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Covid: Operations cancelled at Birmingham hospital amid rising cases

BBC Staff in an ICU unitBBC
Medics at West Midlands sites are seeing a rising number of Covid patients

A hospital cancelled planned operations for two days as staff saw an increasing number of Covid patients.

University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust said the suspension of procedures at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Thursday and Friday came as more people needed urgent treatment.

The number of Covid patients at UHB rose from 110 on Monday to 166 on Friday, with 30 in intensive care.

The trust urged people to get vaccinated.

A spokesperson for UHB said: "Elective operations were rescheduled yesterday and today as a result of the number of very sick patients requiring emergency care.

"This is also contributed to by increasing numbers of inpatients with Covid requiring critical care."

Operations continued at Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals.

"We must encourage local people to play their important part in keeping themselves and other more vulnerable people safer by having their Covid vaccination," the spokesperson added.

Sign for Queen Elizabeth Hospital
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust said some operations were cancelled due to the number of very sick patients requiring emergency care

Elsewhere in the region, some Covid-19 patients have been moved across the Midlands for treatment due to a lack of intensive care beds.

Health bosses say intensive care offered by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust is at peak capacity.

The trust, which runs Birmingham's City Hospital and Sandwell General in West Bromwich, said it has 70 Covid inpatients.

A number of patients have been transferred to intensive care beds in hospitals in the East Midlands, although the exact number has not been revealed.

Dr Jonathan Hulme, the trust's critical care lead, said staff had seen a "definite upturn" in cases in the last fortnight.

He said: "Normally over the summer we have a lull and we were all looking forward to that so we could try to get some rest for our staff on the unit, but it has not happened."

However, doctors said patients going in with Covid-19 were not as sick as earlier in the pandemic and tended to be younger.

The peak of the current wave is not expected before mid-August and could lead to between 1,000 and 2,000 hospital admissions per day, according to government scientists.

Almost all legal restrictions on social contact will be removed in England from Monday, but some guidance will remain.

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