Harrogate hospital bosses urge extra Covid vigilance as spike in cases heaps pressure on NHS

Harrogate Hospital bosses are urging residents to abide by the lockdown restrictions and help relieve the extreme pressures that Covid-19 is placing on staff and services.

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The Harrogate NHS Trust is currently one of ten across the country which has no spare adult critical care beds as admissions continue to spike.

Staff are urging people to follow the restrictions currently in place to curb the spread of coronavirus and reduce the number of people needing to be hospitalised.

It comes as the Covid death toll at Harrogate District Hospital reached 121 last weekend, with the team caring for more than 40 Covid patients for more than a week - reaching a peak of 48.

More critical care beds have had to be made available to cope with the increase in demand but the Trust says it needs residents to do everything in their power to ensure the hospital does not get to a point where it can no longer cope with the demand.

Tim Gold, Chief Operating Officer at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We continue to care for very high numbers of patients with Covid-19 at Harrogate District Hospital, both in critical care and on our designated Covid-19 wards.

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“We have been caring for between 40-48 patients for about a week and a half now.

“Our critical care occupancy is always changing, that’s the nature of the care provided there. To continue providing this essential care, we currently have two-and-a-half-times the amount of beds we would normally have open in winter and have re-trained and re-deployed staff across the Trust to continue to provide care at this level.

“Our colleagues - both in Critical Care and across the Trust - continue to work very hard to provide excellent care to our patients. They are under so much pressure at the moment but we are incredibly proud of the fantastic job they are doing.

“The single biggest factor that can ease pressure on critical care and the hospital is to reduce community transmission. We urge members of the public to follow the ‘hands, face, space’ guidance to reduce the spread of Covid-19, keep themselves and others safe and ultimately save lives.

“Thank you to everyone who continues to do this in these very challenging circumstances.”

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Some non-urgent surgeries have also been postponed at the hospital to free up staff to deal with a sharp rise in coronavirus admissions.

The number of patients with Covid-19 in the hospital was last week higher than during the first wave in April 2020. The rate of infection in Harrogate had risen sharply after the Christmas and New Year period but has now shown signs of slowing with a drop from 498 cases per 100,000 people on January 7 to 317 cases per 100,000 people on January 15.

However, the most recent figure is still higher than the peak of the second wave in November.

Dr Jacqueline Andrews, Executive Medical Director at the hospital trust, urged people to follow the coronavirus restrictions and stay at home, but said people should still seek medical help and attend appointments where necessary.

She said: “Despite this signifcant increase, the Trust and the wider NHS remains open to all who need us.”

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