Eight trusts now have one in 10 beds filled by covid patients

Eight hospitals have reported that at least 1 in 10 beds are now occupied by a patient with coronavirus, HSJ can reveal. 

Operational information seen by HSJ showed the 8 Trusts were, Queen Elizabeth Hospital; Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland Foundation Trust, North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust, Barnsley Hospital, The Rotherham Foundation Trust, Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, across several hospitals in north Manchester, Oldham and Bury, Whittington Health Trust, and Sandwell and West Birmingham. 

Having 10 per cent or more beds occupied by Covid patients has a big impact on how the hospital is able to run due to the need to ensure the patients are in appropriate wards and isolated from patients who are negative for the virus. Compared to previous waves, current patients are much younger and healthier and have been found to have a shorter length of stay in hospital. 

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Source: HSJ, 26 July 2021