Covid: Norfolk hospital in 'battle situation' adds extra beds

An NHS hospital has taken "extreme measures" to pack more beds in to rooms and require patients to wear masks.

An email seen by the BBC from the chief nurse at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals (NNUH) NHS Trust says it is a "battle situation".

Chief nurse Prof Nancy Fontaine asked staff to fit seven beds in bays meant for six, with less space between them.

She said the "extreme measures" had been taken as a short-term response to an "unprecedented emergency".

The Norfolk and Waveney health and care system went into what is termed a critical incident last week owing to pressures from staff absences due to Covid and a large influx of patients.

Critical incident status is when NHS management is concerned they are on the verge of not being able to provide critical services, such as emergency care.

It enables them to take additional measures such as requesting assistance from other parts of the health system.

Staff sickness rates at the trust had risen from 6% to 7% in the past 48 hours.

Prof Fontaine's message to nursing colleagues described a dire situation with an "incredibly high" number of patients attending A&E and rising numbers of Covid cases.

Because of the extra patients per bay she said they are able to only provide a gap of 90cm (35in) between beds.

Her instructions specified that windows in the bays should be kept open to improve ventilation and that patients should wear face coverings.

"I beseech you to support me through this difficult operational request," she told staff.

The Eastern Daily Press has obtained a picture showing how close patients were to each other under the new arrangements.

The hospital said two wards had had eight beds in some bays on Wednesday, but those extra beds had since been removed.

The Norfolk and Waveney health and care system, which includes hospitals, social care, mental health and ambulances, said services were under unprecedented pressure and it was working with partners to create additional capacity.

Norfolk and Waveney's chief nurse Cath Byford said: "There are also ongoing challenges in discharging patients who are well enough to leave hospital, and we are seeing an increase in staff sickness - all of which leads to longer waits than we would like for patients to be seen and admitted."

Prof Fontaine's email, which was sent a week ago, also said the situation "is creating an increased risk to patients who cannot get into our ED [emergency department] or into hospital; many patients are left at home for hours waiting for an ambulance or indeed they are waiting on the ambulance for many hours outside our hospital".

In a statement sent to the BBC, she said: "We have taken extreme measures in response to the unprecedented emergency and Covid-19 demand we are facing and have taken the difficult decision to increase bed numbers on some wards beyond our usual practice.

"We are sorry to our patients who are in this situation and to our staff who are caring for more patients on our wards.

"This is a short-term response as a result of our current alert status and teams are working very hard with our health and social care partners to support timely discharge of our patients in order to return our wards to their usual capacity."

Meanwhile, the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust said in the past week around 400 members of staff have been absent each day, equating to 5-6% of the workforce.

The ambulance service has been at Resource Escalation Action Plan Level 4 since the end of the summer - the highest level, meaning it is under extreme pressure.

Its chief executive Tom Abell, speaking to county councillors in Essex, said its performance had recently improved particularly with the most urgent calls.

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