Covid-19: London paramedic says worst still to come
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image captionParamedic Martin Berry has issued a plea for people to follow restrictions
A paramedic has pleaded with the public to follow restrictions as pressure continues to pile on the NHS.
Martin Berry, a paramedic with the London Ambulance Service (LAS), said: My plea to everyone is you must take your own responsibilities seriously.
He said he was confident more hospitals and ambulance trusts will declare a major incident as happened in Essex.
NHS England said all services remain open and no incident has been declared.
Mr Berry, a spokesman for the College of Paramedics, said he believed there will still be a tough few weeks ahead and the situation would probably get worse.
There are coronavirus cases across Enfield and Haringey. Credit: UK Government Covid dashboard Every single area of Enfield and Haringey recorded multiple cases of Covid in the run-up to Christmas as the new strain of coronavirus spread across the capital. Since London moved into Tier 4 on December 20, just under 2,500 Enfield residents have tested positive for Covid, with one thousand less in Haringey. This is on top of 5,820 Enfield and Haringey residents who received a positive result between December 10 and 19. Enfield’s weekly rate of Covid cases – in the seven days to December 23 – is 920.6 per 100,000 population, which is the 6th highest out of London’s 32 boroughs and 17th highest in England.
Two of these trusts are not in “tier four” areas and third spans a “tier four” boundary
Dozens of trusts not in “tier four” areas see admissions grow including in Liverpool, Birmingham and Sheffield
There are 14 hospital trusts on course to have at least a third of their beds filled by covid patients on New Year’s Eve.
HSJ analysed current occupancy and growth at each general acute trust in the seven days to 21 December.
Projecting the same rate of growth forward, the number of trusts with at least a third of their bedbase likely to be taken by covid patients would increase from five at present to 14.
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Does London REALLY need to be in Tier Three? Only one of the capital s NHS trusts is busier than it was last winter - and just 25 Covid deaths are occurring each day (an EIGHTH of the levels seen in April during the peak of the pandemic)
Of capital s 18 major hospital trusts, only University College London NHS Foundation Trust busier than in 2019
London s NHS hospitals are actually quieter than they were the previous two winters, on average, data shows
Covid deaths and hospital admissions in London are a far cry from the levels seen during the peak of spring