Royal Berkshire Hospital still feeling pressures of Covid two years since pandemic declared

The Royal Berkshire Hospital says staff are still feeling the pressure of coronavirus, with a high demand on its services as it marks two years since the pandemic began.

A recent increase in hospital admissions, and a busy emergency department, means patients are facing long waits to be admitted. 

On Monday (7 March), the trust, based in Reading, said 115 people were being treated in A&E at the Royal Berkshire, when the emergency department has a capacity of 80 patients. 

The hospital has seen an increase in patients who have tested positive for Covid, and are needing to isolate those patients from others, leading to longer waiting times.

Emergency Department clinician, Dr Omar Nafousi said: "As a result, we have reduced bed capacity and hence people are waiting in the emergency department a bit longer to be admitted to the main part of the hospital."

Dr Omar Nafousi says the hospital is still feeling the pressures of Covid

He added: "We are still feeling the pressure of Covid, and of the increased patient numbers we are seeing. It does vary from day to day.

"We try everything we can to improve patient flow and it seems to be working, we're not as bad as others.

"People feel they are increasingly needing care more urgently and so they come to us before they try any other avenue.

"What we ask the public to do is to use some common sense if they have a condition that can wait to be seen, rather than just attend the emergency department."

Latest NHS figures, show, last month, 500 patients had to wait more than four hours from the decision to admit them, to their actual admission.

It was higher at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, with 800 patients waiting four hours to be admitted. 

To mark two years since a pandemic was declared by the World Health Organisation, doctors and nurses at Royal Berkshire held a two minute's silence to remember those they have lost.Nicky Lloyd, Chief Finance Officer said: "We've been through an incredibly challenging period. We've lost colleagues, many of our staff know somebody who has died.

"We're still dealing with the effects of Covid in our patient groups and our long Covid clinics are running and helping some of those patients recover.

"We really wanted to make sure that although we're very busy, that we do stop and pause and reflect and remember."

Nicky Lloyd, Chief Finance Officer, says it is important to pause and reflect

Meanwhile, representatives of the Covid-19 Inquiry will visit towns and cities across the UK over the next few weeks to meet with people impacted by the pandemic.

Chair of the inquiry Baroness Heather Hallett said she wants to hear from people across the four nations who will give her their views on what it should investigate.

It comes after the Cabinet Office published its draft terms of reference for the public inquiry on Thursday.

The main topics of the inquiry will be to examine the response to the pandemic and its impact in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and to produce a factual narrative account of what happened.