1 in 8 await treatment as jabs grind to a halt
Pressure on hospitals soaring as entire areas refuse vaccine
It’s happening because we have a deprived and diverse population who have a very high vaccine hesitancy. Richard Beeken, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust
ONE in eight people in Birmingham and Solihull are currently waiting for medical treatment, as the vaccine rollout in some areas has come to a standstill.
NHS figures show that in the Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group area, 173,173 people await treatment as the knock-on effect of the pandemic is laid bare.
Of those, 19,000 require treatment from trauma and orthopaedic services while 16,800 require ophthalmology treatment.
Another 16,800 are waiting for treatment from ear, nose and throat services.
Medics have warned that health services are under massive strain, and expressed concern about the Government’s plan to end the final stages of lockdown on July 19.
Separate NHS figures show that the number of people in hospital due to Covid is already increasing.
Richard Beeken, chief executive at Sandwell and West Birmingham hospitals NHS Trust, this week told staff in an internal message that urgent cancer care could be hit next because of the surge in cases.
And yet, despite the warnings, thousands of people are holding out from getting a jab.
He told his staff that 600 people under 40 were called on a single day last week urging them to take their first jab – yet all but ten refused to make an appointment.
He said the worryingly low vaccination rates locally, in deprived and diverse area, were linked to the number of people getting very sick and ending up in hospitals.
In Birmingham alone, latest data shows that up to July 6 a staggering 360,000 had still not yet taken up the first jab offer, with over half a million not yet fully vaccinated.
As has been the case since the rollout began, vaccine take-up is lowest among some of the city’s black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnicities.
Locally, medics and scientists say there is now an unmistakable link between vaccination status and severity of illness if you catch the virus.
There are now more than 70 Covid positive patients in City and Sandwell hospitals, and 130 more in the UHB trust’s Queen Elizabeth, Heartlands and Good Hope hospitals. These include around 30 in intensive care.
That was a big leap from the start of July, when UHB hospitals had around 22 Covid-positive cases.
Mr Beeken told staff in an email: “We are in the teeth of a growing local crisis in Covid and urgent care pressures. As I write this blog, we have over 60 inpatients with a Covid diagnosis, eight of whom are critically unwell.
“Our ITU is full and our ability to switch amber beds to red beds is hampered by having a high bed occupancy.
“We are the busiest trust in the Midlands region on Covid, when expressed relative to size of the organisation.
“Our urgent cancer surgery programme is possibly under threat as a result.
“It’s happening because we have a deprived and diverse population who have a very high vaccine hesitancy.
“Of over 600 calls made to under 40-year-olds yesterday to encourage their vaccination, fewer than 10 agreed to a vaccination appointment.
“If you aren’t vaccinated, you have no protection and are at increased risk of getting very ill as a result.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed on Monday that the Government would go ahead with lifting lockdown restrictions on July 19.
It means, for example, that instead of receiving table service in pubs and bars, drinkers will now be free to stand and to queue up at bars.
Laws requiring people to wear
facemasks on public transport and in shops will come to an end, although the Prime Minister said he and his Government “expect and recommend” that people wear a face covering in crowded and enclosed spaces.
In recent weeks, Mr Johnson has said that ending lockdown restrictions would be “irreversible”.
But he did not use that word on Monday, and asked whether a lockdown could be reintroduced he said he would “rule nothing out”.
If the Prime Minister appears less confident about the future it may be because scientific advisers are warning of a summer wave of infections causing thousands more deaths.
Minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), the official body advising the government, show scientists believe the number of new Covid hospital admissions nationwide is likely to reach “at least” 1,000 each day, up from around 400 per day at the moment.
But they added: “Under more pessimistic assumptions, some scenarios show a resurgence of that scale or larger.