership of this pandemic but we also have personal responsibility and it’s up to us. There are very simple messages of hands face space and the lockdown rules.
“That’s not about ‘defeating’ the virus that’s just about containing numbers so that we can
all draw a breath and actually get back to some sort of stability.”
Speaking about the outlook for the rest of winter, Dr Keith Girling, medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals, pleaded with the public to keep following the guidelines and rules.
“I know it’s been really hard for everyone to maintain social distancing, wear masks and to lockdown and restrict their interactions with other people,” he told the Post.
“I appreciate that it’s hugely challenging on so many levels and very challenging for families and friends who haven’t been able to get close to each other for months on end.
“But this is so important. We know that lockdown and those measures really make a difference to the spread of the virus.
“Vaccination numbers are increasing and getting protection against the virus. But until we get those numbers high enough and to protect a big enough proportion, people really need to dig deep and help us and help each other by maintaining those measures as much as they possibly can for the next few weeks.”
Dr Andy Haynes, executive lead, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System, said:
“Our ICU capacity is maximally stretched – community services and care homes having to work very hard to keep the flow moving to free up hospital beds,” he said.
“All our partners are now into their surge plans and modelling shows admissions will continue to increase to a peak in our hospital occupancy in early February.
“There is some encouragement around infection rates that the position may improve in a couple of weeks’ time.
“Clearly the vaccination programme is very important in terms of decreasing the number of deaths – though at the moment we are sadly seeing about 70 deaths a week in the hospitals and that’s likely to continue for another four or five weeks.”
Richard Mitchell, chief executive of Sherwood Forest Hospitals, described January as a “tough old month”, relaying emotions including “anger, frustration and fatigue”.