Hackney hospital ordered to stay silent on capacity problems
HOMERTON University Hospital is rushing to prepare for an influx of patients suffering from coronavirus, after figures revealed they had the busiest intensive care unit (ICU) in the country.
A committee of senior clinicians from the hospital are holding daily emergency meetings after figures published last week by NHS Digital showed their ICU had the highest occupancy rate in England at 99.6 per cent.
Between 2 December and 1 March there were only four days when the intensive care unit was not at capacity.
Coronavirus pod opens
The hospital’s spokesperson, Mark Purcell, said: ”Like all hospitals across the country, we’re taking precautionary measures including setting up our own coronavirus pod in the hospital so that anybody that suspects they have it doesn’t go anywhere near our A&E department.”
Mr Purcell said he could not comment on whether the hospital’s ICU would be able to cope with a rise in patients because of the coronavirus.
He said: “Talking about patients and talking about beds, I can’t comment. You need to talk to the Department of Health.”
No comment on readiness for epidemic
Asked why he could not comment, he said: “Because I’m not allowed to.”
Mr Purcell confirmed that the Department of Health has ordered the hospital not to comment on the ability of its ICU to cope with a coronavirus epidemic.
He continued: “The messages are public health messages. We’re just a hospital like any other hospital, and obviously we have a number of escalation policies that we have ready to put into place. We have a committee of senior commissioners who meet every day to discuss what state our preparations are in and we take it from there.”
