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A surgeon in Wales has warned that life-saving care for non-COVID patients is in jeopardy if intensive care units continue to fill up.
Welsh currently has the highest case rate of coronavirus in the UK, with one in 60 people testing positive.
A severe staff shortage to cope with the growing number of patients prompted the board of health that runs the largest hospital in Cardiff to tweet an emergency appeal for medical students to step in and work this weekend.
Cardiff and the Vale University Board of Health tweeted “our intensive care department is urgently seeking help from medical students or other groups of staff who have previously supported patients in distress” and asked for volunteers to start work on Sunday.
And a senior ER nurse has admitted that she “cannot put into words how scared I am” that the NHS will face the situation in the coming months.
A limit of two homes has been set in Wales during Christmas
David Smith, who is an ER nurse in the South West of England and chairs the Royal College of Nursing Association for Emergency Care, said: “I have worked in the NHS for the better part of 15 years and I am really concerned for my colleagues and what’s going to happen. “
He added: “I really just hope that people obey the rules.
“I have very experienced colleagues who are really afraid of how hospitals will cope after Christmas after people have been allowed to mix. It’s just going to expand the cases.
“We are at full capacity. We are at a stretch point.”
On Sunday, Welsh officials said there had been another 4,142 cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases there to 139,642.
Public Health Wales reported another 70 deaths, bringing the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 3,368.
Authorities said the data was for a 48-hour period from 9 a.m. on Christmas Eve to 9 a.m. on Dec. 26.
Shakir Mustafa, a consultant surgeon with neighboring Cwm Taf University Health Board, told Sky News that intensive care units in South Wales were reaching full capacity.
“If it’s full of COVID-19 patients, it does not mean that we are only dealing with COVID and not with anything else, “he warned.
“It means that we can’t physically have someone who has had a hemorrhage after giving birth, for example, or who has had a burst appendix, or someone who suffers from sepsis.
“We would like to take care of all of our patients and we are in a situation where this is threatened.”
Mr. Mustafa has been involved in the deployment of medical students and describes their role in helping to relieve pressure during the peak of the first wave and now as “critically important”.
But in hospitals across the UK, frontline staff are warning of a perfect storm this winter, with a growing number of cases and the new, most infectious strain of virus put pressure on staff and services.
Following the appeal in Cardiff, a sufficient number of people have intervened and Cardiff and Vale UHB said the situation had improved.
But he warned that the intensive care unit remained very busy due to COVID-19 and winter pressures.
