Covid-19: Preston consultant urges people to get booster jab

Having long been "double-jabbed", Jean never thought she would end up in a Covid ward, let alone be seriously worried she would not make it out of hospital alive.

But having lived to tell the tale, she is incredibly grateful to have received both doses of the vaccine.

"If I hadn't had it, I think I would be dead by now", she tells me in one of the 'red rooms' at Royal Preston Hospital that have been set aside for Covid patients.

"When my son rang the ambulance, I didn't think I was going to come out. Thank goodness I'm on the mend. You've got to have the jab."

Two thirds of patients in this 34-bed ward have Covid.

And while that number is not increasing, it's showing no signs of coming down either. And that is worrying as we head towards winter, the time of year when hospitals are usually at their busiest.

Put simply, they are usually very busy even dealing with all of the regular respiratory issues, let alone Covid.

'Death's door'

Next to Jean is Lorraine, who is recovering from a much more intense experience of coronavirus.

She had not been vaccinated at all, and says she and her husband "didn't think we'd need it".

Lorraine says she felt she was "at death's door"

Unlike Jean, Lorraine ended up in intensive care and spent five days and nights with her head inside a transparent CPAP ventilation hood, where pressurised oxygen is pumped in.

Lorraine says she felt she was "at death's door. I thought I wasn't going to make it".

Along with her husband, she is now definitely going to get vaccinated.

"I felt I was strong - I thought it had been rushed too much, I didn't realise Covid was so desperate and dire, I thought it was only elderly people.

"Please take the vaccinations. It's just not worth it".

'Fully occupied'

The consultant overseeing the women's care says their stories perfectly illustrate why it is still worth getting vaccinated, even though being double-jabbed does not guarantee you won't end up on his ward.

"Because Jean has had both the jabs it has not affected her lungs and her oxygen levels did not drop, as opposed to Lorraine who required oxygen for quite some time," Professor Dr Mohammed Munavvar explains.

"So that's the difference when people have had the jabs."

Professor Dr Mohammed Munavvar appeals for people to get their Covid booster

For Dr Munavvar, more people being jabbed will also mean more space on his ward which, like the rest of Royal Preston at the moment, is fully occupied.

On his ward the phone hardly ever stops ringing, the staff dart in and out of rooms and spend what must amount to hours putting on and taking off sealed masks, visors, aprons and gloves to go into the 'red' and 'blue' rooms.

'Extremely busy'

Blue rooms are for those awaiting Covid test results, while green rooms are for those who have tested negative.

It is the green area which will have to expand over the winter, but already the ward is taking urgent calls from other parts of the hospital with patients needing respiratory support.

Most Covid patients are treated on the top floor of Royal Preston Hospital

It happened while we were there. An elderly patient needed a special tube inserting into his chest - a procedure that only happens on Dr Munavvar's ward.

To make space for him they had to move a recovering patient out of the ward and into a completely different area of the hospital. And they had to work it all out within about 20 minutes.

"It is extremely busy and this is not the norm so early towards the end of the summer", Dr Munavvar tells me.

Without a cut in the number of Covid patients he says the "sad reality" is that elective appointments and clinics will have to be cut again, just as they were during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.

Jean with Dr Munavvar on the Covid ward

The other big hope for Dr Munavvar and consultants like him at the moment is the single-shot Covid booster jabs, which are now being offered to people like Jean who are over 50.

"We've got the flu season coming up, so it's important to have the flu jab as well as the Covid booster," he explains.

"If the protection [offered by Covid vaccines] wanes as predicted and shown by the scientific evidence coming through, then the booster jabs are going to be extremely important."

Jean says that while she was "very scared" about getting her booster jab, she will definitely have it because she "wouldn't wish [severe Covid] on my worst enemy."

"I just don't want to land up with this again. Because I think if I do I'm not going to come through it."