Wards restored to non-virus care with fewer Covid patients
| Published date | 17 March 2021 |
| Publication title | Loughborough Echo |
With hospital admissions now falling slowly, wards are reverting back to their normal use.
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Rachna Vyas said: "We are restoring a heap of wards now that were COVID positive to COVID negative and the important thing about realigning wards from medicine back to surgery is that it will allow us to start work on category one and two patients who are elective care, and cancer patients as well."
Giving an update on the current COVID situation to CCG colleagues, Ms Vyas said: "We have had a pronounced decline in infection rates and hospital admissions for COVID since the January peak.
"However, our non-COVID admissions are beginning to rise so we are now seeing patients who are not in for Covidrelated reasons being admitted.
"The admission rate has effectively stayed at a very similar level."
During the first spike in April there were just over 200 COVID positive patients cared for by the trust, in the most recent wave there were 500.
Latest figures show the number is now back at around 200.
Intensive care numbers in UHL remain high with units operating at 124 per cent of normal capacity - but this is in part to patients from other parts of the country being treated in Glenfield hospital's specialist Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) unit.
Non-COVID rising now not in for
The health service across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, stepped down from level five alert status to level four at the start of the month.
Across the county, the CCGs are working with district councils in some areas of concern, where infection rates are higher than the national average.
Ms Vyas said: "There has been a steady reduction in the incidence rates across the patch but there are some areas that are still above the national and local average.
admissions so, we are seeing patients COVID-related reasons Rachna Vyas "We are worried about one or two areas and we are working with district councils in those areas to make sure there are plans in place for those populations." She added that while there has been a reduction in care home outbreaks, there is still a "significant" number experiencing outbreaks.
"We are doing another round of infection prevention and control advice...
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