Manchester's hospitals still have hundreds of Covid patients

Hundreds of hospital patients in Manchester currently have Covid. According to the latest data, 423 patients at NHS hospitals across the city had Covid last week.

Two of these patients at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) hospitals required mechanical ventilation to help them breathe. It comes after the trust which runs North Manchester General, Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wythenshawe Hospital faced unprecedented pressure during the pandemic.

However, speaking to councillors last week, group director of strategy Darren Banks said the number of Covid patients in hospital now is comparable to the peak of the pandemic.

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He said: "We still have significant numbers of patients in our hospital with Covid and that still impacts on how we are able to treat and the productivity and efficiency that we can provide from our hospitals.

"That remains a challenge. At the peak of the pandemic, there were 450 patients in our hospitals with Covid – that was the absolute peak.

"But in January this year, we still had 430. So it really hasn't gone away even though that might not be the perception when you read newspapers."

Manchester council's health scrutiny committee met last week for an 'extraordinary' meeting to discuss access to NHS services this winter. According to a report presented to the committee on Wednesday (February 22), the number of people in MFT hospitals with Covid reached 433 in January which is approximately 12 pc and equivalent to roughly 12 of the trust's wards.

However, later in the report, it says that Covid patients occupied 18.9 pc of MFT's general hospital beds in January