1/4 hospital patients being treated for COVID-19 but this could double: Western Trust Finance Director Neil Guckian

Neil Guckian, WHSCT Director of Finance, on Tuesday said that Altnagelvin and the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) are already under immense pressure as a result of the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

He urged the public to 'stay at home' and adhere to the lockdown restrictions in order to prevent the health service from becoming overwhelmed.

At present 1,300 staff are unavailable across the Western Trust, making it more difficult to cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients.

"The Trust is already experiencing, as you all will know, escalating COVID-19 patient numbers. Both Altnagelvin and SWAH are under intense pressure at the moment.

"SWAH, for example, is already operating at 118 per cent of its bed capacity. Its COVID-19 patients have increased by 50 per cent over the last number of days.

"Our projections, and they are projections not predictions, are indicating that from next week numbers could double from 1 in 4 patients in our hospitals to double that amount.

"To have 40 per cent of all adult beds used for COVID-19 is extremely challenging. Projections, they are projections and not predictions, and I want to emphasise that. To put some context behind this, in our first surge we had 140 admissions in our hospitals in the west.

"From then on we've had 706. So clearly the Western Trust has been under intense pressure throughout this pandemic," he said.