Health chiefs tell Northamptonshire 'non-Covid believers' that virus could soon affect ability to offer other emergency care

A public health chief and a hospital boss are warning residents in Northamptonshire that emergency services to treat life-threatening injuries from a incidents such as car accidents, as just one example, could soon be under threat due to rising hospital capacity.

As of today (January 8), there are 344 Covid positive patients across Northamptonshire's two hospitals, which hospital chiefs say is a third of bed space, in comparison to the quarter taken up during the peak of the first wave.

Speaking at the weekly Covid-19 press briefing today, director of Public Health Northamptonshire, Lucy Wightman, explained how the mutant strain of the virus spreads quicker and how this is having a knock-on affect to other hospital services.

Ms Wightman said: "The sheer numbers are really ramping up pressure in our acute care services and this now is not just conversation around 'will we have beds for our Covid positive patients?', but this is now significantly impacting the system's ability and potential ability in the next couple of weeks of us to be able to meet the normal urgent and emergency care demands.

"So road traffic accident attendance and treatment, lumps, bumps and potential cancer investigations - these services are now under significant threat.

"Whether people feel like they are at threat from Covid and Covid related hospitalisation or not, they certainly are still at risk of needing those wider services and over the coming weeks if the situation doesn't significantly change we could be in a position where we are unable to fulfil those demands as well.

"There is a stark and significant increase in hospital admissions and that's putting pressure on out bed space, but also our staff are not immune to this virus and because it' so highly contagious we are seeing more staff affected, so our ability to be able to provide those ongoing services is very much at risk at this point."

Eileen Doyle, chief executive of Kettering General Hospital, speaking on behalf of Northampton General Hospital too, believes hospital admissions are not yet at their peak and is also warning residents about the affect on other care services.

Ms Doyle added: "We are trying to keep as much work going as possible for our patients who need other urgent care.

"Since Christmas we plan to take some of the routine work down as we would ordinarily do that as part of winter planning.

"For those who perhaps think: 'I've got away this far, I'm not going to get Covid, I'll be fine, I'll have the vaccine in a little while', you may not get Covid, but you may spin off the road.

"Your mum, dad, your nan, might have a stroke, might have a heart attack, all of these dreadful things happen and we have to maintain enough capacity in every acute hospital to be able to deal with those life-threatening emergencies.

"If you're a non-believer of Covid - although I'm not sure how anyone can be, but there are those out there - it's really important that we all have a responsibility to try and help the NHS maintain that capacity for those who need it."

To find out more about what happened at this week's Covid press briefing, visit the live blog here.

Message from the editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper while out for your essential shopping.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you