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One of London’s largest hospitals strives to convert operating theaters and stroke wards into intensive care units as the number of critically ill Covid-19 patients rises far beyond those seen during the first wave of the pandemic.
Hospital workers told the Guardian that admissions to the trust had already exceeded levels seen in the first wave of the pandemic in the spring.
Intensive care matron Elaine Thorpe said she and her colleagues installed 20 new intensive care beds on Christmas Eve, which were full on New Years Eve.
She told The Guardian: “The most important thing for me is that I am terribly worried about my team. Nurses need to spread thinly. We’re going back to where we were before, where there was an ICU nurse looking after four or more patients. And we’ve already had a lot of tears.
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The 500-bed hospital had 220 Covid patients as of Thursday, with the number increasing 5% per day, according to the newspaper.
However, the real pressure is on intensive care where there are now 70 critically ill patients, and the number is growing rapidly, explained University College London (UCLH) Hospitals Managing Director Marcel Levi.
“This is a lot more than what we had in March and April,” Prof Levi said, adding that the university hospital was receiving admissions from other hospitals that were less able to cope.
Whitechapel Hospital has more than 90 patients in adult intensive care units and “the number of people with Covid continues to rise rapidly,” according to an email sent to workers.
More Covid-19 patients in English hospitals than April peak
Just under half of all major hospital trusts in England – 64 out of 140 – are seeing more Covid patients than at the peak of the pandemic’s spring wave. This includes 12 of the 19 acute trusts in South East England.
According to the latest NHS figures, 629 patients with symptoms of Covid-19 were admitted to London hospitals on December 27, 22 more than the day before and extending a steady upward curve in recent weeks.
Across London, the number of hospital beds filled with Covid-19 patients stood at 5,371 on December 29, more than 400 above the previous day’s total and nearly double the level on December 19.
Earlier this week, a senior doctor said trusts in London and the South East were considering the possibility of setting up tents outside hospitals – something normally reserved for sudden events such as terrorist attacks or industrial disasters – to sort out patients.
Special look inside NHS Nightingale hospital – In pictures
Newly established Nightingale Hospital intensive care wards at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Portrait of Matthew Trainer, Deputy CEO of the newly established Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Newly established Nightingale Hospital intensive care wards at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
The ventilator that will help save lives at the newly established Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Map of the identical layout of each ICU on the wards of the newly established Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Portrait of Dr Alan McGlennan, Medical Director of the New Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Newly established Nightingale Hospital intensive care wards at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
The ventilator that will help save lives at the newly established Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Newly established Nightingale Hospital intensive care wards at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Newly established Nightingale Hospital intensive care wards at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
The ventilator that will help save lives at the newly established Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Newly established Nightingale Hospital intensive care wards at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Newly established Nightingale Hospital intensive care wards at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
The ventilator that will help save lives at the newly established Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Center,
Matt Writtle
Newly established Nightingale Hospital intensive care wards at the Excel Center
Matt Writtle
Meanwhile, Nightingale emergency hospitals across England are “ready” for use if needed.
London’s NHS has been asked to ensure the Excel center site is ‘reactivated and ready to admit patients’ amid the struggle facing the city’s healthcare workers.
However, it is not only hospitals in the capital that are under increasing strain.
Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Critical Care School of Medicine, said she was concerned the additional demand in London had started to spread across the country.
When asked if the problems were becoming more ‘prevalent’, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Friday: ‘This is what seems to be happening.
“Everyone has seen what is happening in London and the pressure on both organizations and staff, and we fear it will be only a matter of time before it starts to build. spreading to other parts of the country, and we already are. start to see this.
“It’s really important that we try to stop transmission in the community because it results in hospitalizations.”
Dr Pittard said staff have become “tired and exhausted” due to the increased workload after a number of hectic months with coronavirus patients.
She added that moving patients to less frequented hospitals for intensive care was a “logistical nightmare” and took extra time for staff.
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Meanwhile, Adrian Boyle, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told BBC Breakfast that emergency medicine is trying to ‘go up to a crisis’, but added:’ How it’s going to be in both next few months, I don’t know, I’m worried. We are really at the combat posts.
“There will be short-term morale boosts, but people are tired, frustrated and tired, as everyone knows whether or not they work in the hospital.
“People who turn to emergency medicine expect it to be difficult from time to time. There is a real concern of burnout. “
He said there had been “a huge rally” in April and March, but maintaining it for long is uncertain as no one knows when the outbreak of cases will end.
Much of how these issues can be dealt with “depends on the public to start engaging, obeying the rules and doing social distancing and whatever they’re supposed to do,” he said. .
The director of the Royal College of Nursing for England, Mike Adams, said the country was in “the eye of the storm” and that the situation was “unsustainable”.
He told Sky News: “We have entered this pandemic with a huge shortage of healthcare workers, especially nurses.
“If you then add the exhaustion, the fatigue, the sickness rates that have started creeping in, this is the outcome that nobody wants, but it really is a last resort for people leaving their leave.
“In the long run, it will have a detrimental effect on workers, people need a break, they need to rest.
“So this is the eye of the storm and this is a situation that is not sustainable.”
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