There are currently 86 Covid positive patients being cared for across Scunthorpe and Grimsby hospitals (43 at Grimsby with 2 in ICU and 43 at Scunthorpe with 0 in ICU). That’s up from 51 last Friday morning. Between 30 and 40 percent of these patients are not fully vaccinated.
Pressures are being felt across health services in the region with high levels of staff sickness. Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust currently have 479 frontline staff off work sick – with 181 of those for Covid related reasons. Meanwhile some GP practices are seeing up to 20% of their staff off work and ambulance colleagues have a number of staff off work due to Covid.
Every day there are on average 50 patients across Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole hospitals who no longer require an acute bed, but are unable to be discharged. Across Northern Lincolnshire there are fifty plus care homes that are closed due to outbreaks; either due to Covid or other illnesses like norovirus.
Despite these pressures your local NHS is continuing to:
- See and treat patients at GPs, out of hours facilities and in A&E –
- There were 11,063 A&E attendances in December, 2,198 so far in January)
- More than 200,000 GP appointments a month across Northern Lincolnshire – an increase on pre-pandemic. More than 70% of these are face to face and those that need to be seen that day, are.
- Care for inpatients in hospital every day (8,873 admissions in December)
- See patients in outpatient appointments (28,818 in December)
- Perform urgent, emergency and planned operations every day (1,922 in December)
Dr Kate Wood, Medical Director at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our staff are working exceptionally hard in what are very testing and trying circumstances and it is credit to them that we have been able to maintain planned treatment and operations. We are doing everything we can to see and treat patients as quickly as possible but we recognise that some people are waiting longer in our A&E departments, and to be admitted to a bed, than we would like.”
What our community can do to help:
- Relatives can play a key part in helping loved ones to leave hospital – including support with shopping, assisting with medication, meal preparation, checking on their welfare and wellbeing by having regular contact with them particularly following discharge from hospital. If your relative is in hospital and no longer needs medical care you can help by collecting them as early as possible
- Ensuring you are seeking help from the most appropriate health services, and only attending A&E for serious accidents and emergencies. Only dial 999 for serious accidents and emergencies and if you are unwell, visit NHS 111 online for 24/7 advice about the most appropriate care for your needs.
- Cancel your GP appointment if you don’t need it: Some months see 6,000 DNAs (did not attends) across Northern Lincolnshire’s GP surgeries. That’s the equivalent of four full time GPs a month. Please cancel your appointment if you no longer need it so we can see patients who need our care
- Get vaccinated or get your booster jab as soon as you are able to. Almost 200,000 people have now received their booster jab across Northern Lincolnshire (almost 80%), which is fantastic progress. But we need the remaining 20% to have their booster as soon as possible to give them, and the NHS, the best protection from Omicron this winter.
- Follow the government guidance on wearing a mask and taking lateral flow tests before mixing and travelling
- Download NHS App to help you order repeat prescriptions easily from your phone; book/cancel GP appointments and get lots of health advice for minor ailments.