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OUR hospitals have faced pressures over the last year like no other as NHS staff work hard dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
As your local paper, we have been reporting what is happening inside our local hospitals and questioning the trust which runs them.
At a time like this, providing factual, accurate reports on what is happening is vital so that you, the public, are kept informed. It is important now, more than ever, that information relating to our hospitals is made public, even if it is sometimes difficult to hear.
When we publish articles about our hospital, we often get asked questions by our readers ranging from why we are being critical of the hospital during this difficult time, to why figures appear to be out of date.
MORE than half of all staff working for the trust which runs Basingstoke hospital had received the Covid-19 vaccine by the middle of January. A report to Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (HHFT) board of directors shows that 3,441 of the 6,000 staff who work for the trust had been vaccinated by January 14. The trust received the Pfizer Covid vaccine on January 4 and began administering it to staff in Basingstoke and Winchester on January 5, and Andover on January 12. The report said: “The team did a phenomenal job of setting up the vaccination centres, recruiting and training vaccinators and configuring IT and communications systems to get the vaccine rolled out as quickly as possible.”
The new hotspot of Weeke and Fulflood in Winchester A FURTHER 17 patients with coronavirus have died in hospitals across the county. Five of these were recorded at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Winchester hospital alongside Basingstoke and North Hampshire, and Andover Memorial hospitals. Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust runs Basingstoke, Andover and Winchester hospitals Positive tests across the district have also risen in the last 24 hours. There have been 49 new cases reported today; yesterday there were 32. This brings the district s total to 4,483 up from 4,434. The number of new cases continues to generally fall across the district except for one area, Winchester West, which covers Weeke and Fulflood and part of Harestock. The number of new cases has risen sharply in recent days with 41 cases in the seven days to January 31, the equivalent of a rolling rate of 411.4 per 100,000 people, far above the average for England.
Winchester hospital was put on ‘black alert’ last month following a surge in Covid-19 patients. Hospitals usually declare this highest alert level when they are under such significant pressure that they cannot ‘deliver comprehensive care’ and patient care is at risk. However, a spokesperson for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) said the alert system is internal and refers only to Covid patients, not the wider care of other hospital patients. Alex Whitfield, chief executive of HHFT reported to the board of directors on January 28 that the hospital had been moved to ‘black alert’ status following a rise in Covid-19 patients.