as the number of covid deaths recorded
in the past 24 hours in the uk
was more than 1800 that's yet another
record since the pandemic began
but more than four and a half million
people across the uk have now received
their first dose of a vaccine
the pressure on the nhs is still extreme
and our latest report on hospital staff
this week
is from the royal derby hospital our
medical editor fergus walsh
producer nikki stasny and camera
journalist rob taylor
compiled this report been in nursing for
33 years and i have never seen
anything like this in all honesty it is
physically and emotionally exhausting
i don't think anybody feels that we've
seen the worst of this yet
if we carry on on this trajectory we'll
be completely overwhelmed in a couple of
weeks
the warnings keep coming and not just
from london
this is the royal derby hospital nearly
half its patients have coveted
on for a couple of hours paul robinson
is 50
he's terrified i had a horrendous night
and
i messaged my wife this morning to say
that
i wasn't sure if i was going to survive
we've just bought ourselves a new
beautiful bunga which we're supposed to
be moving
into and it's our dream
and i may not see it the intensive care
unit
has doubled in size and is still growing
but they've already had to transfer some
critically ill patients to other
hospitals
this time it's been a perfect storm
really of the new variants arrived we've
hit winter at just the wrong time
christmas has arrived at exactly the
worst time it could have done
and there's just been a steady
inexorable rise of cases
we are still on the up ramp of the
patients coming through check the length
on the remaining lines
caring for those patients places huge
demands on staff
1 2 3
every icu uses this procedure
proning turning patients on their front
to help their breathing this is the
very definition of intensive care
all over the country there are medical
teams like this one
trying to keep thousands of coved
patients alive
all that and coping with other winter
pressures as well
there is light amid the darkness
treatments are getting better
steroids and some arthritis drugs have
greatly improved the chances of survival
but to provide care you need staff
so many are off sick those left are
drained
on one shift nurses had to walk past
covered deniers
demonstrating outside the hospital we've
got staff who are absolutely exhausted
and traumatized
a lot of staff are struggling with the
mental health the nurses are coming in
and working extremely hard
a lot of them are doing extra shifts
they're all exhausted and then to see
protesters saying it's not real for the
nurses then to come in
those on the coveted front line say if
the public could see through their
eyes they'd take more care it's not
a hoax it's very real people are dying
daily within the hospital
and i myself have held the hand of
patients that are dying within the
department
i think people need to take it a little
bit more seriously and i don't think
they're aware of the impact
the emergency department has separate
entrances for covid
and non-covered patients
like scores of other hospitals across
the uk
they're approaching their limits if we
reach a point where the hospital is so
full that we can't get patients out of
the emergency department
in a timely fashion the whole system
down here comes to a halt
and that's when we start holding
patients on ambulances
that's where we start to see the real
risks of patient harm creeping up in the
emergency department
there is a path out of the pandemic via
the vaccine
but the benefits won't be felt here for
many weeks
for now hospitals are bracing for worse
to come
fergus walsh bbc news derby
we'll talk to fergus in just a moment
before that let's have a look at the
latest official government figures which
are revealed today
showing that there were 38 905 new
infections recorded
in the latest 24-hour period which means
that on average the number of new cases
reported per day in the past week
is 40 2026 and as you can see on the
chart there
that's been falling across the uk an
average of 39 068 people were in
hospital
with the coronavirus over the seven days
to sunday
that includes suspected cases in wales
1820 deaths were reported that's people
who died
within 28 days of a positive covid test
as we've heard that's the biggest single
total reported
so far on average in the past week 1218
deaths were announced every day the
total number of deaths so far across the
uk is 93 290.
and let's get a quick update on the
program of mass vaccinations 343
163 people have had their first dose of
one of the three approved vaccines
in the latest 24-hour period that's the
most yet in
in a day and it takes the overall number
of people who've had their first vaccine
to
four million six hundred and nine
thousand seven hundred
and forty so as promised uh fergus is
with me our medical editor
um in your report there fergus where you
talk to
staff and those involved you then said
uh braced for
worse to come what what did you mean by
that and
what can viewers understand by that well
the appalling
record death toll today hugh surpassing
another record yesterday each one
someone being mourned tonight by family
and friends
the uk has the highest coveted death
toll in europe
the fifth highest in the world and it
underlies yet again that with this new
more transmissible variant
we are in a more precarious a more
fragile position in terms of controlling
the virus than at any time
in the pandemic many of those who have
recently died
will have been infected around christmas
time but
it wasn't until the end of december and
early january that we saw that
huge surge in cases and that is only
just beginning to feed in
to the daily death toll at some point
in the next week or two we should
mercifully pass the peak
but the numbers dying and in hospital
are going to remain
very significant throughout winter the
one solace
is that the protective effect of
vaccinating the most vulnerable
will before long begin having a positive
impact
fergus many thanks once again ferguson
our medical editor