Covid: Intensive care patients transferred from London to Newcastle

Seriously ill Covid patients have been transferred to hospitals in Newcastle from over-stretched intensive care units in London.

A small number, fewer than five, were moved from the capital, almost 300 miles (482km) away.

Hospitals with the largest critical care capacity have been asked to take patients to help ease pressures in London and the South East.

Concerns have been expressed about transferring such ill patients so far.

The patient transfers were first reported by The Guardian.

It is not uncommon for patients to be transferred from one busy hospital to another within the region, but moving the sick from out of their areas is unusual.

Dr Uwe Franke, intensive care lead at Middlesbrough's James Cook Hospital said: "The critical care networks work regionally and nationally and are all about trying to spread the workload about the country without pushing other units to their limits or out of the durability of their capacity.

"But there is a difficulty in this; we know that Covid patients are incredibly ill, they are dependent on breathing machines, they are dependent on other machines that need organ support.

"To transfer these people across the country is quite a challenge."

Elsewhere, Northampton General Hospital - which is about 70 miles from London - has been receiving critical care patients from outside its area.

A spokesman said: "Some patients have been transferred to our critical care unit in recent weeks from other parts of the country, including London.

"We currently have one 'out-of-area' patient, but they are not from London."

In the week to 10 January, the Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which covers the Royal Victoria Infirmary and the Freeman Hospital, admitted 112 new patients with Covid-19.

In the previous seven days it admitted 98, and the week before that it was 49.

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