'Relentless pressure' we take a look inside Airedale Hospital a year on from first Covid 19 cases

An acute respiratory unit at Airedale Hospital in Keighley, which was only set up to cope with the surge in demand, is full. A year on from the first UK cases of coronavirus, frontline staff say the pressure is unrelenting. They have treated thousands of patients, some of whom were their own colleagues who contracted coronavirus during three waves of the virus.

The first case at Airedale arrived on March 19th 2020 and since then 223 patients have died in the hospital. 465 patients treated there recovered and have been allowed home. They wanted ITV cameras to show the reality of this virus a year on.Matron Nicky Denbow caught coronavirus last March and spent four weeks in intensive care at Bradford Royal Infirmary where she used to work:

"After a period of recovery I came back to work in the middle of June and since then have been working hard to help support the crisis.

"I was incredibly poorly. My family were prepared for the worst they were told I was unlikely to survive.  Being a nurse and a patient, we don't all make the best patients. But it has given me an insight now into what patients are going through."

Executive Medical Officer David Crampsey paid tribute to how staff had coped over the past year. He said: "We were anticipating that there would be a virus coming to this country but I don't think anyone could have anticipated the significance scale and the ask of that challenge for all of us".

Mr Crampsey said that Airedale had to adapt quickly by introducing virtual consultations and that some new procedures would remain in place because they worked so well.

The deputy medical director Alan Hart-Thomas has swapped his managerial duties for clinical work. He also contracted coronavirus and spent some time being cared for on his own ward and in intensive care.

"I was worried and I'm not normally a worrier about my own health, but there is an anxiety when you take your temperature and it's 40-something and your oxygen saturations are low", he said.

"It is frightening when you have some medical knowledge and you look after patients who are dying."Airedale Hospital is vaccinating all of its workforce and one of the first to receive his jab was Dr Prabhakaran Premraj. He is calling for black, Asian and ethnic minorities to be prioritised after research showed they are disproportionately impacted by the virus. 

Dr Premraj said he was delighted to be vaccinated early in January: "You came into work with the feeling this could be the day you are getting it."

Patient Deborah Hanson was one of 84 new cases admitted into Airedale Hospital last week and is being treated in the acute respiratory unit. She urged people to follow the rules and praised the care she had received.