NHS hospitals in Bradford have become the latest to start cancelling operations after seeing a spike in admissions of Covid-19 patients.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals revealed in a statement it will suspend some non-urgent surgery and outpatient appointments for two weeks from next Tuesday.
It runs both the Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital, as well as four other hospitals, serving a population of around half a million people.
There are currently 100 coronavirus patients at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI), and 30 requiring oxygen support — the highest number of any hospital in the North East and Yorkshire.
The trust said Covid-19 patients had reached levels seen in May, just after the peak of the first wave, and they had to take action to keep patients and staff safe.
Hospitals in Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Plymouth, Swansea and Belfast have also begun cancelling operations amid a rise in Covid-19 admissions.
It comes despite a backlog of millions of people needing non-urgent treatment, after tens of thousands of operations were postponed to help the NHS prepare for a wave of Covid-19 patients. One hospital trust, Hull University Teaching Hospitals, told its patients it may be two years before they are treated.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals will suspend some non-urgent operations and outpatient appointments for two weeks after a surge in Covid-19 patient admissions. Pictured is Bradford Royal Infirmary, where there are 100 coronavirus patients
Public Health England figures show the infection rate in Bradford was at 277 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending October 11, one of the highest levels in the country. But it was down five per cent on the week before.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals’ chief executive Mel Pickup said: ‘This surge (of Covid-19 admissions) is now at levels similar to the peak of the first wave in May.
‘Unfortunately, because of this, we have to pause some non-urgent surgery and face-to-face outpatient appointments for the next two weeks.
‘It’s not a decision we have taken lightly, but we must create as much bed capacity and free up clinical staff within our hospitals to help us manage this surge in Covid-19 patients.’
She added: ‘To those people, I want to say we’re very sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, but please understand that we have to take this action to keep our hospitals safe for everyone while we deal with the worst effects of this virus.’
Bradford is currently under Tier Two restrictions, meaning residents are not allowed to visit each other’s homes, or visit an indoor public space with people they do not live with.
Experts have voiced concern over the cancellation of operations because it will cause harm to people desperately waiting for operations — such as hip and knee replacements — suffering in pain.
The move could also cost lives because many who need urgent care may choose to stay away for fear of burdening the health service.
In the first wave the NHS ordered thousands of essential medical procedures to be put on hold, as it expected to be inundated with Covid-19 patients.
But this left up to 40,000 beds unused by the first week of April, figures have revealed, and private hospitals brought in to help combat the virus also stood empty.
Medics say up to 2,700 cancers were missed every week as the numbers being referred by GPs for urgent checks plunged by 75 per cent.
Trust chief executive Mel Pickup announced the decision, and said it was not a decision that they had taken lightly
Hospitals are scaling back other services amid concerns rising Covid-19 cases could lead to further admissions and them running out of beds.
For example, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust said it was temporarily pausing non-critical planned surgery at Derriford Hospital, and University Hospitals Birmingham has cancelled all routine operations.
In Liverpool, ICUs are at 90 per cent capacity, according to Calum Semple, professor of outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, who said hospitals could exceed healthcare capacity this week.
It is feared Leeds Teaching Hospitals may also soon decide to suspend non-urgent operations in the face of rising admissions.
Victoria Eaton, the city’s director for public health, warned last week their hospitals were ‘very close’ to scaling back non-Covid-19 operations.
She also warned that although Nightingale hospitals had been built in Manchester, Sunderland and Harrogate across the North of England it would be difficult to find the staff for them.
‘The buildings are there, the issue is how we get the staff into the Nightingales because, in spring, the workforce plan was for people who were stood down from other services to go to staff the Nightingales,’ she said.
‘So I think there is a real challenge around how to get enough NHS staff to make those sites work. It’s incredibly challenging this time round.’