Altnagelvin can hike to 16 ICU beds for 'extreme surge' after which patients would go to Nightingale, says Trust director Geraldine McKay

Mrs. McKay said the hospital is not yet at that stage but in the event of a further increase in critically ill patients being admitted to Altnagelvin with SARS-CoV-2 ICU capacity will expand as part of a regional care surge plan agreed across all health authorities.

She said there were 13 staffed critical care beds at Altnagelvin but that this will increase to 14, and eventually 16, if demand increases as is forecast.

If, at some point in the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 16 patients require ICU treatment in Derry patients will be transferred to the Nightingale Hospital in Belfast. Local staff will be redeployed there too.

"Altnagelvin today has 67 positive patients," said the hospitals director. "We have ten patients in our critical care unit. Seven of these are COVID-19 positive. We also have non-COVID pressures in our emergency department. Today we had 29 patients this morning and 19 of those patients were awaiting admission."

Mrs. McKay advised that Altnagelvin is currently staffed for 13 ICU beds which is deemed 'high surge.'

A lot of work has been put in to prepare for 'extreme surge' at both Altnagelvin and the South West Acute Hospital.

"Work we are doing at the moment is around our oxygen testing and flow and given the high numbers of patients requiring high flow oxygen across both our sites we do this now regularly and test it on a weekly basis and we also monitor the flow daily," she said.

Staffing is a critical factor in delivering care for patients at extreme surge, she said, but the Trust currently has upwards of 1300 staff unavailable due to self-isolation and sickness.

"In terms of when Altnagelvin reaches the 16 critical care beds that is required of us as part of the regional network then patients will be redirected to the Nightingale which you are all very aware of and we will be asked to redeploy some of our nursing and medical staff to support the unit there," she said.

Mrs. McKay reiterated her position that the local hospital system is under extreme pressure. She said it was impossible to rule out the cancellation of some cancer and red flag procedures at some point in the future if things get worse.

"We had to downturn our elective inpatient, outpatient and day case services for routine patients only. I want to emphasise again that we continue to provide cancer and red flag and time critical procedures across our Trust although these are being reviewed daily given the extreme pressures on sites.

"I think it is really important to say as well that we may have no option in the coming weeks as the numbers increase that we may have to move to emergency and trauma services only as an indication that our hospitals are under extreme pressure.

"I just want to also let you know that chemotherapy, radiotherapy, oncology services are protected at this time and are running as normal," said Mrs. McKay.