the number of patients being treated for
kovid in england's hospitals
is now higher than it was at the
previous peak in april this year
it's the latest evidence of the intense
pressure on nhs services
throughout the united kingdom more than
forty thousand new infections were
reported in the uk in the past 24 hours
that's a record as the new variant of
coronavirus
spreads rapidly in the south of england
doctors are reporting that the level of
patient need
is incredibly high conditions in many
welsh hospitals are said to be very
challenging
while doctors in scotland say that
there's a danger that health services
will be overwhelmed our health editor
hugh pim has the latest
there was a stark message today from
hamilton university hospital in east
london
nurses and doctors are incredibly
stretched caring for very sick patients
no one should underestimate the impact
the infection can have
one hospital in south east london has
declared an internal incident
because of the high number of covid
patients the queen elizabeth hospital in
greenwich
said it was working with health partners
and patients were getting the care they
needed
elsewhere in the capital patient numbers
continued to rise
with the variant of the virus found
initially in the southeast of england
spreading more rapidly accident and
emergency departments
reported intense pressure i was on on
christmas day and it was wall-to-wall
coverage
so we see patients who are coming in who
are have
covered symptoms but we also see other
patients coming in with other problems
who turn out to be covered positive and
between that
there is a great deal of difficulty
getting those patients through
into the wards the medical director at
one big hospital trust spelled out what
they were facing
things have been really challenging over
the last few days i suppose
the best illustration for that is on
christmas eve we had about 170 patients
with covid
across our hospital sites and today we
have around 242
so a very large increase has occurred
over the last few days
the number of covid patients in
hospitals in england reached a peak in
the first wave
of nearly 19 000 in april then it fell
away during the summer before picking up
again from september
and it's now above the level of that
previous peak
so what does that mean in practice
hospitals need more beds for covid
patients and in some cases are moving
staff from other areas to care for them
already some less urgent work is being
cancelled
health leaders say the postponement of
more routine operations and procedures
will become more widespread sadly it's
inevitable that as
the infections rise and the admissions
rise that actually we see disruption to
other services
we're desperate our members are
desperate to keep that
disruption as low as possible but
unfortunately
some of our elective and planned
services will be disruptive both in
hospitals and in other settings as well
doctors in scotland have warned that
their health system is severely
stretched
and are concerned that the limited
household mixing on christmas day
will have spread infections inevitably
there will be a cost for this
um one of the things that we're
particularly concerned about
here in scotland is that the new year
festivities are will shortly be upon us
of course there's no relaxation for
those festivities and it is extremely
important
that households don't mix an official at
public health wales
has said that health services are under
enormous pressure
in an incredibly challenging situation a
significant proportion of the nhs
workforce in wales
is said to be off sick a familiar story
in other parts of the uk hugh pim
bbc news now teachers unions in england
are warning that
mass covered tests are undeliverable by
the start of the spring term which
starts for some students next week
government has announced that all
secondary schools and colleges in
england
will be able to test staff and students
from the first week of january
but unions say a number of issues such
as recruiting and training staff
are yet to be resolved today ministers
said they hope that the staggered
re-opening of schools in england
would go ahead in january as planned
so let's look at the official figures on
the pandemic in the uk so far
they show that there were 41 385
new cases recorded in the latest 24-hour
period that's a record
357 deaths were reported of people who
died within 28 days
of a positive covid19 test taking the
total number of deaths across the uk
so far to 71 1109
and joining me once again to take stock
this evening is our health editor hugh
pim
so two new peaks today hugh across the
uk in terms of
the number of new infections and across
england in terms of the number of
patients
being treated for covet yes that's right
hugh more than 20 000 patients with
covered in english hospitals now
more than that peak seen in the first
wave that's quite a
sobering announcement and in some ways
it's harder for hospitals now because
back then they were told to clear the
deck stop doing
any routine work and leave all beds
really for covered patients this time
that hasn't happened they've been
expected to carry on doing the routine
work the operations and so on
although as we've been hearing more and
more hospitals are having to
put that on hold we should also make the
point that one reason there are
so many patients with coveted in
hospitals is bluntly they might not have
survived before but because treatment is
better now there are more therapies
they are still alive but they are
needing more care and therefore they
need hospital beds
now as for case numbers that's more than
this very big number 41 000 a big
increase and yes there's been a bit of a
delay in reporting
new cases from the weekend but even so
officials say that is a significant
increase
public health england have said there is
growing concern now
about these case numbers particularly
what they mean for hospital admissions
in the future
because sadly some of the people who are
reported in that number
will become seriously ill and go into
hospital and add
to the pressure on hospitals at the
busiest time
in january in the new year so we've got
this very big number
now reflecting infections a couple of
weeks ago the pressure seems likely only
to build from here
though of course everyone is hoping for
more good news on the vaccine to come in
the weeks ahead
indeed hugh thanks very much again you
pimped our health editor