Covid in Wales: 'We've lost five patients in a single shift'

Morriston is seeing "unprecedented" numbers of people die in intensive care

An intensive care consultant said as many as five patients are dying with Covid during a single 12-hour shift.

Dr John Gorst said the number was "unprecedented" at his unit in Swansea's Morriston Hospital that would normally only see one person die.

He said the second wave of the pandemic was more challenging with patients more severely unwell.

In Wales, there has been an average of about 34 deaths a day during the pandemic up to 19 January.

New Year's Day saw the most Covid-related deaths in a single day in Wales - 55 - since the pandemic began.

"In some 12-hour periods we have lost up to five coronavirus patients," said Dr Gorst.

"Usually we expect to see, on average, one patient a day dying in the intensive care unit. To have five die on one day is unprecedented.

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"That's been a real struggle for their families and for the staff dealing with it."

Four additional medical wards have opened to cope with the impact of coronavirus at Morriston, with about 300 patients being treated.

Dr John Gorst and senior matron Carol Doggett say Covid patients are sicker and younger in the second wave

Dr Gorst said: "If it wasn't for the treatment given on the wards, intensive care would have been completely overwhelmed.

"However, when patients have failed on these treatments, sadly the safety net of the intensive care unit [and] getting them on an invasive ventilator, largely doesn't work.

"Most patients who come to intensive care to go on an intensive ventilator, sadly, will not survive.

"These patients are mostly of working age. They don't have any significant medical conditions."

"This is alien to us as an intensive care unit. We expect far more patients to survive. Now they are not."

'Sicker and younger'

Morriston's senior matron Carol Doggett agreed that the "number of sicker patients has definitely increased", and she said they were younger than had been experienced in the first wave of the pandemic.

"That should be a stark warning to anyone not to take chances with this," she said.

On Friday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said there was cause for concern over new variants of Covid-19.

"We know the new highly contagious strain - sometimes called the Kent variant - is now widespread across Wales," he said.

He also said the government was closely monitoring three new variant variants: one from South Africa and two from Brazil.

Six cases of the South African variant have been identified in Wales.