Covid patient numbers in Derbyshire hospitals have almost halved

At January’s peak, Royal Derby Hospital, Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Queen’s Hospital in Burton were treating a total of 709 Covid patients.

Now, three weeks later, that figure has fallen by almost half to 380

Chesterfield Royal Hospital is currently treating 107 Covid patients.

This is down a quarter from 144 last week and down 45 per cent from a peak of 196 three weeks ago.

Its first wave high was 75 Covid patients.

Its intensive care staff are currently treating 11 patients with the virus, down from 16 three weeks ago.

Royal Derby Hospital is currently treating 182 Covid patients – down a third in the past week – while Queen’s Hospital in Burton is treating 91 Covid patients, down from 120 last week.

The reduction in Covid inpatients is being labelled as a ‘welcome relief’ but local health officials say they are aware that this is still a significant number of patients at the same time, with the same illness, at a level unheard of before the Covid pandemic.

Officials continued that over the summer, hospitals were often treating just a handful of Covid patients and frequently did not have any inpatients with the virus at all.

And they stressed that it has taken a sustained period of national lockdown to get to this halfway mark and they are urging people to ‘maintain discipline’ by wearing face coverings, keeping good hand hygiene and keeping socially distant, along with following official restrictions.

A spokesperson for the Chesterfield Royal Hospital trust said: “We continue to experience high-demand across our in-patient wards for both Covid-19 and other emergency admissions and, as a result, we still have staff redeployed to areas of greatest need, including critical care.

“We remain grateful to everyone in our north Derbyshire communities for the support they are showing the NHS throughout lock-down.

“Whilst we are delighted to see more and more people receiving their first vaccine, the measures of ‘hands, face and space’ remain vitally important and we would encourage everyone to keep following ‘the rules’ and to keep protecting each other.”