By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter
A new temporary ward has opened up in a Nottingham hospital to help with the demand of rising winter pressures.
Newell Ward opened at Nottingham City Hospital this month, delivering 27 extra beds for patients to receive care and treatment.
A similar ward is due to open at the Queen’s Medical Centre in the first week of January.
The temporary wards, being introduced by Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, have been implemented to deal with the common winter pressures which are being worsened by surges in illnesses like flu, norovirus and Covid, which all increase strain on hospitals’ capacity and waiting times.
The trust is currently experiencing high levels of flu and norovirus, with Nottinghamshire mirroring national figures.
NHS England said earlier this month healt services are facing a potential “quad-demic” over winter, and this week there has been 350 per cent increase in flu cases and an 86 per cent rise in norovirus cases in hospital nationally compared to the same week last year.
Covid and RSV levels in hospitals are also rising.
Catherine Hunter, Lead Nurse for Respiratory and Heart Services, worked with a team of people to open the ward at City Hospital.
She said: “This ward in particular has been really well timed with the opening because actually we do have a number of closed wards at the moment.
“That will enable us to keep taking patients out of and reduce any ambulance wait.”
Catherine says there are a number of temporarily closed wards across City Hospital and QMC – needed keep illnesses like noroviris and the flu contained.
The ward is currently planned to be open for the next four months but Catherine says “this might change depending on how we go”.
As of Thursday, December 12, there were 105 patients across the two hospitals with the flu – an increase of 30 patients compared to the same day last week.
Norovirus levels in the hospitals are in line with the national average increase- they are currently 27.4 per cent higher than the seasonal average.
Christina Royston, Newell Ward Manager, said the temporary wards are designed to reduce wait and stay times in the emergency department and ambulance wait times.
She said: “At the moment, we haven’t really seen too much a spike [specifically in the ward] in the flu, Covid and RSV viruses- a lot of the pressure is the elderly.
“Alleviating some of those pressures will obviously give them a better patient experience rather than having wards that are overflowing.”
She added that there is currently a good turnaround of patients staying on the ward.
David Hunt’s mother Mary Hunt- soon to be 88- has been on the ward since Monday after being transferred from QMC with a chest infection- he praised the care she has received.
He said: “I think it’s been very good, they have done a fantastic job and looked after her very well.”
‘Corridor care’ is a real issue faced each winter, with Mark Simmonds, NUH Deputy Medical Director telling to Local Democracy Reporting Service in November that “significant amounts” could still be seen this winter across hospitals.
Catherine said: “We’ve opened 28 beds on this ward- that’s 28 patients that potentially would have been on a corridor somewhere that we’ve been able to pull through- that is a significant impact.
“It also reduced overcrowding so nurses and other staff can concentrate on giving the care.”
In November, roughly 500 to 600 patients were going through QMC’s emergency department each day.
