Covid-19: Staffordshire hospitals to move some patients

A hospital trust is to move out all non-acute patients by 12 January to make room for people with coronavirus.

University Hospitals North Midlands (UHNM) said it was being done because of "unprecedented" demand on services and it expected that to increase when the impact of the new variant was felt.

It is the first time the Staffordshire trust has moved to what the NHS calls level four conditions since 2018.

The trust said it would continue to treat patients with acute illnesses.

It runs the Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital in Stafford and the decision to move to level four was made on Thursday.

Chief executive Tracy Bullock said: "Our numbers of Covid-positive patients in the hospital at the moment are high [and] we expect them to exponentially grow when the new variant reaches us."

She said it was already in nearby Wolverhampton and south Staffordshire.

Non-acute patients will be moved to a variety of places, including care homes, community hospitals and their own homes.

The trust would not say how many patients this was likely to affect and did not reveal how many patients it was currently treating with Covid-19.

Ms Bullock said the aim was to create additional capacity and said: "We can only staff that by standing down other areas."

She added the hospitals were being supported by other agencies and 25 volunteers from local leisure services would arrive to work in critical care from Monday, supporting front-line staff.

While the trust was not at breaking point, she said, the future was unclear.

NHS England declined to say how many other hospitals were also at level four and instead said: "There will be trusts across the country at various levels including level four, but we don't use it as a way of describing pressure on hospitals to patients."

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