hospitals are facing more pressure
throughout the uk
and nhs staff are having to juggle
competing demands
as for hospital admissions they are
nowhere near the peak that they were in
in april but they have been rising with
1015 admitted to hospital on average
every day in the week up to last monday
now our medical editor fergus walsh
cameraman adam walker and producer nikki
estiasni
were given extensive access to the royal
victoria infirmary
that's in newcastle and this is what
they found
the royal victoria infirmary is part of
the fabric of life in newcastle
fifteen thousand staff work at the trust
they're always busier as winter
approaches but this will be the first
with coronavirus
we've got a very tired workforce
we know the beast that is curvy
pneumonia
it's devastating if you get a setback
for a couple of months in summer there
were no covid patients in intensive care
now staff are back in full ppe
kobe continues to make people critically
ill it continues to make people's organs
fail
it continues to cause death that still
is a frightening prospect for many
people out there
but patient numbers are half that
compared to the first wave
and very few are on ventilators
to me this feels very different from the
peak
in april doctors now know so much more
about
covid and how best to treat the disease
and that means many more patients are
surviving intensive care
we feel we can offer every patient the
best possible opportunity to get through
it
based on some much firmer science that
we can draw on
now compared with april
half the patients like brian are on
clinical trials
the 62 year old is usually behind the
bar
at a local social club then he got
covered terrifying absolutely terrified
i've had a traumatic few days
we'll just build the strength up get
better but
the will get is better i know that
covid patients in intensive care are
given rem disobey
an antiviral drug plus medications to
stop
potentially fatal blood clots
they also get dexamethasone a steroid
trials in the uk showed it reduces the
risk of dying by up to a third
mohammed came to england from pakistan
in the 50s
a former bus driver he's 87 and suffers
confusion
so his daughter shimeen who's also had
kovid
is allowed to stay with him very close
to dying he was honestly i was very very
scary
he lives with his son and grandchildren
shaming is in the next street
covid has swept through the extended
family
thank god i love you it's going to thank
god
he's going to thank everybody that's
helped him get home as well
the hospital is confident it can cope
with coronavirus this winter
and could expand its intensive care
five-fold
if needed but the more covered there is
the greater the impact on other
non-emergency care
the hip replacements eye operations a
myriad
of other conditions and like everywhere
else
patients are waiting longer we've got a
really significant backlog
cataracts and eye operations are a good
example
small relatively simple procedures but
if you're an elderly frail person
isolating fearful um
in in coveted times then you know we're
pushing those patients into deeper
anxiety so we've got seven free corvette
itu beds
i think they're a bit tight on
non-covered itu beds
for now they have some spare capacity
but it's
finally balanced and social distancing
means the hospital
can't admit as many patients as before
a handful of theaters have had to be
closed
to free up nurses for intensive care
but surgery that was suspended in the
first wave is
taking place
kathleen should have had her thyroid
operation in march
she feels fortunate it's now happened
it's been a little bit
intense waiting waiting around you know
thinking
am i going to get the operation am i not
and but now it's happened i've just
it's i'm absolutely elated it's it's
great
around a million women in the uk missed
out on breast screening
in the first wave of coronavirus the
trust
is determined to keep it going this time
the hospital is very much open for
business
and staff want to continue all services
this winter
but so much depends on whether
coronavirus
can be kept under control
that was fergus's report we'll talk to
him in in just a moment
but before that let me give you the
latest government figures
and they show that there were 20 890
new coronavirus infections recorded in
the latest 24-hour period
the average number of new cases reported
per day in the past week is now 21
926 102 deaths were reported that's
people who died within 28 days
of a positive covid19 test and that
means
on average in the past week 182 deaths
were announced every day
and it takes the total number of deaths
so far across the uk
to 44 998.
well as i say with me is our medical
editor fergus walsh
focus you were telling us there about
the way that they're having to
juggle these competing demands and all
the while
we're also looking at reports that
there's progress being made
in the search for a vaccine so what is
your overall picture
tonight well i'm struck you by how much
better prepared
and equipped medical teams are now to
deal with coronavirus than they were
back in april so that's positive and
hospitals have plans in place to deal
with any surge in covet cases
and then there are the nightingale
hospitals but there's only one
set of staff and once the staff are
dealing with
covert cases they can't be dealing with
non-covered patients so the pressure
point this winter
if covert admissions continue to rise
could be
elective non-urgent surgery so the
vaccine
can't come soon enough now the oxford
astrazeneca team
they've said that their vaccine induces
a good
strong immune response in all adult age
groups
including the over 70s the most at-risk
group
and they say that's a key milestone but
that evidence hasn't been published yet
now some parts of the nhs are all really
working out the how and the when
they might immunize people with a
vaccine maybe before
christmas because frontline health
workers would be first in line but
that's purely
speculative the timing twenty thousand
volunteers have received
the oxford vaccine and because
coronavirus levels are rising in the
community
we should know sooner rather than later
whether it works
and is safe but we've got to wait for
the data
okay focus once again many thanks fergus
walsh they're our medical editor