WINTER PLANNING IS UNDERWAY AS COVID-19 CASES ‘PLATEAU’
UHNM has seen five virus deaths in 10 days
THE number of coronavirus patients being admitted to Staffordshire’s main hospital has now ‘plateaued’ – following a recent resurgence in cases.
University Hospitals of North Midlands was treating 17 Covidpositive patients at the end of September, having been completely coronvirus-free just two weeks earlier.
On September 26, the trust had its first Covid-19 death in nearly two months, and there have been a further four deaths since then.
But chief executive Tracy Bullock, above, told yesterday’s UHNM board meeting that new admissions had now stabilised, and that the increase had been in line with the rise in cases in the community.
Ms Bullock said: “Initially, in response to what was happening in the community, we started to see a rise in the number of patients that were being admitted to hospital who were Covid-positive.
“But similarly to the national and local picture, that does now seem to have plateaued and we’re not seeing, at this moment in time, any further rise in the number of Covid-positive patients in our hospital.
“However, planning and preparation continues to be underway, and is being incorporated into our winter planning.
“A signficant part of our plan is around staff resilience and wellbeing. We know that staff are tired. We know they’ve been through the first surge, and we’ve been pushing staff incredibly hard around recovery and restoration of services.”
UHNM submitted its latest postlockdown recovery and restoration plans to NHS England last month.
Ms Bullock told the board that UHNM would not be required to halt all non-urgent care, as happened during the first wave of Covid-19. She said: “Obviously since we submitted the plan we have seen the Covid resurgence. One of the things that we know we will not be asked to do is a blanket cessation of elective and planned activity that was asked for previously. “We’re quite pleased that we can make local decisions, and as far as we’re concerned UHNM will continue with business as usual until we absolutely cannot retain or sustain the amount of activity we’re doing.”
In August, UHNM had 931 patients who had been waiting 52 weeks or more for treatment. This figure is predicted to grow to 3,701 by March.
Chief operating officer Paul Bytheway said the trust was looking at ways of reducing the number of people how have to wait a long time, including freeing up space for orthopaedic cases at County Hospital in Stafford.
Trust chairman David Wakefield raised concerns over whether recovery and restoration would be affected by the number of staff absent due to coronavirus, including those isolating because of a family member testing positive.
He said: “We still have a relatively large number of staff who are off due to Covid.
“Twenty per cent of our absences are probably Covid-related, and the winter hasn’t hit yet, so I’m a bit nervous and I wonder how you’re feeding that into your preparations.”
Ms Bullock said the proportion of Covid-related absences had fallen from a peak of 70 per cent at the height of the pandemic.
She added: “We are looking at, as the workforce diminishes, how that will impact on our recovery and restoration. What we cannot answer is at what stage that will trigger elective activity having to cease.
“There are a number of other dynamics that will impact on that, one of which will be the number of Covidpositive patients that we get.”