Newcastle's hospitals 'under more pressure' than ever

The Royal Victoria Infirmary is among the hospitals being hit hard

Newcastle's hospitals are "under more pressure" than at any other time during the coronavirus pandemic, the chief executive has said.

Dame Jackie Daniel, head of Newcastle Hospitals NHS trust, warned it has been hit by rising cases, staff self-isolating and busy A&E services.

There are now 77 Covid patients in the city's hospitals - a number which has roughly doubled in the past two weeks.

However, the proportion in intensive care is less than previous peaks.

The trust, which runs the Royal Victoria Infirmary and Freeman Hospital, has cancelled planned procedures and surgeries as a result of the rise in cases in the North East over recent weeks.

Dame Jackie said the trust was feeling "enormous amounts of pressure"

Dame Jackie told a meeting of the Newcastle City Futures Board: "What staff are saying to me is that they are under more pressure now than at any time in the pandemic.

"We have got this perfect combination of factors.

"Today we have 77 Covid patients on our wards. They are not, thankfully, as critically ill as the cohorts we have seen previously. But it is putting on enormous amounts of pressure."

The trust has previously declined to confirm how many staff were self-isolating after being "pinged" by the NHS Covid-19 app, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said, although the number was understood to have been in the hundreds earlier this month.

In Newcastle, a total of 12,419 people were asked to self-isolate by the app in the two weeks to 14 July, new government data shows.

Prof Eugene Milne, Newcastle's public health director, told the meeting there was "pretty clear evidence" virus case numbers in the city had levelled off after a recent rise.

But he added he was waiting to see the impact of most lockdown measures being lifted on Monday.

The North East remains England's coronavirus hotspot with an average infection rate across the region of 952 cases per 100,000 people, he said.

The professor reported a "significant" number of the 77 Covid patients in Newcastle's hospitals were on oxygen but only a small number were being treated with mechanical ventilation.