Coronavirus: NHS in England to declare national incident as second wave surge puts 11,000 in hospital

‘The truth, unfortunately, is that if coronavirus takes off again, that will disrupt services,’ says Sir Simon Stevens

The NHS in England is to declare a national incident over the surge of coronavirus cases in hospitals, as the head of the health service revealed that 11,000 Covid patients are now being cared for – enough to fill 22 hospitals.

Sir Simon Stevens told a virtual press conference this morning that it was an “indisputable” fact that hospitals were seeing significant increases in the numbers of coronavirus patients, putting pressure on services as a result.

Speaking ahead of the vote in parliament on plans for a new national lockdown in England from midnight, Sir Simon said: “Unfortunately, coronavirus is back on the rise, not just here but across Europe. The facts speak for themselves: in early September we had under 500 coronavirus patients in our hospitals; by the beginning of October, that had become 2,000, and now it is around 11,000.

“That's the equivalent of 22 of our hospitals full of coronavirus patients, and even since Saturday we've filled another two hospitals’ equivalent with more desperately sick coronavirus patients needing our specialist care.”

From midnight, the NHS will return to its highest level of alert, meaning that NHS England is granted greater control over individual hospitals to help direct and coordinate the response to the virus.

It previously declared a national incident from January to July.

Sir Simon said the NHS had made plans to try and catch up on routine services that were disrupted in the first wave, but he warned: “The truth, unfortunately, is that if coronavirus takes off again, that will disrupt services. We're seeing that in parts of the country where already hospitals are dealing with more coronavirus patients now than they were back in April.

“We've seen, for example, in the northwest of England, a quarter of patients who would otherwise be having their routine operations, those beds and services and facilities are instead being repurposed for coronavirus.

“There is no health service in the world that by itself can cope with coronavirus on the rampage.”

He said the rise in Covid cases and hospital admissions were “indisputable facts”, adding: “The issue is that the infection rate today is the order book for intensive care in two or three weeks’ time.

“I think the facts are clear that unfortunately we are once again facing a serious situation. That is the reason why after midnight tonight, the health service in England will be returning to its highest level of emergency preparedness.”

NHS England’s national medical director, Steve Powis, told the press conference that the latest data shows coronavirus infection rates now rising in the south of England.

He said: “This is no longer just an issue of higher infection rates in the north. This is becoming an issue of higher infection rates throughout the country, and infection rates, unfortunately for some, inevitably mean hospital admission.

“Unless we can control the virus and unless we can bend that curve, it will start to move into our surge capacity, and it will mean, unfortunately, that we will be postponing some of our routine services.”

Sir Simon, who took the helm at NHS England in 2014, confirmed that GPs were being lined up to start delivering Covid-19 vaccinations in the “first part” of 2021.

“Our central expectation is that it will be the start of next year when the bulk of vaccine becomes available, assuming that the phase three trials continue to produce positive results,” he said.