'Substantial increase' in number of Covid patients in hospital on the Fylde coast, says medical director

There are now 177 patients with Covid-19 in hospital on the Fylde coast - up from 82 patients last week.

122 are on the wards at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, 13 are in the Vic's intensive care unit, and 42 are in Clifton Hospital in St Annes.

Dr Jim Gardner, the hospitals' medical director, said: "That's a worrying increase on last week and it feels in the hospital that we really are very busy with patients who are Covid positive, though we're maintaining our elective surgery programme, our diagnostics and our outpatients programme as best as we can."

Infection rates in Blackpool, Fylde, and Wyre continue to grow, though it remains to be seen whether placing the resort under the strictest anti-Covid measures on Saturday will help bring them back under control.

Speaking during his weekly coronavirus briefing today (October 21), Dr Gardner said they have had to "occasionally" step down some surgical procedures, but explains in certain cases it was due to external factors such as the supply of materials and "not necessarily to do with the fact that [they] haven't got the facilities."

"We're in a phase I would like to describe as calm escalation where we are moving into escalation wards, but we still have capacity to operate the hospital as normal and to manage the influx of patients as they come," he said.

But the Emergency Department has been "extraordinarily busy", he added, prompting him to reiterate the message to only use A&E for accidents and emergencies.

"If there are ways to manage your health through your general practice, through your pharmacy, through dialling 111 for advice, then please do that because the reality is if you do come to our ED Department you may have a rather long time waiting to be seen."

The death toll at the Vic has increased by five to 264 over the past seven days, though it rose by nine the week before.

In the seven days to October 17, Blackpool's infection rate was 398.7 cases per 100,000 people.

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