How overwhelmed is YOUR hospital? Use this tool to check Covid cases – as 1 in 5 had NO ICU beds last week
THIS tool can help you find out how many patients are being admitted to hospital with Covid in your local area as intensive care units struggle to cope with an influx of patients.
Data from the government's coronavirus dashboard shows admissions information for hospital trusts across the the country including how many people are currently on ventilators at each hospital.
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The data is available for every local authority in England, and scroll down to see instructions on how to use it.
Hospitals across the country are currently at "breaking point" as they battle to treat a surge in coronavirus patients.
One in five hospitals have no spare ICU beds as operations have been cancelled to make way for Covid-19 patients.
Hospitals nationally are treating more Covid-19 patients than they were in the spring and NHS bosses have warned it could stay that way until at least February.
NHS data shows that about 27 out of 140 acute trusts reported 100 per cent occupancy of all "open" beds.
NHS England data published on Thursday shows 4.46 million people were waiting for routine operations like joint replacements or cataract surgery in England by December.
HOW TO USE THE HOSPITAL TOOL
In just a few simple steps you will be able to see the hospital figures for your area
First click this will take you to the government's Covid dashboard.
Then head to the healthcare tab which appears on the left of the screen.
By clicking on "Healthcare in the United Kingdom" you will be given the option to select NHS regions or NHS Trusts.
Selecting NHS Trusts will then allow you to select from a scroll down menu of all the NHS Trusts in England.
Here you will be able to see the relevant data for your hospital, whereas before you would only be able to see data for your local area as a whole.
Data from the government dashboard shows that as of January 7, 314,435 people have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in the UK.
There are currently 36,797 people in hospital with Covid-19.
The number of patients on ventilation in the UK is 3,626.
Research from University College London also found that patients in England's busiest intensive care units were 20 per cent more likely to die.
Experts say tighter lockdowns are needed to prevent hospitals becoming overwhelmed as by the end of 2020, one in three hospitals were found to be at 85 per cent capacity.
The study found that the risk of dying was a fifth higher in places with 85 per cent capacity, than those running between 45 per cent and 85 per cent capacity.
LONDON CALLING
Barking & Dagenham, in East London, currently has the highest rate of infections in England.
Last week London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident in the capital as hospitals continue to be stretched by the pandemic.
Barking & Dagenham falls under Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Data from the hospital tool shows that there are 478 patients in hospital with Covid-19 at the trust and 61 patients on ventilation.
However, it was today reported that some patients in London are being sent as far as Newcastle.
today reported that patients in London have also been moved to Birmingham, Northampton and Sheffield.
This could mean that figures for London hospitals are distorted with many London patients receiving care at other hospitals across the country.
Looking at London as a whole, the latest data shows that across the capital 7,840 people are in hospital with Covid-19 and 1,163 of them are on ventilation.
Several hospitals in London feature in the top ten hospitals receiving the most Covid patients per day.
Barts Health NHS Trust, on average from the week ending January 10, received close to 900 patients a day.
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust had over 500, Royal Free London had over 450, Lewisham and Greenwich had just over 400 and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Trust had over 360.
Lucy Watson, chair of the Patients’ Association said that moving intensive care patients long distances was a clear indicator that the NHS in London is overwhelmed by Covid-19.
She said: "Family members of people whose life is saved by intensive care services far from home will no doubt be grateful, but at such a worrying and frightening time, the role of family liaison workers maintaining contact between patients, their families and clinicians will be all the more important.
“This will be particularly so for those whose loved ones die far away, which will make a hard situation even harder.”
NHS data shows the 4.46 million people were waiting for operations including hip replacements and heart surgery.
Figures also shows that critical care beds were 40 per cent fuller in the second week of January than last year and the strain is being felt across the country.
REGIONAL BREAKDOWN
In the East of England there are currently 4,303 patients in hospital and 374 on ventilation.
In the Midlands, there are 5,799 patients in hospital with Covid-19 and 535 on ventilation.
The Midlands has struggled through the pandemic with places such as Leicester being forced into long periods of lockdowns.
In the North East & Yorkshire there are currently 3,455 patients in hospital with Covid and 277 on ventilation.
These figures are similar to those in the North West where 3,912 people are in hospital with the virus and 343 are on ventilation.
Figures in the South East, where the new variant was first discovered are much higher.
Experts say the new variant is up to 70 per cent more transmissable than others already circulating.
In the South East there are currently 5,487 patients with 489 on ventilation.
In the South West there are currently 2,129 patients in hospital and 172 on ventilation.
The graphs shows that hospital cases are still increasing in most regions, despite signs that cases are levelling in off in places such as London and the South East.
This is because it takes several weeks for a drop in cases to be seen in hospital admissions and deaths.
ADMISSIONS PLATEAU
Prof Neil Ferguson yesterday suggested some parts of England are showing a plateau in Covid cases, while the growth rate across the country as a whole is slowing.
He said: "I think it's much too early to say exactly when case numbers are going to start coming down, but in some NHS regions in England and in Wales there's sign of plateauing."
London in particular was seeing a drop in its number of positive coronavirus tests, alongside the South East, he said.
"At the moment, it looks like in London in particular, and a couple of other regions - the South East and east of England - (that) hospital admissions may even have plateaued, though it's hard to tell they're coming down.
"It has to be said this is not being seen everywhere.
"Both case numbers and hospital admissions are going up in many other areas but, overall, at a national level we're seeing the rate of growth slow."
He said he would expect to see case numbers "continue to come down slowly at a national level" but with regional variations.
"It will take longer though for hospital admissions - daily admissions - to start coming down and even longer for hospital bed occupancy to come down," he said.
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Asked how many more weeks of rising hospital admissions and deaths the UK could be looking at, he said: "It critically depends on whether the lockdown we're in the moment will actually control growth in all areas.
"But I would hope that hospital admissions might plateau, instead of keep going up, some time in the next week.
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"Hospital bed occupancy may continue to rise slowly for up to two weeks and deaths maybe even for longer.
"We're going to be well over 1,000 deaths a day, even measured by the date people die rather than the date deaths are reported, before numbers start coming down."