ST HELENS and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has revealed it is no longer treating any coronavirus patients in its intensive care unit – but has warned the risk of catching the virus remains high.
Since March, the trust has undertaken 14,829 COVID tests on 10,201 patients at Whiston, St Helens and Newton hospitals.
Out of these 871 tests, 733 patients have had a positive result.
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A total of 207 patients have died at the trust after testing positive for COVID-19, while there have been 532 discharges.
But it has now been more than a month since any coronavirus deaths were reported to NHS England, with the last death occurring on June 18.
Although the picture at the hospital trust and for St Helens generally remains a vastly improved one, the threat of COVID-19 has not disappeared completely.
Dr John Matthews, A&E consultant said: “It might feel like things are slowing returning to normal but we are still in the middle of a pandemic and if we don’t do everything we can to limit the spread of infection then a second spike in cases is highly likely.
“This would put our accident and emergency department under enormous pressure and could lead to our intensive care unit and respiratory wards returning to full capacity with very sick patients causing inevitable delays in the delivery of other services such as cancer treatments and routine operations.
“We need everyone to stay alert; wash your hands thoroughly and regularly, respect social distancing and wear a mask.
“Do these things and you will protect yourself and the people who are important to you. Don’t do them and you are putting everyone at risk.”
Out of the 207 patients who died at the hospital trust, 104 of those were from St Helens, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
In addition, 81 deaths occurred in St Helens care homes, eight occurred at home, two in a hospice and one is listed as occurring elsewhere.
The latest ONS data show the number of deaths involving coronavirus, based on any mention of COVID-19 on the death certificate.
In terms of infections, as of Sunday there have been 1,197 confirmed cases in St Helens, according to data from Public Health England (PHE).
Separate PHE data shows that, between July 6 and July 12, St Helens has a weekly infection rate of 1.7, based on 100,000 population.
In Knowsley, a surge in cases recently saw its weekly infection rate rise to 20.1 cases per 100,000 people.
According to the latest PHE data, Knowsley's weekly infection rate has fallen from 11.4 to 3.34.
Rowan Pritchard Jones, medical director at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said the recent spike in cases in Knowsley highlights why the public cannot get complacent.
During the height of the first outbreak, the situation at the trust never quite hit the heights hospital chiefs had prepared for.
Mr Pritchard Jones said this was largely due to the behaviour of the public.
“We breathed an enormous sigh of relief that we were never in an unmanageable situation here,” he said.
“We never had to choose who got a ventilator, for which I am most grateful for.
“We were preparing for scenarios where we might have had to think like that, and that didn’t happen.
“That was a combination of people doing the right thing, staying away from the hospital, so we had enough beds.
“The efforts of the medical team to sort patients out quickly was phenomenal, going above and beyond.
“And actually the efforts of all of the hospitals in the region to help each other out was quite unprecedented.”
As we head into the winter period, the entire health system is bracing itself for a potential second wave, as it tries to deal with the challenging flu season.
“In the middle of July, we are working on detailed plans for the winter, because it’s a real risk,” Mr Pritchard Jones said.
“What brings the particular challenge for this is, we’re going to get our winter flu starting and how do we start to differentiate patients presenting with straight forward flu or those presenting with COVID?
“So the swabbing of patients when they come into us is really crucial. Patients who need us, we are always there for you, but make sure you’re at that point where you absolutely need us.
“We’ve still got our urgent treatment centres, our walk-in centres, our GPs. We’ve got 111.”
Mr Pritchard Jones said the trust working with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to produce a COVID test that has a 15-minute turnaround.
He said this sort of quick testing is what will make the difference going forward.
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“If we can quickly identify patients, we can get them to the right part of the hospital,” Mr Pritchard Jones said.
“It’s going to take everybody pulling together to do that and we’re making sure that we’ve got extra space in intensive care if we need it, we’re making sure that we’ve got extra space on the respiratory ward if we need that.
“So all of that planning is in full swing. That’s how serious this is.”
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