Heat and Covid causing increased demand in Exeter hospital

Staff at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital are facing high demand and staff shortages

NHS services are under severe pressure due to staff self-isolating and the hot weather, a hospital boss has said.

Professor Adrian Harris said there was currently high demand at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E), with some patients being treated in corridors.

He said Covid is the "underlying" cause, with one issue "we really have is the amount of staff self-isolating".

One consultant said "Monday night was probably one of the worst nights of my entire career".

Dr Tony Hudson added: "From the most junior doctor, to the most senior people, we have all faced something, the likes of which we've never seen.

"It's going on and we need to be prepared to carry on with the level of response that we've got to with Covid because it's not going to go away."

Consultant, Dr Tony Hudson, said staff had to be prepared to continue facing such pressures

Patients in corridors

It comes as nurses in Exeter were forced to care for patients in the corridors this week.

Clinical nurse manager Gavin Best said: "We do see differing levels of activity and certainly [on Tuesday] we unfortunately had a number of patients being nursed in the corridor and we were exceeding our capacity throughout the whole day which is increasingly difficult for staff to manage."

The RD&E declared Opel 4 on Monday morning - the highest level of alert which means the hospital is facing severe pressure - and do not expect it to lift before Friday.

The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital has declared the highest alert level

Medics say they have seen an above average number of patients with urgent care needs such as heart attacks and pneumonia, along with conditions caused by the hot weather.

Professor Harris, Chief Medical Officer at RD&E said staff are expecting a third Covid wave but not for as long as previous ones.

He added: "We do have patients in with Covid but not nearly the numbers we had in waves one and two, but they are increasing and we are starting to see patients that are so sick that they need admission to intensive care wards.

"The heat is not helping. We get more certain types of illness when we get a prolonged period of heat and there's a national warning about that."