Chesterfield Royal Hospital provides Covid update as operations postponed

At 1.45pm on Friday, hospital staff were looking after 37 Covid-19 patients, 13 of whom require critical care.

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Chesterfield Royal Hospital spokesperson Sarah Turner-Saint said a total of 144 coronavirus patients had now died.

She added: “We are working hard to balance the challenges of Covid-19, ‘normal’ emergency admissions to hospital and our commitment to continue to restore services, including routine surgery.

“We have had a number of questions from patients and the public this week, who clearly have concerns and worries about the current position.

“As far as Covid-19 is concerned we have a tried and tested escalation plan – and have already made preparations to expand our critical care facilities from a capacity of 15 up to 21 beds.

“We did this in the first phase of the pandemic, using a post-anaesthetic care unit (PACU) within operating theatres.

“Inevitably this means we have to consider where we need to focus our clinical teams and our capacity.

“We have stood down a small number of routine operations on Friday (two theatre lists – around 12 patients) to help us to set up alternative PACU facilities and will review the position for next week.

“It is never easy to make a decision to postpone surgery but our overriding focus has to be the ability to provide clinically safe services for all patients in our care.”

She added: “We would urge people concerned about their health symptoms not to ignore them, but to seek the right advice.

“The NHS is still here to help, it is not a ‘Covid-19 only’ service.

“If it’s not an emergency or life-threatening situation that needs our emergency department, call NHS 111 first if you are not sure which service to use.

“Using services wisely will help us to manage demand in a measured way.

“And of course if everyone continues to wash their hands, wear a face covering and maintain social distancing – even more important in our hospital – we will all be doing everything we can to reduce the risk of Covid-19.”

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