There are 20 people at Milton Keynes Hospital with COVID-19 - including two in intensive care - as health chiefs prepare for a second surge of the coronavirus, a meeting heard.
But the university hospital trust board meeting heard on Thursday that plans are in place to keep as much of the normal day-to-day activities up and running even as they prepare to see more coronavirus patients.
Dr Ian Reckless, the hospital trust’s medical director said: “Today our number in the hospital is 20, and of those two are in intensive care units.
“So we’ve got some patients at the sick end again and we have seven or eight patients on ward two who are positive.
“The numbers of positives in the organisation is going up and the proportion of patients going through ward two who turn out to have a positive swab is going up.
“It feels though we are definitely on the up slope of this second wave.”
The meeting heard that the situation is made more complex because someone can have the symptoms of covid-19 and test negative one day but be positive the next.
But Dr Reckless added that the hospital has a “number of reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the Milton Keynes picture.”
He said they have “all sorts of plans” for what to do if numbers continue to rise – or fall – to manage patient numbers.
Emma Livesley, the chief operations officer, told the meeting that the hospital can use the 24 beds of ward 24 if the covid numbers rise. And they are planning to keep elective and outpatient appointments going.
She was asked whether the hospital could cope if covid numbers doubled over the next week to 10 days. She said: “Yes, I do.”
There are also plans to send patients to either Papworth or Addenbrookes hospital if numbers do escalate.
But Dr Reckless said: “There’s a temptation to see wave two as a re-run of wave one” but pointed to improved speed of testing and better planning.
The meeting also heard that there is no issue with shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE)
And Dr Reckless said he was “confident that the hospital can handle the number of patients” and are keeping an eye on levels of oxygen usage for patients on ventilation.
The hospital has received new non-invasive ventilation equipment that does not leak and waste oxygen around the edges as much as previous kit.
Chief executive Professor Joe Harrison said: “Things are moving very fast indeed and it does mean we have re-instigated our daily gold command and daily silver command meetings.”
The hospital is also planning for the normal winter surge of patients, but Emma Livesley said: “There’s a clear message from across the local system that NHS systems are open for business and clearly we don’t want patients staying away.”
Professor Harrison said the hospital is performing well compared to national and local averages.
“We are doing exceptionally well in a challenging national context,” he said.
