Managers of Leeds Hospitals Trust claim one ward a day converted for Covid patients during peak

It was added that increased immunity following the vaccination programme helped Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust avoid huge numbers of patients in critical care during the early weeks of January.

The Omicron Covid-19 wave causing rapid rates of infection in December and January, which led to increased hospitalisations and health chiefs struggling to keep up.

Rob Newton, an associate director at LTHT told a Leeds City Council scrutiny meeting this week: “The Omicron wave was different. There were a high number of patients, and the rise for Omicron was sharp and steep, compared to other waves it was the fastest we had had.

“Because it was happening so fast, it meant planning for it was even more uncertain. But there was less demand in critical care. That is because it was less severe because of the Omicron variant itself and the increased immunity of the population.”

“Rates remain very high, but thankfully we have seen a decline.”

Claire Smith, chief operating officer at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, added: “We were in a position at one stage where we were having to convert one ward a day into a red ward, which is a ward able to take Covid positive patients. With the level of increase we saw, it was quite a worrying time in the first two weeks of January.

“We managed to get to a position where we had 10 wards that were established to care for Covid-positive patients.”

She added “difficult decisions” were taken last month, as quite “a lot of activity” had to be cancelled.

She added: “We were able to maintain some counselling work and activity at Chapel Allerton and Wharfedale, and some of our day case work – but not all of our day case work as a lot of that capacity has converted into beds for inpatients.

“The teams were brilliant in terms of trying to juggle as much as they possibly could.”

Other extra measures were introduced in early January, including restricting visits to avoid infections being brought in from outside, adding: “We were asked to host the nightingale surge hub.

That facility has not been used, but we have a fully formed operational document in case we need to use it.”

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