Covid pressure has ‘taken its toll’ on NHS workers

HEALTH officials in Nottinghamshire have spoken out about why it is important to be cautious over the festive period, with people dying every day from Covid.

NHS and healthcare staff, as well as millions of other key workers, have been battling the constant pressures arising from the pandemic.

The new Omicron variant is now also a concern in healthcare sectors.

And the pandemic continues to have a knock-on effect in hospitals, with many operations pushed back, creating a lengthy backlog. And when Covid cases begin to spike again and more people are admitted to hospital it adds to the pressure.

Amanda Sullivan, accountable officer for the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “The NHS continues to operate under extreme pressures and the intensive care units continue to run with higher numbers of patients than before the pandemic.

“Staff have been working in really highly pressurised environments for nearly two years now and it has taken its toll on people’s wellbeing.

“The extreme pressures are a combination of three things. Firstly we continue to have significant numbers of people in hospital who are seriously or critically ill with Covid and this is starting to rise. Secondly, we are seeing more people come forward now with winter illnesses and conditions that have become worse during the pandemic.

“Thirdly we are dealing with a backlog of planned operations and other treatments that were deferred in earlier waves and we are very keen to keep as much as that going as we possibly can.

“It’s really clear that the best thing you can do to keep yourself safe from becoming seriously ill with Covid is to have your vaccines and then the booster.”

So far more than 1.7 million vaccines have been administered across the city and county, as well as 300,000 booster jabs. However there is still a significant number who are yet to get their jabs. And it is these people who are making up the majority of patients in critical care right now.

At the QMC and City Hospital there were currently 14 patients with coronavirus in critical care. Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, said 12 of those are unvaccinated.

In the week to December 5 there were 100 admissions to hospital with Covid, with 175 people in hospital beds as of December 7.

There has been a consistent 150 to 200 people with Covid taking up hospital beds, while 16 people died as a result of the virus in the week from December 2 to December 8.

“This is a big proportion of hospital beds taken up which would normally be occupied by people with other conditions so that is adding to the pressures,” Ms Sullivan added.

“That is a typical number of deaths in our area sadly so we are seeing on average more than one death a day, from Covid, it is a daily event that people are dying from Covid.

However, she added: “I am not aware of any Omicron cases in our hospitals.”