NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens says person admitted to hospital every 30 seconds with Covid
‘Every 30 seconds across England, another patient is being admitted to hospital with coronavirus’: NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens says there are enough new cases to fill a whole hospital every morning and a quarter of patients are under 55
- Sir Simon Stevens revealed hospitals are filling up in England since Christmas
- The NHS England boss said a patient is admitted with Covid every 30 seconds
- He also shared a trial for 24-hour Covid vaccines which is set to start in 10 days
- The NHS is vaccinating at the rate of about 140 jabs a minute, Sir Simon added
Someone is being admitted to hospital with coronavirus ‘every thirty seconds’, NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has said.
The NHS boss, who was appearing on the Andrew Marr show, said that hospitals had seen a huge increase in patients since Christmas and added that there are enough new cases to fill a whole hospital every morning.
He also revealed that a quarter of the admissions are people under the age of 55.
Sir Simon said: ‘The facts are very clear and I’m not going to sugar-coat them, hospitals are under extreme pressure and staff are under extreme pressure.
‘Since Christmas Day we’ve seen another 15,000 increase in the in-patients in hospitals across England, that’s the equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients.
‘Staggeringly, every thirty seconds across England another patient is being admitted to hospital with coronavirus.’
In more positive news, he also revealed that a trial for 24-hour Covid vaccines within the next 10 days.
When asked if he would like to see jabs given ‘all day, all night’, Sir Simon said: ‘Absolutely, we will do that at the point that we have enough supply that it makes sense.
‘We will start testing 24/7 in some hospitals over the course of the next 10 days.
‘But we are at the moment vaccinating at about 140 jabs a minute and yesterday (Saturday), a quarter of a million people got their vaccinations on the NHS.
‘I’m pretty confident by the time we get to the end of today, Sunday night, we will have perhaps done 1.5 million vaccinations this past week, that’s up from around a million the week before.’
‘We are vaccinating four times faster than people are catching coronavirus.’
He also insisted that no vaccines were being thrown away by doctors, despite reports.
Sir Simon said: ‘The guidance from the chief medical officer and NHS medical director is crystal clear, that every last drop of vaccine should be used.’
Sir Simon said the NHS is facing the most ‘unique’ situation in its history.
Asked if the nation’s health service has ever been in a more precarious situation, he told the Andrew Marr show: ‘No. This is a unique event in our 72-year history, it’s become glib to talk about this as the worst pandemic in a century, but that is clearly correct.
‘We have got three-quarters more Covid inpatients now then we had in the April peak.
‘Although we are seeing some promising signs of the steadying of the infection rates, the fact is they are still far too high and, among some age groups, still rising.’
He added: ‘It is not going to be the case that on Valentine’s Day, with one bound, we are free.
‘Equally, I don’t think we will have to wait until the autumn, I think somewhere between those two.
Sir Simon Stevens also revealed that a quarter of the admissions are people under the age of 55
‘Subject, of course, to this uncertainty around new variants of coronavirus and it will be very important we don’t see those taking off in a way that undermines the effectiveness of the vaccines we have.’
He also said the army is helping the NHS battle the virus: ‘There around 200 combat medical technicians who are going to be supporting. We have currently around 50,000 NHS staff off for coronavirus related reasons
‘We’ve also got 50,000 more staff working in the health service than we had a year ago.’
The UK recorded another 1,295 coronavirus deaths and 41,346 new cases on Saturday – as fatalities continued to rise by more than 1,000 for the fifth day in a row.
It’s a 25 percent increase on last Saturday’s deaths and takes Britain’s grim toll to 88,590.
But in a sign that the harsh lockdown measures are taking effect, cases declined by nearly a third on last week’s figure.
The Prime Minister on Friday released a video calling on the public to ‘think twice’ before leaving the house this weekend as he moved to cool rising optimism amid the drop in daily infections.
He urged everyone to behave as if they have coronavirus, warning that asymptomatic ‘silent spreaders’ are unwittingly fuelling the crisis and the next person infected ‘could be you’.
Dominic Raab today failed to guarantee that everyone will receive a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine within a 12 week target period as he dampened hopes of all UK adults getting the jab by the end of June.
The Government has chosen to deliver the two required doses of the vaccines 12 weeks apart in order to get more people vaccinated with the first jab as quickly as possible.
However, there are concerns that supply issues could hamper efforts to hit that target.
Mr Raab said this morning the Government ‘should be able to deliver it’ and he is ‘quietly confident’ the UK will get there but he declined to make a firm promise.
Reports overnight suggested that ministers are now privately aiming to have vaccinated every UK adult by the end of June.
But Mr Raab played down the idea of a much faster vaccine roll-out as he insisted the Government’s target is still September for having offered every adult a first dose.
