Where is the extra hospital capacity for the north east?

[Kitchendoctor]

Additional capacity is being created in London, Birmingham and Manchester, yet Newcastle Upon Tyne has quite a high number of cases competed to other, much bigger, cities (144, higher than Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, even some areas of London).
Plus other areas close by aren’t far behind, yet I haven’t seen anything about plans to ramp up our bed capacity.
Why is this??

I have several HCP friends/colleagues who work for NUTH and all have been very reassuring about the contingency work that has been going on behind the scenes for several weeks to prepare for this. The Newcastle trust is excellent and we are very lucky to have it.

Theres a number of community hospitals opening extra beds.

www.cddft.nhs.uk/news-and-media/covid-19-updates.aspx

I’d guess that the bigger hospitals are also doing the same.
Also, chances are that suitable sites for the emergency Covid-19 hospitals are being identified already. I wouldn’t assume that nothing’s been done just because there’s not been any announcements yet.

A doctor friend in Gateshead told me they’re currently working on providing a 600 bed facility. I haven’t seen it reported in the news yet.

@RandomlyChosenName according to our local paper Basingstoke is being considered for north Hampshire.

They are adapting a large warehouse adjacent to Nissan into a makeshift hospital / morgue apparently - work is underway

looneytune Whereabouts is that carehome?

Population demographics

The Manchester one is very close to large populations
Greater Manchester
West Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
Merseyside
That's about 10 million people

The Birmingham one will be for the West and East Midlands. More large populations.

The north east population is smaller and so will not need such large hospitals. So wont be in the news as much .

Cumbria is looking for a field hospital site. They’re also refitting ex care homes to move non- covid 19 patients too

I work in a North East hospital in a senior role. My hospital and all others have cleared wards specifically for when the virus really lands here. In my hospital this is 5 wards, some of which we open for winter pressure and some space we have freed up by stopping elective operating. Across the country critical care units are creating extra capacity on oxygen supplied wards, and in theatres and recovery areas. We have been told to double our total beds capacity and quadruple our ITU beds. So yes, we are making beds everywhere. Plus people are staying away from hospitals and there are far fewer accidents and emergencies that are non covid related. No pub brawl injuries, no rugby injuries, no kids falling out of trees.

There is potential to scope at least one field hospital in the north east and NHS bosses are looking at the merits of this, how soon it can be turned around and how this could be staffed.

Staffing, as ever, is the limiting factor.

I hope you geordies, mackams, pit wallers and smoggies find this reassuring

My Mum is literally now on her way to Cramlington hospital for major bowel cancer surgery. As soon as she is well enough, she will be transferred to Wansbeck hospital. They are doing this as a matter of course with similar patients, to keep capacity at Cramlington for Covid patients. We have been told that there's lots of extra capacity at Wansbeck, North Tyneside General etc since they stopped elective surgery. It was also mentioned in the press last week when they were talking about the Nightingale hospitals that Newcastle was very much the next area on the list. I will see of I can find the report.

Haven't you noticed but the government thinks if you include Manchester that's the North taken care off. Manchester is a long way south of me.

@Disfordarkchocolate Did you read my update? The north east has doubled its bed capacity and quadrupled its ITU beds

Not critical of the NHS, we have some amazing hospitals. The government on the other hand, a long history of neglect.

My DH is a senior dr at a large NE hospital, on the response committee, planning and enacting this stuff and I assure you there are plans and an awful lot of amazing work going on behind the scenes to ensure the region is ready and has capacity. It's just not being reported at the moment, but there is definitely a lot being done and amazingly quickly too. We have the relative benefit as a region to be behind the curve so we can get these measures in place rather than being overloaded from the start.

Just wondering if the north east will need the same scale of hospital beds that London will ? If London was 2 weeks ahead of everywhere else but we all,locked down at the same time then ( provided everywhere took lockdown seriously) the growth outside of London may be less severe?

Or is this wishful?

Daily death stats are already reducing in the news given out, but my ex who works is a covid nurse in hospital says that the numbers of people dying are much higher, ditto the number of people in hospital with it.

Are you implying they are cooking the numbers?

I hope you geordies, mackams, pit wallers and smoggies find this reassuring

This made me smile

@FuckThisWind

Thanks to everyone commenting with inside knowledge and setting the record straight.

Much appreciation for everyone working in hospitals and behind the scenes

I thought we were behind the curve too, but I got worried when I looked at the figures as they seem to have increased since last week.

I know of a lady who went to a&e at the rvi with what they thought was a chest infection that turned out to be covid (I was just horrified at the thought of someone being in a&e and staff being unwittingly exposed)

I heard a rumour “from a friend who knows a doctor” etc that The Sage Gateshead will be used

@LittleRa not to my knowledge

I don’t think they’ll use the Sage. People will die in this place. It will likely be pulled down afterwards, nobody will want to go there.

Basingstoke will be set up if needed. Currently a tented hospital is being put up at Winchester.

GPs are or will be moving to centralised hubs in some regions. With a ‘clean’ asymptotic stream for patients with other conditions and a symptomatic stream for potential C19. Most will be virtual appointments.

@Petiolaris Do you think the Birmingham NEC and London ExCel Centre will be pulled down afterwards?