London ICU occupancy rises 183 per cent as significant increases seen across country
Capital’s hospitals now have just one ICU for every four patients
One NHS region now has double the number of critical care patients it did last winter and all areas are more full than last year
HSJ analysis shows.
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The East of England’s adult critical care units had an average of 538 total patients, covid-19 and non covid-19, over the seven days to 12 January – 202 per cent of the 265 in the same period last year.
London’s adult critical care units have had an average of 1,280 patients over the past week, 183 per cent of the figure in the same week last year (698). In the South East the latest seven-day average bed occupancy is 161 per cent of last year’s number.
A tired nurse after taking a large number of patients due to the Covid-19 pandemic Source: Ingimage
Nurses are leaving their shifts in tears, feeling scared and exhausted, as they continue to battle the worst surge of Covid-19 yet,
Nursing Times has been told.
The sheer volume of coronavirus patients and numbers being admitted to hospitals across the country means some nurses are at breaking point, fearing there is no end in sight.
“It’s just the sheer volumes of patients that we are seeing and not knowing when it is going to end”
Liz Jeremiah
These were the observations of a critical care sister in the midst of the latest wave and of nurse leaders concerned for the wellbeing of the profession.
Your Health: News in the Polk medical community
The Ledger
WATSON CLINIC
Kathleen Haggerty, M.D., a board-certified internal medicine specialist at Watson Clinic Main, 1600 Lakeland Hills Blvd. in Lakeland, has established a post-COVID clinic to address the lingering symptoms faced by many patients in the aftermath of their infection. Ongoing research has shown that these prolonged side effects often include fatigue, dizziness, chest heaviness, brain fog, malaise, poor concentration and nausea. 863-680-7190, www.WatsonClinic.com/Haggerty.
BAYCARE MEDICAL GROUP
Misty Holland was named vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer for the Polk region, which encompasses Bartow Regional Medical Center, Winter Haven Hospital and Winter Haven Women’s Hospital. Holland joined BayCare in September 2017 as the director of patient care at BRMC. In recent months, she filled that same role at Winter Haven Women’s Hospital. Holland received a Bachelor of Science degr
Medical staff transfer a patient from an ambulance to the Royal London hospital. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
NHS bosses are set to cancel urgent surgery across London in a move that could mean cancer patients waiting months for potentially lifesaving operations, the
Observer can reveal.
NHS England chiefs are considering the drastic action because hospitals across the capital are becoming overwhelmed by people who are very sick with Covid-19.
The operations likely to be cancelled, known as “priority two” procedures, mainly involve surgery for cancer where specialists have judged that the patients need to be operated on within four weeks. Any delay could allow their tumour to grow, the disease to spread, or both, thus reducing their chances of survival.
Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images
As of mid-December, hospitals on average had just 22 percent of their intensive care unit (ICU) beds available across the country, and many were completely full. As the Covid-19 surge continues to intensify, lack of ICU beds can have dire consequences, including not being able to properly care for the sickest
patients, potentially rationing lifesaving care.
But even these bed capacity numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Adding extra critical-care beds in other departments or buildings takes precious time, resources, and space. But adding trained staff is much more difficult, especially deep into a pandemic.