UK Edition
NHS hospitals are treating less than half of the cancer patients they normally would, it has emerged amid increasing fears it is struggling to cope with surging coronavirus cases.
The Sunday Telegraph can also reveal there are at least 10,000 fewer patients in hospitals being treated for non-covid issues today than the middle of last month, as doctors increasingly prioritise people with Covid-19.
New figures show the majority of patients in nine hospitals in general and acute wards are being treated for the virus, while three times as many frontline health care workers are off sick than normal for this time of year.
Doctors and medics have warned it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep other services open. Dr Tom Dolphin, a British Medical Association (BMA) council member, warned: “Hospitals are trying to increase capacity by reducing elective work to almost nothing but it feels that won’t be enough.”
According to the leaked NHS England cancer resilience plan, London needs to treat more than 500 cancer patients a week to stay on top of demand, but only 122 cancer cases were treated in the city’s NHS hospitals this week, with another 101 being seen in private hospitals.
The NHS England figures also show there were 3,840 cancer patients across the capital already waiting beyond the target of 62 days for their first treatment.
Cancer operations are also being delayed in other parts of the country, as regional hospitals begin to suffer the impact of the surge in Covid cases. One senior consultant at a hospital in the Home Counties added: “We are trying to move non-Covid work to private hospitals and not cancel cancer surgery, but inevitably routine surgery will be cancelled, as is already happening in some areas.”
Data analysed by this newspaper shows there were around 10,000 fewer non-Covid patients being treated at NHS hospitals in England last week.
There were an average of 56,126 non-Covid patients in general and acute beds each day in the week ending January 5, compared to 19,878 Covid patients, or a ratio of 2.8 to 1.
That compares to a daily average of 65,324 non-Covid patients to 11,334 Covid patients, or a ratio of 5.8 to 1, on December 13.
There are 32,294 coronavirus patients in UK hospitals on Friday across all words, including intensive care units - more than 50 per cent higher than the peak of the first wave in spring.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said some trusts have reacted by postponing operations and elective surgeries as they did last spring, in order to expand capacity.
He said: “Clearly, the NHS isn’t able to provide the same level of non-urgent and non-Covid care that it has been able to provide at other points. When you’ve got more than 29,000 beds in England occupied by Covid patients you can’t use them for other purposes. So what trusts are doing is prioritising on the basis of clinical need.”
Professor Kevin Fenton, London regional director of Public Health England, warned on Saturday that the more coronavirus patients the NHS has to deal with, the more difficult it was to keep other services open.
He told the BBC: "This is the challenge with the Covid pandemic and why we have been asking the population to really reduce mixing, to stay at home, to reduce the number of Covid infections because of the knock-on impact of this disease.
"Not only do you put severe strain on the health system but you prevent other health conditions that may also need urgent or important treatment from being able to access those services at the time.”
The latest data appears to confirm the fear that hospitals are being overwhelmed with new Covid patients, with nine trusts in England now seeing more than half of their general and acute beds occupied by those needing treatment for the virus.
The worst affected trusts - which are all treating more patients for Covid than any other ailment - include, the Whittington in north London (65 per cent Covid patients), Medway in Kent (59 per cent), Homerton University Hospital (56.8) and Milton Keynes University Hospital (55.3 per cent).
On Sautrday night, Prof Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, issued a stark warning that the UK is facing its "most serious" battle against coronavirus which is leaving the NHS in the "most dangerous situation anyone can remember".
Urging the public to stay at home and obey the lockdown, he wrote in The Sunday Times: "Every unnecessary interaction you have could be the link in a chain of transmission that has a vulnerable person at the end."
As well as the pressure of increasing numbers of Covid patients, hospitals are having to deal with severe staff shortages.
Around 46,000 NHS staff are now off sick with coronavirus after catching it in the community or while working, representing one in ten of Britain's doctors and nurses, according to the Doctor's Association.
Dr Simon Walsh, deputy chair of the BMA consultants committee and an emergency care doctor in London, said: “Over recent weeks we have seen an unprecedented surge of Covid admissions into hospitals. We are in serious danger of becoming overwhelmed.
“We have a depleted workforce who are exhausted but doing all they can to keep the health system running and it is therefore crucial that we urgently get the vaccine into as many healthcare workers as possible. It is also imperative that they have access to suitable protective equipment.”
The surge in Covid patients has inevitably led to strain on hospital infrastructure, particularly their ability to deliver oxygen for desperately needed ventilation.
St Helier Hospital in Sutton, south London, was last week forced to transfer a “small number” of patients to other hospitals after demand for oxygen reached unsustainable levels.
That followed the declaration of a major incident at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich before Christmas, following similar problems with its oxygen supply.
Mr Hopson said hospitals were stepping up efforts to secure supplies and “scale up” their capacity to deliver oxygen to patients.
“Growing admissions of patients with COVID-19 mean the need for oxygen piped to the bedside has increased dramatically. This is presenting real logistical challenges in a few hospitals but, as in the first phase, trusts have rapidly done what they need to keep looking after patients.”
Vin Diwakar, Medical Director for the NHS in London said: “Our staff are working round the clock opening hundreds of beds including the London Nightingale and some surgery is being postponed based on clinical need to ensure all Londoners continue to receive very urgent cancer surgery, making best use of existing NHS facilities and independent sector sites.”