No respite for UK Critical Care unit in virus battle
(28 Jan 2021) The scale of Britain's coronavirus outbreak can seem overwhelming, with tens of thousands of new infections and more than 1,000 deaths added each day. But on hospital COVID-19 wards, the pandemic feels both epic and intimate, as staff fight the virus one patient at a time and with no end in sight. King's College Hospital, which sits in a diverse, densely populated area of south London, had almost 800 COVID-19 patients earlier this winter. Several weeks into a national lockdown, the number has fallen to about 630. Critical care consultant Dr. Jenny Townsend works on a 16-bed intensive care ward that currently has 30 patients, with two beds squeezed into each bay designed for one. In normal times, one intensive care nurse looks after one patient. During the current surge, the ratio has gone as high as one to four. "We're doing the best we can, and we're doing it in very difficult circumstances. We try and deliver as close to what we do normally, but occasionally because of the number of patients, we have to prioritize what we can and can't do," Townsend said. That is especially difficult because coronavirus care is labouir-intensive. It takes a village of people and skills to treat each critically ill patient. One recent day on the ward, Townsend performed a tracheostomy, inserting a small tube into a patient's throat to help him breathe without a ventilator, a small step toward possible recovery. Down the hall, family liaison officer Berenice Page held a video call to relatives from a patient's bedside. More than half a dozen staff worked to turn over another patient, carefully flipping them onto their stomach to help them breathe more easily. Like others, this hospital had to adapt fast when COVID-19 first struck in early 2020, finding room for more patients and redeploying medical staff to work in unaccustomed roles. Wards were converted, staff were drafted in from other departments to the new COVID-19 wards and expanded intensive care units. Then, after a summer respite when cases plummeted, the hospital had to do it all over again when the virus came roaring back in the fall. Many staff find the struggle harder the second time around. While the number of patients being admitted to London hospitals with COVID-19 is gradually diminishing, experts say the pressures for medical workers are likely to last for several more months because of the time lag between infections, hospitalizations and, for the sickest patients, transfers to intensive care. "I think there is light at the end of the tunnel but there's still admissions coming in every day to the hospital. And, with what we know about COVID, you can be 10 days into your illness before your oxygen requirement goes up so much that you need the support of a ventilator," Townsend said. "I think there's going to be a long tail from the admissions from the community before maybe intensive care calms down a bit," she added. That means ongoing challenges for staff like family liaison officer Page. Each day she phones patients' relatives to update them on their condition, then takes a tablet computer around the ward, so that family members, barred from visiting, can at least see their unconscious loved ones. "It is very hard when you see the despair and how desperate some of the relatives are, and I think we're often talking to people whose relatives are going to die," said Page, whose usual job is as a resuscitation coordinator. When the UK surpassed 100,000 coronavirus dead this week, it was much more than just a number to Justin Fleming. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
