Whiston Hospital could soon defer routine appointments as coronavirus admissions continue to rise.
The hospital, located in a borough with one of the UK’s highest infection rates, now has 92 covid-positive patients compared to 66 last week and 33 the week before.
The total is the highest at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust since the beginning of May and almost eight times the number seen at the beginning of the first lockdown period in March. Six patients at Whiston are currently in ICU.
The surge in patient numbers has forced the trust to open new coronavirus wards and prompted its medical director, Rowan Pritchard Jones, to warn that routine care could once again be put off.
Mr Pritchard Jones said: “We’ve seen a sharp increase in the number of covid positive patients being admitted to our hospitals in the past few weeks and it is extremely concerning.
“We have covid positive patients in intensive care once more and have had to establish covid wards once again, after being able to de-escalate all of these wards during the summer months.”
Despite the announcement of new lockdown measures for the Liverpool City Region on Monday, the number of covid patients at Whiston is likely to increase even further over the coming weeks.
Knowsley has seen cases surge since the end of August and now has an infection rate of more than 700 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents.
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Given the lag between cases being reported and those patients entering hospital, the continued rise in cases means that more hospital admissions are now almost certain.
At a briefing on Monday, deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van Tam warned that more hospital admissions and deaths were already “baked in” by rising case numbers.
Mr Pritchard Jones said: “At the moment we are doing everything we can to maintain services and continue to encourage patients to attend our hospitals and community clinics for their care.
“But the reality is, that if the numbers continue to increase at the rate that they are, we may have to prioritise treatment for the most clinically urgent cases, which means that patients who need more routine care could end up waiting longer.
“This is not what any of us would want and so it is vital that we all do everything we can to slow the spread of infection.”
