Related Articles
Two new wards will be built at Hull Royal Infirmary to care for patients who have tested positive for coronavirus.
Chris Long, chief executive of Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, revealed the news in a video posted by the Trust on Vimeo.
In the video, Mr Long also apologised to patients who have had their appointments and surgeries moved because of the “massive” impact of coronavirus on NHS services.
Mr Long described the last four months as a “rollercoaster” for the Trust but says there are now less patients in hospital with the virus than there were previously.
However, plans have been made for the Trust if Hull and East Yorkshire were to suffer a second wave of coronavirus.
Mr Long said: “We’re ready for that and all of our planning is based upon the assumption that we will see a second wave and hopefully if it comes, it won’t be as big as the first but clearly my big concern is that we go into winter, and will have a lot of winter flu and Covid and all of the other viruses that we expect at that time of year so our planning for this winter is going to have to be a different order of magnitude to what we have seen previously.”
Part of a long-term plan includes the construction of two new wards, which will be built at the back of the tower block at Hull Royal Infirmary.
Mr Long said: “We intend to use those for respiratory patients with Covid and hopefully we won’t need anything like that capacity but we just need to be over prepared.”
He said that the overall impact coronavirus has had so far on our area is “absolutely massive” and added that due to the need to maintain social distancing and staff needing to change PPE productivity within Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has gone “right down.”
Mr Long said it will “take years to recover.”
At the beginning of lockdown, everything but urgent life and limb-saving treatment was cancelled while the Trust prepared for coronavirus. Usually, the Trust sees 3,000 outpatients every day.
Mr Long said: “We can’t see the volume of patients we normally do and I’m afraid the consequence is that people are going to have to wait longer for operations and other procedures.”
Helping Hull’s Hospital Heroes is a campaign launched by Hull Live and the Hull Daily Mail to raise £25,000 to support our incredible hospital staff.
Workers at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital have been at the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, caring for the most seriously ill patients.
The campaign aims to raise money to support staff and provide them with small treats to lift their spirits and say thank you for their incredible work.
Donations will go to the charity WISHH – Working Independently to Support Hull’s Hospitals – so will go directly towards hospital workers in Hull.
How you can help
A donation of…
£5 will support a front line nurse with a meal, drinks and a snack.
£10 will provide a nurse with a wellbeing care package including protective face and hand creams to care for skin from constant mask and PPE wearing.
£100 will provide a Wellbeing Room Box, accessible to ward staff with mindfulness and distraction items to help them relax including journals, colouring and puzzle books, felt tip pens, puzzles, distraction games and wellbeing books. The ideas for the contents of these boxes have been inspired by the staff.
In addition to the above, the charity proposes to spend between £1,000 and £3,000 to help make enhancements to staff rest rooms in the hospitals by improving the availability of and access to drinks facilities including coffee machines, microwaves and improving furnishings to enable staff to take a break.
The more money that is donated will enable the charity to support as many of Hull’s 9,500 hospital staff as possible, helping the charity to support them during and beyond the pandemic.
How to donate
You can donate through the dedicated JustGiving page here.
Alternatively, cheques can be made payable to WISHH Charity, writing on the back ‘Hull Live COVID-19 appeal’ and sent to the WISHH Office, Hull Live COVID-19 Appeal, First Floor Administration Block, Castle Hill Hospital, Castle Road, Cottingham, HU16 5JQ.
The chief executive apologised to patients who will experience delays in treatment due to coronavirus.
He said: “I am really, really sorry. None of us want to see people in pain, want to see people suffering or having to wait.
“We are doing everything we can to try and get through the work, we are doing everything we can to change the way that we do things and we’re looking at how we can work with partners and do things differently and we are absolutely focused on getting you treated as quickly as we possibly can.”
Find the latest coronavirus cases near you
Mr Long praised staff at Hull’s hospitals, calling them “absolutely magnificent” and said: “They have thrown themselves into it, people have put themselves at risk without any thoughts for themselves and they’ve done everything to make sure our patients are looked after properly, and cared for properly.
“They have worked as a team brilliantly and it has been flat out and what I can’t emphasise enough is how long this has been going on for. We’ve come out of winter, straight into this and are still hard at it. Everybody should be really proud of their NHS staff.
“I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
