Rise in unvaccinated Covid patients increasing pressure on Nottingham hospitals

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City Hospital (original picture by David Hallam-Jones cc-by-sa-2.0) and Queen's Medical Centre (original picture by Harry Mitchell cc-by-sa-3.0)

By Matt Jarram, Local Democracy Reporter


Nottingham’s hospitals are again experiencing ‘significant pressures’ as the number of patients admitted with Covid begins to rise.

In Nottingham, around 13,000 people over the age of 50 have still not taken up the offer of a vaccine.

And a vaccine bus, parked up at the Victoria Embankment and Trent Bridge over the weekend to offer on-the-spot jabs, did not see as many people as hoped.

The NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which manage services on behalf of the NHS, laid bare the problems facing the city at an Outbreak Control meeting.

The CCG said the take-up was “lower than we hoped for” and a new bus schedule is expected to be planned to hit the hardest to reach groups, such as asylum seekers.

The CCG said the uptake was “slowing down” despite efforts to encourage uptake, with the majority of patients in hospital either unvaccinated or only protected with one dose.

There have been 1,300 vaccine walk-ins, with 374 of them attending the Forest Rec, 150 at Kings Meadow and 144 at the Richard Herrod Centre.

There are now plans to have other vaccine centres at the Karimia Mosque and Gambian Mosque in Nottingham.

On July 20 there were 107 people with Covid in hospital, 16 per cent of which were deemed as critically ill.

Amanda Sullivan, accountable officer for the Notts CCG, said: “We are seeing a significant number of people who are severely ill in hospital.

“The number of people in hospital is half than wave one, but it is continuing to rise and we won’t see the peak until a number of weeks yet.

“This is putting significant pressure on the hospitals – and the ambulance service and 101.

“The vast majority are unvaccinated, which are the majority, or [have only] had one dose.”

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