Region faces ‘hardest winter’ in history – doc
‘SECOND VIRUS SPIKE WILL HAPPEN’
A North East doctor has said the NHS is heading for the hardest winter in its history as he warned a second wave of Covid-19 would “likely be worse than the first”.
North Tyneside GP Dr George Rae said he believes a second spike of coronavirus “will happen” as he called on the public “not to get complacent”.
It comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that a new spike in Covid-19 cases is “clearly” beginning to emerge in Europe and said “we’ve got to do everything” to prevent it reaching the UK.
Dr Rae, the British Medical Association’s (BMA) North East chair, said: “I do think it will happen, I think very unfortunately we have come out of lockdown, there was still a lot of positive Covid-19 results when we came out of lockdown.
“When speaking to doctors it has been felt we really needed to have the infection rate a lot lower before we came out of lockdown.”
The medic said that when winter arrives, the NHS will need to tackle a backlog of care, treat Covid patients, deal with the seasonal flu and prepare for further local or national outbreaks of coronavirus.
He said: “If there is a second wave, the NHS will rise to the occasion, but it’s not inconceivable that we could have an epidemic of influenza, be dealing with Covid-19 and the backlog in the NHS.
“To then get another outbreak of Covid-19 – if we think it’s been difficult up to now, viruses spread more significantly in the winter.
“If there was a second wave this would be the hardest winter there’s been in my career. To have to contend with a second wave, which would likely be worse than the first, and working through all the other things. Everybody within the NHS has done all we can, but we’re human beings and many of my colleagues are tired.”
Dr Rae welcomed the “long overdue” measures to give local councils powers to close shops, outdoor events and public spaces.
But he called for it to be underpinned with “adequate resources, clear local data, and a well-managed test, track and trace system,” saying the Government’s record has “so far not been good”.
Dr Rae said: “The North East has consistently had one of the highest infection rates in the country throughout the pandemic.
“In our area, there are significant areas of deprivation, and when that happens, as we’ve seen in Oldham and Blackburn, that’s where you can get the spike, maybe because there are lots of people living in one house, or they have jobs that are bringing them into contact with the public and can’t be done from home.
“That’s something we’ve really got to be aware of – we don’t want to have a situation where Newcastle or Sunderland is being locked down.”