Addenbrooke's Hospital boss 'most concerned' he's ever been over mounting winter pressures

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The boss of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge has warned staff he's the "most concerned" he's ever been over mounting winter pressures.

Roland Sinker, Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, sent a message to staff this afternoon.

He said: "We’re dealing with mounting pressure on all fronts.

"After a recent doubling in Covid cases, the current situation is fragile and in leadership briefings this week I’ve shared quite honestly that I’m the most concerned I’ve ever been since I joined CUH in 2015."

The hospital is dealing with around four covid admissions a day, increasing demands on accident and emergency departments and high levels of staff sickness or isolation.

Setting out the scale of the problem Mr Sinker said:

  • The hospital had an admission rate of at least four covid cases per day and significantly higher over the course of last week.

  • Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has been designated as an Enhanced Response Area by the government due to high Covid infection rates.

  • More than 62 beds have been lost to prevent the spread of infection among patients and staff.

  • A&E attendances are above pre-pandemic levels.

  • High numbers of staff are off work due to illness, covid and isolation measures. 

Mr Sinker added: "The difference between our situation now and the impact of the early waves of this pandemic is that we are managing the needs of Covid patients while continuing to provide surgical, outpatients, diagnostic and emergency care at the same rate or even higher than before Covid-19 arrived. "We continue to provide vital life-saving specialist services to the region and to deliver transplantation, complex surgery and high-risk therapies such as bone marrow transplants.

"Our staff keep on giving their very best, working with inspirational levels of professionalism, but CUH people are also subject to seasonal illness, Covid infection and isolation measures and these are reducing our numbers in ways that can be hard to predict."

Roland Sinker, the Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals, said he was concerned by the mounting pressure on the hospital. Credit: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

Despite the warnings, Mr Sinker offered some hope for the winter months saying their success at treating covid patients was "among the best nationally".

He added that the hospital had made a "major contribution to the development of new current treatments for this infection with our partners in industry and at the University of Cambridge".

Addenbrooke's has also made progress recruiting extra nurses and identifying areas where they can increase the number of hospital beds.