Poole Hospital wards filling with Covid amid case spike

As of Friday April 8, Poole Hospital has 128 Covid-positive patients being treated in and out of Covid-designated wards due to “sharply” rising case rates – which means some infected patients must remain in a ward with non-Covid patients.

Ashley Heath resident Carol Gibbons’ 83-year-old mother has been at Poole Hospital since December.

“People are oblivious as to what’s going on behind the scenes, and it’s very scary,” Carol told the Echo. “People either don’t know or don’t care how traumatising it is for people like my mother trapped in these wards.”

• Read more: ‘It’s a chess game’: Covid rise adding to A&E challenges

During a recent visit to the hospital, Carol discovered a patient in her mother’s bay had Covid. Upon enquiring as to why her mother or the patient hadn’t been moved, she was told the hospital was “absolutely full” and there was “nowhere to put” new Covid patients.

She said: “They told me there is Covid in every bay and every ward in Poole.

“I certainly don’t blame the nurses or doctors, they’re doing all they can but they’re being run ragged.”

Picture: PA

A spokesperson for Poole Hospital said they could not “definitely say that all wards” have Covid patients as people are discharged and moved daily. However, they said: “Similar to the rest of the country, the majority of our wards do have Covid patients on.”

Dr Alyson O’Donnell, University Hospitals Dorset chief medical officer, added: “Covid cases have risen sharply in the community and many of our patients who are testing positive for Covid when they come to our hospitals do not have symptoms and are admitted for another reason.

“We review what is best for our patients on a daily basis. What is not beneficial is for patients to be cared for outside the ward which provides clinical expertise for their main condition. As a result we have reviewed the national guidance, undertaken risk assessments and changed our practice so that patients will be admitted to the ward which is best suited for their care irrespective of whether they have Covid or not.

A ward at Poole Hospital denying access due to Covid-19

“Within our wards, patients will be nursed in bays depending on whether they are positive or negative for Covid, or if they have been in contact with a patient who has Covid. We also continue to swab our patients as per the guidance and as required.”

For Carol, whose mother caught Covid in the hospital earlier this year, the fear about her mother’s safety has become “torture”.

She said: “Mum has become a shell of herself, to the point where I don’t recognise her. People need to know Covid is still so widespread. I know some will say we have to live with it, but if those people had loved ones in these places, I think they’d feel differently about it.

“I don’t want my mother dying in hospital.”