Covid: Cardiff health board plea for critical care help

An urgent appeal for specialist help caring for coronavirus patients has been made by the health board running Wales' largest hospital.

Cardiff and Vale health board, which runs University Hospital of Wales, put out a plea for assistance in its critical care department on Boxing Day.

On Sunday, it said staffing has been challenging but the position had improved.

Figures show it had no spare intensive care beds on 20 December.

A day later, First Minister Mark Drakeford said NHS staff were "stretched to their limit" with Wales' hospitals dealing with more than 2,300 Covid patients.

The health board tweeted a plea at about 21:15 GMT on Boxing Day saying its critical care department was "urgently looking for assistance from medical students or other staff groups who have previously supported with proning patients".

Proning involves turning patients on to their front to increase the oxygen supply to the lungs.

On Sunday morning it thanked people for responding to its request and said there was now "no need to call us".

In a statement, the health board said its critical care unit "remains extremely busy due to Covid-19 and winter pressures".

"Staffing has been challenging, however the position has improved within the last 24 hours," it said.

The number of intensive care beds available in a unit fluctuates day by day, depending on factors such as staffing.

According to NHS Wales informatics, Cardiff and Vale health board's intensive care has been running at close to full capacity in recent days, with no spare bed on the unit at all on 20 December.

There have been a further 4,142 cases of coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 139,642.

Public Health Wales reported another 70 deaths, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 3,368.

However, it warned figures would be higher as it did not report cases on Christmas Day.

Olwen Williams, vice president of Royal College of Physicians in Wales, said: "The number of people that are presenting as so seriously ill that they require intensive care is very worrying.

"I think we can call this unprecedented, not only in terms of the numbers that are presenting, but also the number of staff that are affected."

Wales brought forward its level four national lockdown by eight days to start on 20 December.