22 Friday April 8 2022 | the times
News
One in four patients arriving at A&E
last week spent at least half an hour
stuck in the back of an ambulance
before being admitted to hospital.
Ambulance handover delays are at
their worst this winter after admissions
for patients with Covid-19 climbed to
Hospital patients waiting in
ambulances as virus surges
Eleanor Hayward
Health Correspondent
the highest level since early 2021. In one
case on Monday, a patient waited out-
side Worcestershire Royal Hospital for
14 hours before they were finally let out
of the ambulance to see a doctor.
Health chiefs said that staffing short-
ages and rising Covid-19 admissions
were creating a “double emergency”,
leading to unprecedented demand on
hospitals and ambulance services.Several hospitals have pleaded with
patients to stay away unless they are
dying.
Weekly data from NHS England re-
vealed that 21,432 of the 79,548 patients
arriving at hospital by ambulance last
week waited at least half an hour.
One in eight patients, 11,460, waited
at least an hour, despite national guide-
lines saying patients should be handedover to A&E staff within 15 minutes.
This is the highest figure since the data
was first published at the beginning of
December.
With coronavirus infections at a
record high, the NHS also revealed
staff absences are now at their highest
level since January. There are an aver-
age of 28,500 workers off sick with the
virus each day, the equivalent of 3 per
cent of the workforce.
Staffing shortages meant that Ports-
mouth Hospitals NHS Trust declared a
critical incident this week, saying that
“our beds are full... we are only able to
treat patients with life-threatening
conditions”.
The chief medical officer for Hamp-
shire and the Isle of Wight begged fami-
lies to collect relatives from hospital
immediately to free up beds, even if the
patient is still testing positive.
The number of patients in hospital
with coronavirus is at its highest level
since February 2021, driven by rising
admissions in over-65s.
There are 20,409 such patients
across the UK, although only about
four in ten were admitted primarily for
the virus and the number in intensive
care remains low.
Stephen Powis, the NHS medical
director, said: “Today’s figures sum up
just how busy NHS staff currently are.
Alongside increasing numbers of Covid
and emergency patients and with 94
per cent of beds now occupied, they are
also dealing with the highest number of
staff off sick due to the virus for ten
weeks, an average of 28,500 staff each
day.
“Our frontline staff are working
closely together with social care pro-
viders to ensure patients leave hospital
as soon as they are fit to do so, and hos-
pitals have increased bed numbers and
created extra capacity in line with in-
creasing pressure.”
Dr Layla McCay, of the NHS Confed-
eration, which represents hospitals,
said: “The NHS is clearly experiencing
a worsening double emergency, as it
faces a combination of both unprece-
dented levels of demand and rising
levels of staff absences due to Covid.
“This pandemic is not yet over. De-
spite government rhetoric and the pub-
lication of its Living with Covid plan,
rising Covid hospitalisations are under-
mining the efforts of exhausted and
overstretched NHS staff to tackle the
large treatment backlogs.”News Coronavirus
F
or sale: 64,000 pairs of
protective goggles.
Unwanted purchase.
£250 opening bid.
Must have own lorry
for collection from Skegness.
PPE bought for hundreds
of thousands of pounds is
being auctioned by the
government for a fraction
of its cost on an auction
site (Chris Smyth writes).
In an attempt to offload
billions of items of
unwanted PPE and cut
storage fees that are running
at £7 million a month,
ministers are holding a fire sale
of items they hope will recoup
some money for the taxpayer.
Officials insist the auctions are
the best alternative to burning
unwanted PPE to avoid having to
pay storage costs.
But with bidding ending on
Tuesday, there has been little
interest in an auction of more
than three million items on the
Ramco website, a corporate
auction platform. The total
cost to taxpayers of the PPE
on sale has been estimated
at about £600,000 but it has
so far attracted bids
totalling only £2,500.
A 24-pallet lot of goggles
has a bid of £260, and
187,200 aprons are under
offer for £250.
Potential buyers must be
willing to pick up the PPE
from Skegness in
Lincolnshire and other
places between April 18 and 22
and are warned: “The storage
location can load an articulated
curtain side truck. No other
vehicles will be accepted without
authority prior to collection.”
The National Audit Office found
last month that almost half the
PPE bought in the pandemic had
been used and 14.2 billion items
were languishing in storage. One
in ten items bought by the
government were unsuitable for
NHS use and the government has
had to write off £8.7 billion
because of falls in the stock’s value.
Ramco has been awarded aMinisters
sell off PPE
mountain
for a song
The national picture
How many people have Covid-19?
There were 47,126 new cases reported
yesterday, bringing the cumulative total to
21,508,546 or 322 for every 1,000 people
32.4% decrease from seven days ago
(based on seven-day moving average)How many are in hospital?
There are 20,409 patients in hospital
being treated. 361 patients are on
ventilators. An additional 2,274 patients
have been admitted, up 2.7 per cent in
seven days to April 3 when this data was
last updatedHow many have died?
Yesterday there were 317 deaths
reported, bringing the total number of
deaths in the past seven days to 1,319.
The rolling average number of daily
deaths is 188.4, up from 156.7 a day a
week agoOct Jan
2021AprJul Oct JanApr
2022050,000100,000150,000200,000
Seven-day
averageDaily casesHospital admissionsOct Jan
2021Apr Jul Oct JanApr
202201,0003,0005,000
Seven-day
averageOct Jan
2021Apr Jul Oct JanApr
202205001,0001,500Deaths Seven-day 2,000
averageNational
R number
1.1 to 1.2Oct
2021Jan
2022Apr Jul010,00020,00030,00040,00050,00060,000Deaths ProjectedCumulative deaths**Past six months