Health leaders have issued an urgent plea amid a ‘perfect storm’ of rising pressure on services and rocketing COVID-19 rates, with almost every hospital bed in the region full.
It comes as demand on services and the volume of 999 calls continues to soar as teams continue to do all they can to ensure patient receive safe, high quality care.
Latest figures show that almost every hospital bed across Hampshire and Isle of Wight is full and that more than 650 people with COVID-19 are being cared for in hospitals across the area.
Adding to the situation is the 2,800 staff off sick – with almost half of absences due to staff testing positive for COVID-19.
Due to significant and sustained pressures, health leaders are having to make some very difficult decisions to prioritise patients who are most in need of emergency care. This means that:
- People arriving at the Emergency Department (ED) who don’t need emergency care will be redirected to other, more appropriate services to ensure patients experiencing life threatening emergencies or illness are cared for in a timely way
- Patients will be discharged from hospital when they have received all of the acute care they need – even if they continue to test positive for COVID-19
- Relatives and carers are asked to ensure their loved one can be discharged quickly to help free up beds for those who need them
- They are also asked to support loved ones with their ongoing care needs in the short term, once they have been discharged from hospital
Other asks include:
- staying in contact with the ward they are on so everyone is clear about and prepared for the expected date of discharge
- supporting arrangements to provide suitable clothing and shoes for the person being discharged
- helping with transporting patients home. If you can help take a relative, friend or neighbour home when they are ready to leave hospital it helps them get home more quickly
Steve Parker, Medical Director at Isle of Wight NHS Trust, has said:
“Our Emergency Department is very busy and hospital staff are working hard to care for high numbers of people needing urgent care.
Article continues below this advertisement “Our plea to the community is, if you think you need A&E please call NHS 111 first. The NHS 111 team, who are also based here on the Island, can provide support straight away and ensure you get the right treatment quickly.
“Should you need to come to hospital, they can arrange a time for you to arrive. If you are unsure or need medical advice you can also use NHS 111 online. Please help us to help you.”
More information on which service to use and when is available here. This includes mental health care and dentistry as well as urgent treatment centres.
If you need urgent care but it is not a life-threatening emergency, call 111 or visit 111 onlineand you will be directed to the right service for your needs.
Come on Boomers, it is your turn to look after YOUR parents.
No excuses !
I think you will find most boomers are at least in their 70s, still with parents?
Trust me, theres loads of people from younger generations caring for elderly parents with little to no support from the system, stop your blinkerd group think/ hatred of ‘boomers’ if we pay taxes, we have all funded the nhs, get over yourself, idiot.
LMAO!!! What a boomer statement. You mean Zoomer or Gen Z.
Lol, or there grand children.
Have you visited Alverstone Garden village recently ?
Nothing but care workers, whilst the relitives are on the golf course or at choir practice. INNIT tho.
The poor hospitals are all overflowing with patients who have COVID. The staff are off with COVID. They do an incredible job but I feel they get very little support from our ‘haven’t a clue Government’. Why oh why were restrictions lifted so soon. Oh I know, Boris was facing a back lash from all his ‘haven’t a clue what were doing’ cronies! They were on the verge of getting him out of number 10.
So many people walking around supermarkets, unmasked. Totally selfish. Unmasked on the buses too. Any wonder the COVID numbers are through the roof!
What we should be asking is why are we planning on building more homes that our infrastructure can’t cope with. Our health services scrapped the cottage hospitals in Ryde and Shanklin we had, putting extra strain on St’Marys there’s more people living here the majority being of retirement age!! Stop blaming the general public that want to live a ‘Normal’ life!! If you’re vulnerable and feel at risk then look after oneself. O’ I also shouldn’t forget to say this government has an open border policy and more people means more Strain. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Not my job to keep people safe, it’s their job to keep themselves safe. If it’s my job then I want all big boned people to have their jaws wired up…. to keep them ‘safe’ from the 95% of preventable diseases out there. Get real with your expectations in life, people can’t even look after themselves.
Shame on you who have voted this down we all need to take responsibility for keeping ourselves safe from this virus. Just because the Government have removed restrictions doesn’t mean we all have to be reckless and walk around unmasked and not socially distance. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH.
Sunshine, I totally agree with you.
This rubs salt into the wound.
As of this pay packet were all paying more towards the nhs, the sacred cow that farts in our faces.
How many more years will my wife have to wait in pain for that simple operation??
What will this extra funding pay for exactly? Pay rises, managers? The usual wastes no doubt.
2800 staff off sick stop full sick pay that should stop that problem
Bit of a numpty comment. If they are testing positive with Covid and also feeling unwell then they shouldn’t be at work.
Not really a numpty comment it’s true I don’t get full pay when I’m off sick hence I don’t have any sick days. Offer someone full pay when off sick they will use it slight sniffles can’t go to work never mind still get paid
Sick pay should be paid by your employer also, not removed from one that already pays it. If you are unwell through no fault of your own you should not be financially punished. Going in to work unwell is expensive, it makes other people sick and worsens existing illnesses due to lack of rest. The NHS policy is possibly a little too generous, but the principle is sound.
IF being the word
And this situation will only get worse once more houses have been built, regardless of Covid. Maybe someone from the council can explain how they are going to solve the problem they are creating!
They can’t, they just follow Tory housing targets.
Let’s keep allowing in newcomers to the UK and then watch thousands of Brits move here to escape their unrecognised home towns
Newcomers to the UK never come with a home but all end up with one.
See the real issue here
50 years of fully paid up Insurance stamp. Can I have my money back please….
Our MP is quiet these days.
Maybe he’s still obsessed with proving lockdowns were unnecessary?
Wonder what he has to say about the rocketing Covid rates and Covid bed blocking.
Earth to Bob
Probably still learning Russian? How ironic!
This what happens when the world listens to covidiots and their conspiracy theories. We pretend there is no covid and the hospitals crumble. And this is with a covid that is significantly less dangerous than the previous versions.
Wearing a mask is the easiest and cheapest way to keep numbers down. It is a minor inconvenience, it is NOT an assault on your freedom. Any down votes are from the brainwashed covidiots.
Muzzles do not prevent spread. Research goes beyond BBC News you know.
YOU are the brainwashed one! Keeping this covid obsession going. Learn to live with it, ditch the dirty rag!!
I was under the impression that the whole point of locking everyone down was to prevent the NHS getting overwhelmed?
We all sufferred to prevent this
Here we are 2 years later and the NHS is overwhelmed.
Boris Out
To all those selfish, ignorant non mask wearing people in crowded places I don’t want to say “told you so” as I have commented several times recently but “TOLD YOU SO!!!!!