Midlands hospital forced to delay surgery, including cancer, after ‘unprecedented’ Covid pressures

‘We are very aware of how difficult it is for staff to work under these conditions day in and day out’

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has had to cancel more operations due to pressure from Covid patients (PA)

One of the largest hospital trusts in the country has been forced to delay more operations, including to treat cancer, after the numbers of coronavirus patients on its wards reached unprecedented levels.

Bosses at the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust have told staff the East Midlands trust may not yet have seen the peak of the current surge in cases, with more than 480 Covid patients on its wards on Monday this week, more than at any stage so far in the pandemic.

In a message to staff, seen by The Independent, medical director Keith Girling told staff difficult decisions were having to be taken on a daily basis and he acknowledged the pressures meant staff could not deliver the standard of care they wanted to.

He added: “We have already asked so much of you, but to get through this together, I’m afraid we need to ask more.”  

While hospital admissions have started to fall in London, some areas are still seeing significant local surges. In the Midlands region, NHS England data shows the number of Covid patients has only begun to fall in recent days with more than 6,000 patients still in hospital across the region.

In Nottingham, the critical care unit has reached 200 per cent of its baseline capacity, which has triggered the hospital to delay more operations, including for some cancer patients, this week and next.  

The trust said it was not imposing a blanket cancellation on all surgery but it had been forced to act because of the rising pressure meaning a lack of beds and staff were available for operations to go ahead as planned.

In a statement, Dr Girling said: “We have had to make the extremely difficult decision to postpone some operations this week due to pressure on our intensive care units and hospital beds from both Covid-19 and non-Covid related emergencies. We are working closely with local partner hospitals and the independent sector to ensure that we can continue to carry out as many urgent operations as possible.”  

Staff at the hospital have been praised for their efforts in looking after patients, including many who have been redeployed to intensive care as well as staff who stayed overnight at the hospital during the weekend’s snow to make sure they could work their shifts the next day.  

In his message to staff this week Dr Girling said more staff may be redeployed in the weeks ahead.  

“Last week was an incredibly difficult week. We are now seeing upwards of 470 Covid+ patients on our wards and over 50 in critical care, alongside high numbers of non-covid patients; and we do not yet think we have reached the peak. This is placing unprecedented pressure across critical care and our inpatient wards.

“Last week we wrote to you describing the worsening Covid position in our hospitals how we might all contribute to the Covid effort. We had an amazing response and we want to personally thank those who are already helping in other areas, including those of you who have cancelled training or even time off to help out.”

He said the trust had also been helped by 18 soldiers drafted in to boost staffing at the trust’s Queen’s Medical Centre. This is part of a wider military support to the NHS after NHS England made a request to the armed services for help at the start of this month in response to widespread staff shortages.

Dr Girling added: “We appreciate that every service wants to provide the very best care and access to all of their patients but we are now in a position where we need to prioritise those in most urgent need, and support those staff caring for them to do so safely.

“Increased demand and staff absence related to Covid is putting pressure on staffing ratios across critical care and our wards which does not enable us to provide the standard of care we aspire to for our patients. We are very aware of how difficult it is for staff to work under these conditions day in and day out and we are making difficult decisions on a daily basis to balance this pressure across our hospitals.

“We have already asked so much of you, but to get through this together, I’m afraid we need to ask more. Our ask of you is simple – to support our patients, and your colleagues across the trust who may be working in very difficult circumstances by offering your services if you have specific skills, or by accepting any requests to work in a different area if your time has been released.

“Today we have taken the difficult decision to stand down some routine outpatients across the trust over the next two weeks to release staff to support our wards. We are also further reducing elective operating which means that surgical teams will have more time to support other services.”

Across the country the NHS has been forced to cancel thousands of operations after the surge in coronavirus patients following Christmas. This has included cancer patients including some who need to be seen within four weeks.

NHS England has instructed hospitals to create new regional cancer hubs to try and maintain surgeries as much as possible as well as using private sector hospitals.

The latest data suggests more than 200,000 patients have now been forced to wait longer than a year for treatment, compared to just 1,163 before the pandemic hit Britain.