now the number of patients being treated
for covid in hospitals across the uk
is above 30 000 and more than a thousand
deaths have been reported
uh for the latest 24-hour period that's
the highest since last april
the london area is at the center of the
crisis as we speak
and our medical editor fergus walsh has
been allowed to film
inside the intensive care unit at
london's university college hospital
it is one of the city's busiest the
extended report filmed by adam walker
and produced by noel titheridge will
shock and upset
many viewers
intensive care is under pressure like
never before
after christmas it just sort of hit me
i've seen a couple of people within
the short time that i spent in a
hospital
they didn't make it from a relentless
rise
in coveted admissions how long can you
keep going like this
at this pace i think we've got about a
week staff
fear burnout
the nurses are broken the physical and
mental load
is is huge the toll
is immense my emotions are all over the
place
scared sad petrified worried
this should be an operating theatre but
there's no surgery here
instead it's been converted into an
intensive care unit
the number of covid patients in london's
hospitals
has doubled in just two weeks they're
more stretched
now than at the peak last april we've
got three times as many
critically ill patients in this hospital
than we normally have
and we've managed to stretch and spread
to cover that
but that can't go on forever intensive
care is expanding across
university college hospital a children's
area
now for desperately sick adults every
day
more wards are being transformed into
icu
ready for the next influx but senior
staff
are worried i've got you know plans that
we can expand
for another week at this rate but we
after that we really need to
see it slow down or we're going to see
and the care we
we can deliver suffer i think we'd be
running
so thin on staff that we wouldn't you
just physically couldn't look after
critically ill patients one two three
four five six it would be ideal if we
had one more class
the ventilated patients are turned twice
a day
lying on their front prone helps get
oxygen to their lungs
nine staff are involved in this delicate
procedure
okay we're gonna go all over on three
one two three
to ensure breathing tubes drug lines
all the paraphernalia of critical care
are not disturbed
kovid has made this a winter like no
other
attila is 67 over the holidays
coronavirus spread through his family
after christmas it just sort of
hit me he just sort of went back i just
couldn't breathe uh
at all i didn't think i'd actually uh
make it through
and you're gasping it's like you know uh
there is no oxygen around it and
sorry frightening very very frightening
very there are three pregnant women
in intensive care rachel is due in five
weeks
every mother put her child before
herself both she and her baby
are doing well they can't do anything
that will harm the baby obviously and
they look after my baby so well
all the time coming and checking
monitoring
the baby is happy you can't see but
you're looking after two people here
in once they save your life
with the the demands on staff
are unrelenting and on their families
too
alice has young children cared for by
grandparents in scotland during the
first
peak on stage one i sent my five and
seven-year-old daughters
uh away because we weren't quite sure
how we how we would manage
um so i had my four-year-old in tears
last night said the thought of another
lockdown because
she thought that meant i was sending her
away again she's most worried
about the impact on nurses the bedrock
of care
in icu it's not uncommon at the moment
that i've
come to work i've walked into the unit
to find nurses
crying the physical and mental load is
is huge
and i'm really worried that
we're going to break a lot of nurses
and what about the doctors and doctors
too
intensive care nursing is highly
specialized
usually they're one-to-one with patients
now responsible
for three four or five with other staff
filling the gaps we're so stressed we
have to prioritize
and prioritizing care is not
what the nhs that i grew up in we
shouldn't have to choose which patient
gets what care first
ashley says she's never had to make
decisions like this before
if people asking for your help you just
don't know who to help first
the patients are losing their lives at a
dramatic speed we're not just getting
old people this is young people that
we're getting people my age i've
reported from here several times during
the pandemic
and i'm always struck by the
professionalism and dedication of staff
but this is a system under strain like
never before
the warning signs here couldn't be
clearer the nhs
is now on the brink unless infection
rates start to fall
soon then it could seriously impact
patient care
and not just for those with covid
these are really serious um consequences
and if we get to that point
we can't offer anyone itu not just
covert patients but
you know anyone who has a traffic
accident or
a heart attack or a stroke or whatever
it is we just won't have
any more capacity to take to take them
in
for now the trust is coping cancer
operations are continuing
though most non-urgent surgery is
all of cancelled sudden i had a blue you
know just
covered just like locked on the door and
there you go
hello gents yeah i'm just pleased that
i'm still alive now
gerald is awaiting chemotherapy for lung
cancer
and had been shielding but still caught
coronavirus
love you a lot all right love you love
you he just wants to get home
to his daughters when you've got young
you ones i shall worry you know you
because you fight for your life is for
them
and you know you want to give them a
life
the next few weeks could be the biggest
challenge the nhs
has faced in its history and it will be
its staff
who will bear the brunt for all of us
and uh fergus is with me it's a rare
glimpse of that that you've shared with
the viewers
folks not for the first time but uh i
think it's fair to say that this was
even more intense
and even more harrowing than the last
visit you made absolutely it's worse
hugh put simply the staff there are used
to dealing with a crisis
but they are exhausted shell shocked
i saw some in tears now this is a
uk-wide crisis we now have
30 000 plus covered patients
in hospital across the uk at the peak in
april
it was 21 thousand and the average age
of those patients
in intensive care is sixty but many are
in their twenties
thirties or forties the images in that
report but they are sobering
frightening even but the nhs is urging
people who
are seriously ill with non-coveted
conditions
to come forward no so if you think
you're having a heart attack or a stroke
or if you have a lump or a bump which
may be cancerous do
seek medical help because last time
people didn't and that
cost lives but we are tonight i think in
a more perilous situation
than at any time in this pandemic
especially because of the new
contagious variant but the key message
from staff is that we all have a role to
play in this pandemic and stay at home
if you can burgers many thanks once
again for that uh
ferguson our medical editor with that
extended report from
university college hospital