A RELENTLESS wave of Covid patients is showing little signs of subsiding at Whiston Hospital, as staff make a fresh plea to the public to help bring the virus under control.

While infection rates have peaked and are falling across the Liverpool City Region, this has yet to filter through to its hospitals, which remain under immense pressure.

St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust revealed last week that Whiston Hospital was treating 168 inpatients for the effects of Covid-19 – more than any point in the pandemic.

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Admissions continue to rise, with the hospital now treating almost double the number of Covid-19 positive patients now than at the peak of wave one.

In April 2020, the highest number of inpatients was 153.

As of today, the hospital is 274 Covid patients, with 19 – enough to almost fill an entire ward – admitted on Thursday alone.

The trust has already had to expand intensive care capacity to treat the increasing number of Covid patients requiring the highest levels of care.

Under normal capacity, Whiston has 14 critical care beds.

The latest admission data from NHS England shows that, as of January 19, 14 beds were being filled with some of the sickest Covid patients.

The trust's medical director, Prof Rowan Pritchard Jones said the current levels of activity at Whiston Hospital is putting a “huge strain” on resources and staff.

“We are now treating more patients for Covid-19 than we have done at any time during the pandemic, and we are extremely concerned about the rate at which we are seeing patients admitted to our hospital,” he said.

“Yesterday alone, 19 patients were admitted to our hospital needing treatment for the effects of the virus. We have also had to further expand our intensive care capacity to accommodate the increasing numbers of patients requiring the highest levels of care.

“Managing these levels of activity is putting a huge strain on our resources and on our staff.”

St Helens Star: Whiston Hospital (picture courtesy of Steve Samosa)Whiston Hospital (picture courtesy of Steve Samosa)

Prof Pritchard Jones said the trust has plans in place to look after every patient that might require hospital care.

But he has once again warned that if the current rate of Covid-positive patients continues, it may affect the care it can provide to other patients.

Prof Pritchard Jones said: “We need our local community to help us stop this rapid rate of infection and we need them to be as safety conscious as they were in wave one.

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“The Liverpool City Region has shown before that it can take on this virus and reduce the rates dramatically, and we need our population to do it again.

“Our staff have been under considerable pressure for the past 11 months, but they come into work each and every day, putting their own fears aside, to care for our patients with the same courage and compassion they have shown since March.

“They are everyday heroes and we need everyone to support them and get this virus under control.”