“Please help us to help you” asks NHS Wales Chief Exec who warns health service could be ‘overwhelmed’ in coming weeks

The number of coronavirus patients being treated in hospitals across Wales is at its “highest on record’, the chief executive of NHS Wales has said.

Almost 2800 covid-19 related patients are currently in hospital – a 4% increase on the previous week.

140 patients with the virus are receiving treatment in critical care units.

Speaking at a Welsh Government press briefing today Chief Executive of NHS Wales, Dr Andrew Goodall, said “if the current trend continues very soon the number of Coronavirus related patients in hospital will be twice the peak we saw during the first wave in April.

Dr Goodall continued: “More than a third of hospital beds are occupied by covid related patients. This varies across Wales and is close to 50% in two health boards. This has a significant ability impact on their ability to deliver local services.”

“Intensive care units are under enormous pressure at the moment, our critical care capacity is operating at almost 140% of its normal occupancy.”

Yesterday’s StatsWales figures stated there were just 5 vacant invasive ventilated beds available for the whole North Wales area, this has increased to 9 today.

Dr Goodall added,  “We can expand beds further but this means that other clinical services are disrupted as we move into other clinical areas.

“We are not able to deliver a complete range of NHS services with such high rates of coronavirus in our communities or hospitals.

“Our priority is to save lives and minimise harm and to ensure that staff are supported to provide safe care.

“We can only respond to pandemic emergency and urgent care needs by stopping other activities. These difficult choices are being made as services and staff are stretched beyond the levels that we would normally see even at this very challenging time of year.”

+189 reported cases for Wrexham on the day on day dashboard update, 35.1% positive proportion of tests. Thats the highest positive percentage in Wales, and third highest case figs today. Seven day rolling to 1st Jan now 838.5 per 100k. People still spreading it to people 😐 https://t.co/fDcR57fMWf

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) January 6, 2021

In north Wales, which is currently seeing a sharp rise in new cases, the number of people being treated in critical care with the virus has jumped from six to 20 in recent weeks.

The number of coronavirus related patients being treated in hospitals across the region is up to 258, explained Dr Goodall.

While parts of Wales have seen a flattening or a decrease in new cases since the introduction of the lockdown, one in four test results are currently coming back positive.

Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire are continuing to see a daily increase in cases.

Today Wrexham saw a further 189 positive cases – bringing the borough’s seven day rolling average now at 838.5 per 100,000.

Wales’ Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton said the new variant could be behind the recent increase in north Wales cases, with “70 per cent of the cases proving positive, probably related to the new variant”.

However although the new variant is ‘more transmissible’, Dr Atherton noted that there are no signs that it causes a more serious disease or will evade any of the vaccines being rolled out.

He said: “It will come as no surprise to everybody to know that the situation in Wales is very serious at the moment.

“We’ve seen cases of coronavirus in all parts of Wales in very high rates.

“The seven day average at the moment is around about 480 per 100,000, which is way too high. There are signs that it’s rising, rising in many parts of the country, particularly in North Wales, where we’re seeing quite rapid increases in Wrexham in Flintshire

“There are two real reasons for this, one is for too much population mixing but the other one is, of course, there is a new variant strain.

“About one in four of all the coronavirus tests that we do in Wales at the moment are coming back as positive.

“This shows that there’s a lot of it’s very widespread in terms of transmission in our communities.

“Also, and this particularly concerns me, but we are seeing rises in the rates in the over 60s, part of our population. We know that matters, because that leads to more severe infection, to hospitalisation.”

Asked by the Daily Post why places such as Wrexham and Flintshire are seeing a sharp rise in case numbers, Dr Atherton noted that population density and a similar pattern to earlier waves of infection could also be playing a part.

He said: “In the north at the moment which is quite a hotspot for the new variant, we think about 70 per cent of the cases that are proving positive are probably related to the new variant. In other parts of Wales is probably a bit less, but it does vary.

“There is a significant amount of it and, as we’ve seen in London and the southeast, once it’s in the population it rapidly spreads to become the dominant strain.”

Dr Atherton added: “We saw earlier in the pandemic a significant uptick in infections before we had the variant in Wrexham if you’ll recall, that that did lead to quite a lot of concern around there.

“There are kind of issues around borders, the border with England. What we saw in the first wave was infection moving from east to west, so it does tend to move east to west from south to north.

“That’s the pattern we’re seeing, probably in this second wave are the same as we saw in the first wave. But that’s somewhat speculative.”

Dr Goodall also highlighted the immense pressure that hospital staff are under and urged people to play their part by following the rules that are in place.

He said: “The NHS Wales is under immense pressure, but we have made significant changes so people can continue to receive life-saving treatment.

“It’s essential that people get emergency care if they need it and please don’t delay getting help. If you need non-urgent medical attention please consider some of the alternative services and contact as necessary your GP or call NHS 111 or other services like pharmacies.

“The last few weeks in particular have been extremely difficult for the NHS and for staff at all levels.

“I wanted to acknowledge the commitment of the health and care workforce throughout the last year. You are maintaining a response on behalf of the world’s population despite the enormous impact of coronavirus on our system.

“I hope we don’t take advantage of their professional approach. We need to act together to control and reduce levels of coronavirus in our communities.

“You can help us, to help you by following the rules – keeping your distance from each other, practicing good hand hygiene, working from home wherever you can and wearing a face mask in indoor public places.

“If we don’t do this, we may see numbers of people being admitted which will overwhelm the NHS’s ability to respond over the coming weeks.

“You can also help us with your choices about accessing services. Please help us to help you.”

Top pic: Slide shown at the briefing today.

Below, watch the full brief :

Yn fyw nawr gyda Phrif Weithredwr GIG Cymru Andrew Goodall a Phrif Swyddog Meddygol Cymru Frank Atherton | Live now with NHS Wales Chief Executive Andrew Goodall and CMO for Wales Frank Atherton https://t.co/OVyOslS9Mf

— Welsh Government (@WelshGovernment) January 6, 2021