Hospitals are running out of oxygen.
One trust has no non-invasive machines left.
ICUs are tweeting for volunteers to prone patients.
Transfer teams being requested to move patients 65+ miles to nearest hospital with critical care capacity.
Please. Stay at home if you can.NHS staff are at breaking point. They are trying to speak up about how bad things are on the frontline but are being shot down on Twitter. Today we learnt that we have more patients with COVID in hospital than ever before in the England. This is not a drill. Please believe us
Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, DAUK President
Doctors across the country have warned hospitals are becoming overwhelmed amid a surge in coronavirus patients over the Christmas period, as they urged the public to stick to lockdown rules.
Hospitals in England are now dealing with more Covid-19 patients than during the peak of the first wave, with figures showing there were 20,426 in NHS hospitals on Monday compared with 18,974 recorded on April 12.
The number lab-confirmed cases in a single day in the UK also hit a new high of 41,385 on Monday, rising above 40,000 for the first time, according to Government figures.
Mervin Singer, professor of intensive care medicine at University College London, told LBC’s Andrew Castle on Tuesday: “I’ve been doing intensive care for 30-odd years, I’ve never seen anything like we’re experiencing at the moment.
“Now we have the double whammy of sick people who don’t have Covid and this huge, huge surge of Covid patients who are incredibly ill and compounded by lack of staff – a lot staff members are going off sick and either having to isolate or there’s a huge amount of burnout and stress – it’s completely unusual.”
Prof Singer said at some hospitals “huge numbers of patients are just piling up on the front door”.
Many medical professionals have taken to social media to express concern that people are not taking the situation seriously by flouting Covid-19 restrictions.
Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of the Doctors’ Association UK, warned: “Hospitals are running out of oxygen. One trust has no non-invasive machines left. ICUs are tweeting for volunteers to prone patients. Transfer teams being requested to move patients 65+ miles to nearest hospital with critical care capacity. Please. Stay at home if you can.”
She added: “NHS staff are at breaking point. They are trying to speak up about how bad things are on the frontline but are being shot down on Twitter. Today we learnt that we have more patients with COVID in hospital than ever before in the England. This is not a drill. Please believe us.”
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