Statement issued after Leeds hospitals ran out of critical care beds

NHS England figures show that around one in five major hospital trusts in England had no spare adult critical care beds on January 10.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was one of these with all 75 of its designated beds filled on this date, but it has now put plans in place to allow it to "increase critical care capacity in order to meet demand".

The Trust has done this as it has anticipated the "extra pressure posed by the surge in Covid patients" but it is urging people to follow Government guidance as it "will continue to be under sustained pressure" along with the rest of the NHS during the pandemic.

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Dr Phil Wood, Chief Medical Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We have anticipated the extra pressure posed by the surge in Covid patients and have put plans in place that allow us to increase critical care capacity in order to meet demand, along with deploying the staffing expertise needed to provide care.

“However, there is no doubt that our services – alongside the rest of the NHS - will continue to be under sustained pressure, which is why we would urge everyone to follow Government guidance to reduce further transmissions so that we can continue to care for those who need it most.”

Some 27 out of 140 acute trusts also reported 100 per cent occupancy of all "open" beds on January 10, which is the latest date for which statistics are available.

Other major trusts included University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which had all 147 beds filled; Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (all 66 beds) and Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust in London (all 51 beds).

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According to Government data on healthcare, 32 patients with Covid-19 were admitted to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust sites on January 10.

A total of 195 people were in hospital in Leeds at this time.

It brings the total number of coronavirus patients admitted to the Trust's hospitals since the pandemic began to 3,955 as of January 10 which is the most recent date for which these figures are available.

As of January 12, 219 of those patients remained in hospital for treatment.

This shows an increase of 24 patients in Leeds hospital beds over the two days between January 10 (the day there were no spare adult critical care beds in Leeds hospitals) and January 12.

On January 10 there were 19 patients in mechanical ventilation beds, on January 11 there were 18 and on January 12 the number of patients in mechanical ventilation beds had risen to 20.

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According to the latest government figures, on January 17 the total number of people who have tested positive for Covid in Leeds was 47,553.