Liverpool hospital cuts surgery to deal with rising Covid-19 | UK News

hospital In Liverpool, NHS bosses are reducing non-urgent surgery to accommodate Covid-19 patients, even though they claim to continue normal care during the second wave.

NHS Trusts in northwestern, northeastern, and other parts of Midland are also preparing to cancel routine surgery, such as joint replacement and hernia repair, as the number of seriously ill coronavirus patients surges.

A potential second outage of non-Covid care is imminent warning Thousands of people can die from cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses that have not been diagnosed or treated.

Steve Waughton, CEO of Liverpool The university hospital NHS Trust acknowledged that reducing surgery was “pain” for affected patients, but said that three major acute care hospitals in the city had reached a “critical point.”

so Notes to staff As seen in the Health Service Journal, Warburton said that trust “takes a step-by-step approach to reducing selective programs while exploring options with other providers and separating some of this work. Keep it in place. “

Even if NHS England tells all hospitals to do so, it is the first confidence in England to reveal that it cannot provide normal levels of non-Covid care during the second coronavirus surge. .. This decision can lead to other trusts doing the same.

Warburton said: “We will continue to prioritize surgery based on clinical needs to maintain emergency and cancer surgery where possible.” He continued to provide outpatient appointments with the Trust “as much as possible” and CT. We promised to continue to provide patients with diagnostic tests such as MRI and MRI scans.

“We recognize that this can be painful for patients who need to rescheduling selective care, but we must always make sure that the care we provide is safe.” He said.

The Royal Liverpool, Broadgreen, and Eintree hospitals are believed to treat approximately 250 Covid patients, among which they account for approximately one-seventh of the trust’s total beds. However, the number is increasing rapidly.

The Trust has begun training staff working in critical care, including the management of continuous positive airway pressure (Cpap), in which patients with respiratory distress receive oxygen but do not use a ventilator.

Last week, Sir Simon Stephens, head of NHS England, said hospitals should continue to provide regular care for the next few months, including elective surgery using the “Covid-free hub.” I said repeatedly.

However, well-placed NHS sources in Manchester, Birmingham, and northeastern England said they believed they were reluctant to cancel the planned project again.

The boss of a hospital in Midlands told the Guardian: “The decision to turn off selective care will be made soon. It won’t work with the NHS England boss in London, but they don’t understand how difficult it is. [offer both Covid and normal care] While keeping people safe. “

A senior doctor in Manchester said: “The discontinuation of selective surgery is already under debate, but of course the intent is to resist it as long as we know it. [services not being available in the spring during the lockdown] And the fact that people are hesitant to be hospitalized means that people with cancer or heart failure that would normally have been detected were not detected due to their absence, and how many of those people Or they attended for care. “

Dr. Jane Eddleston, Medical Lead of Greater Manchester, said in a briefing on Downing Street by a senior physician on Monday:The current situation is that 30% of our critical care beds are occupied by Covid patients, which is Impact on the services we provide For other patients. “

Dr. Jonathan Vantam, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the United Kingdom, said on Sunday: “If the number of incidents increases dramatically, the NHS will need to focus more on dealing with life-threatening situations in front of them. This is by postponing other non-urgent procedures and treatments. It can mean freeing up staff and space. “