Hospitals across the UK are cancelling routine operations again as a second wave of coronavirus patients begins to fill wards.
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is ‘scaling back’ planned procedures, with bosses telling staff things had reached a ‘critical point’ on Monday.
The Belfast Health Trust cancelled all elective procedures this week, while University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust announced on Tuesday it was ‘temporarily pausing’ non-critical planned surgery at Derriford Hospital.
Meanwhile, medics in Leeds have warned hospitals are ‘very close’ to having to strip back non-coronavirus services, while Greater Manchester experts have witnessed an eight-fold increase in the number of patients admitted.
It comes as the UK records more than 100 deaths for the first time in four months, amid reports Boris Johnson will soon introduce a ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown.
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Plymouth’s chief operating officer Kevin Baber apologised to patients in a statement this week, saying wards must be ‘reconfigured’ to ‘keep everyone safe’.
He said: ‘Due to a growing number of Covid patients and a need to ensure we can keep everyone safe we continue to temporarily pause non-critical inpatient surgery at Derriford Hospital.
‘Please note that surgery for patients attending the hospital as day cases, without needing an overnight stay, is still going ahead for most patients.’
Mr Baber added: ‘We have to ensure patients who have suspected or confirmed Covid are safely cared for away from those patients without Covid. This involves reconfiguring our wards to ensure everyone remains safe.’
Victoria Eaton, Leeds director of public health has admitted hospitals in the city have a ‘huge backlog’ of people who ‘desperately need surgery’.
She said staff are ‘committed’ to going ahead with as many treatments as possible, as NHS bosses look into ‘how we save the most lives, directly or indirectly, from Covid’.
Ms Eaton has cautioned it will be ‘incredibly challenging’ to find enough workers to staff Manchester, Sunderland and Harrogate Nightingale hospitals, which have all been put on standby.
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Steve Warburton has sent a memo to staff saying the trust is taking a ‘phased approach’ to cutting back planned procedures and is exploring options with other providers in alternative locations.
He said: ‘We will continue to prioritise surgery based on clinical need, with a view to maintaining urgent and cancer surgery where possible.
‘We will continue to maintain access to outpatient appointments wherever possible, and maintain diagnostic activity.’
Dr Jane Eddleston, an intensive care consultant at Manchester Royal Infirmary, has revealed she has seen a three-fold increase in the number of patients admitted to intensive care in the last five weeks, with the north-west suffering ‘about 40% of Covid-19 cases’.
She said: ‘The situation at the moment is that 30% of our critical care beds are taken up with patients with Covid and this is starting to impact on the services we provide for other patients.’
Meanwhile, NHS England’s medical director Professor Stephen Powis has warned hospitals in the north-west and north-east could end up treating more patients than they did during the height of the first wave.
He said: ‘Liverpool University Hospital has the highest number of Covid-19 patients, currently more than 250 patients with Covid in its beds and in the last four weeks, hospitals in the North West and the North East have witnessed a seven-fold increase in Covid patients in their intensive care units.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/14/hospitals-across-uk-are-cancelling-operations-as-wards-fill-with-covid-patients-13418396/