Major acute cancels non-urgent electives as covid shuts wards

HSJ understands only category one and two operations will go ahead, with other less urgent procedures being postponed.

A message to staff on Friday said non-urgent procedures would be cancelled for a period, attributing this to having to close beds because of nosocomial spread (where patients catch covid within hospital).

According to the Royal College of Surgeons, category one operations are needed within 24-72 hours and category 2 are needed within four weeks.

The most recent official figures show that In the week to 11 October, there were 93 new covid patients at NUH, of which 27 (29 per cent) were likely caught in hospital. The proportion across in England is rising, and was around 15 per cent this week (see chart below).

Earlier this week, an internal NUH memo written by the trust’s divisional director for surgery Simon Parsons warned of covid cases “rising fast”, causing ward closures and predicted elective care disruption.

The memo said covid admissions to the trust “are way past 100 and rising fast”.

“There are also outbreaks of covid on certain wards, which have resulted in closures of beds,” Mr Parsons said.

The trust was approached for comment.