Covid: Wrexham hospital stretched as cases rise rapidly

Hospital staff in Wrexham are under immense pressure after a "rapid increase" in seriously ill coronavirus patients, a medical director has warned.

Wrexham now has the highest rate of Covid-19 in Wales, with 851.7 cases per 100,000 of the population.

This is more than double the Welsh average.

Steve Stanaway, medical director at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, pleaded with people to abide by rules.

"The worry from a staff's point of view is how much more stretching can we take, how many more staff can we deploy?" he said.

The hospital - which is part of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board - was the latest to suspend routine surgery as it tries to deal with rising numbers of Covid patients.

"That's created more feelings of stress and anxiety, not least to the people who were hoping to get their surgery this week," Mr Stanaway said.

The health board has postponed the majority of surgeries planned for the next two weeks at Wrexham, although some patients will be offered appointments in Bangor instead.

Emergency surgery, upper gastro-intestinal surgery, endoscopy procedures and caesarean sections will continue at the Wrexham hospital.

Prof Arpan Guha, acting executive medical director, said: "There are many patients expecting to undergo an operation in Wrexham over the coming weeks and we recognise how anxious and worried they will already be about having surgery during the current surge of the pandemic.

"We are sorry for any further distress or inconvenience this decision may cause and would like to reassure those affected that we are doing all we can to prioritise patients in the most urgent need of care."

The spike in cases in communities in north-east Wales has been blamed on the newer "faster-spreading" variant.

While case rates in many communities have fallen slightly in recent weeks, in Wrexham numbers are continuing to rise.

The area now has the highest rate in Wales, followed by Flintshire with 754.6 per 100,000 of the population.

Bus services in the area have been affected after 28 drivers of Arriva Buses Wales tested positive for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Gwynedd, has the lowest case rate in the whole of Wales, with 110.

The average case rate for Wales stands at 435.9, according to the most recent Public Health Wales figures.

There have been calls for mass testing - as seen in parts of the south Wales Valleys - in the area as case rates continue to rise, but Wrexham council has said it has no plans to offer this to the wider community.

Mr Stanaway said the critical care unit and respiratory unit at the Wrexham hospital was now under huge pressure with the number of new patients needing this level of care "rapidly increasing" in recent weeks.

"The numbers are really quite alarming", he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Monday. "It's a huge amount of disease burden within a community."

Mr Stanaway said there were 125 inpatients being treated with Covid on Sunday night, which he estimated was an increase of 117% since Christmas.

He said 14 of them where in critical care, with some on ventilators, while 16 where being treated in the hospital's high care respiratory unit - a 45% increase in just four days.

"There are now so many in that unit they've had to expand it to a completely different part of the hospital," he said.

"If you look at the graphs of the cases they are going up exponentially, they are terrifying to look at, and I think people are very aware that this is what is happening out in the community around them," he said.

Mr Stanaway said staff were working tirelessly and under huge amounts of pressure to keep caring for the sickest patients, but it was unclear how much more demand the hospital could take.

"Our current predictions for admissions coming through the door in January are currently sitting at about 350, if you compare that to April, the height of the pandemic, we had 286 people," he said.

"It's a lot more, we've already had 112 people in the first nine days of January. And the numbers are going up and up."

He pleaded with people to abide by the rules.

"This virus is hurting, and has hurt, a lot of people within Wrexham and Flintshire," he said.

"I can't say it strongly enough... we will get through this, but you just have to play by the rules."

Latest figures show 149 staff were isolating and, with high nursing vacancy rates, staff were under huge pressure and were working tirelessly.

"Of all the years I've worked in the NHS... the resilience, dedication and professionalism our staff are showing is absolutely unbelievable," he said.

"But you have to bear in mind that people are tired, people are stressed, and it does put a strain," he said.

"We absolutely want to see you if you are unwell, but if you can wait or seek care somewhere else... please do that to give us that little bit of headspace."