[ad_1]
The UK’s busiest hospital is in “disaster medicine mode” and cannot provide “high-level critical care” because it is flooded with Covid-19 patients, it is claimed.
Dr Julia Grace Patterson, founder of the NHS Every Doctor UK campaign group, claimed on Twitter that the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel had sent an email to notify staff of the dire situation.
It comes a day after senior doctors at East London Hospital urged bosses to declare a major incident because staff were at a ‘breaking point’ as the number of coronavirus patients tripled by just five days, from 200 on Christmas Eve to 638 on Tuesday.
As hospitals across the UK come under increasing pressure during the devastating second wave of Covid-19, Dr Patterson tweeted: ‘From the Royal London Hospital, this email from management:’ We are now in disaster medicine mode.
“‘We no longer provide high-level critical care because we can’t.’ The content of this email is SHOCKING.”
Do you work at the Royal London Hospital or are you or a loved one a patient there? Send an email to [email protected].
(Image: PA)
Mirror Online has reached out to a hospital spokesperson for comment.
NHS hospitals in England are treating a record number of Covid-19 patients, and admissions in London have soared in recent days due to a new, more infectious variant of the disease.
Just under half of England’s major hospital funds currently have more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave of the virus, the latest figures show.
Nightingale hospitals in England are being ‘primed’ for use if necessary as the number of Covid patients increases.
This week, ambulances have been seen queuing outside hospitals, including the Royal London and Queen’s in Romford, both in east London, and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
(Image: PA)
Earlier on Thursday, NHS England reported an additional 529 deaths from coronavirus, including 106 in London.
A doctor from the Royal London emergency department said patients have been forced to wait more than 24 hours for a bed, as ER doctors and nurses were at a “breaking point”.
The number of Covid-19 patients in the hospital had increased by 200 in a matter of days, reaching a crisis point Sunday night when he was forced to open a new ward and treat adults in a pediatric ward, he reported. The Independent.
Some sick patients waited hours for an ambulance to arrive and gave up, taking a taxi to the hospital to avoid the queue.
The Royal London is said to have issued multiple major incident calls for staff to come to work on Sunday and Monday, urging the consultant to screen patients for discharge while dozens waited for beds to be free.
(Image: Press Association Images)
The doctor told The Independent on Wednesday: “We tried to get management to report a major incident. Ambulances were waiting three hours to unload patients and adult patients were being treated in the pediatric department because there was no space.”
“We run out of space [by] early evening and the patients had been waiting in the department for more than 24 hours. We had patients who waited hours for an ambulance, but in the end they got a taxi and they were very bad. “
“This is a great classic rising tide incident. The threat [of a major incident] Sunday night eased things and we turned two more neighborhoods to Covid, but never in all my years have I seen anything like this. It’s worse than March or April. “
Local authorities in Essex have declared a “major incident” as the number of coronavirus cases threatens to overwhelm health services in the county.
Just under half of England’s major hospital funds currently have more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave of the virus, the latest figures show.
Some 64 out of 140 NHS acute trusts registered a higher number of coronavirus patients at 8 a.m. on December 30 than at any time between mid-March and the end of May.
This includes 11 of the 14 acute trusts in the East of England and 12 of the 19 acute trusts in the South East of England.
The figures, which have been released on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard, also show that 42 of the 140 acute trusts had more Covid-19 patients on December 30 than at any time since the pandemic began.
(Image: Press Association Images)
Nightingale hospitals in England are “gearing up” for use if needed as the number of Covid patients increases.
The London NHS has been asked to ensure that the Excel center site is “reactivated and ready to admit patients” as hospitals in the capital struggle.
Other Nightingale hospitals in England include Manchester, Bristol, Sunderland, Harrogate, Exeter, and Birmingham.
In Nightingales, an NHS spokesperson said: “Hospitals in London are under significant pressure from high rates of Covid-19 infection and as staff go the extra mile and the NHS in London is opening up more beds in London hospitals. NHS throughout the capital To care for the sickest patients, it is essential that people do everything possible to reduce the transmission of the virus.
Video not available
“Anticipating increasing pressures from the spread of the new variant of infection, the NHS London was asked to ensure that London Nightingale is reactivated and ready to admit patients as needed, and that process is well under way.”
The Exeter site welcomed its first Covid patients in November, when it began accepting transfers from the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, which was described as “very busy.”
Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate are currently in use for non-Covid patients, the spokesperson said.
He added: “The number of hospitalized Covid patients is increasing dramatically, so the remaining nightingales are preparing to admit patients once more should they be needed, in accordance with best clinical practices developed during the first and second waves. of coronavirus “.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
NHS England Medical Director Stephen Powis has described Nightingale Hospitals as “our insurance policy, there as our last resort.”
He told the Downing Street news conference on Wednesday: “A few weeks ago we asked all Nightingale hospitals to be ready to receive patients if necessary.
“In fact, some of them are already doing it, in Manchester taking patients on sick leave, in Exeter handling Covid patients and elsewhere handling diagnoses, for example.
“Our first steps, however, in managing the additional demands on the NHS, are to expand capacity within existing hospitals – that’s the best way to use our staff.”
Concerns have been raised about the ability of the already limited health service to staff the Nightingale facility.
(Image: Press Association Images)
Dr Nick Scriven, Immediate Past President of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “It is not ‘just the case’ to use Nightingale Hospital as there are simply no staff to function as originally intended (mini care units intensive). “
NHS hospitals in England are treating a record number of Covid-19 patients – more than 22,000 – and infection rates continue to rise in all regions, according to the latest Public Health England weekly surveillance report.
The number of people who tested positive for the virus in England also reached a new record, with a total of 232,169 in the week to December 23, the highest weekly total since Test and Trace was launched in May.
Doctors working on the front lines of the UK’s battle against the disease have begged the British not to mix with others on New Year’s Eve as hospitals come under increasing pressure.
Intensive care doctor Professor Hugh Montgomery warned that people who don’t wear masks and continue to mix unnecessarily have “blood on their hands.”
He said that anyone who thinks it is acceptable to have “one more night” is spreading the virus.
He told BBC Radio Five Live: “Anyone listening to this, not wearing their mask and behaving like this, has blood on their hands, they are spreading this virus. Other people will transmit it and people will die.
“They won’t know that they have killed people, but they have.”
Professor Montgomery said the consequences of “bad behavior” during Christmas will not be seen in intensive care units until next week, and the results of any similar action by people on New Year’s Eve will be felt in the hospitals about 10 days later.
[ad_2]
