HOSPITALS are under more pressure during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic than they were in the Spring, says the chairman of Devon’s clinical commissioning group.

The number of people at Derriford Hospital with the coronavirus has continued to rise. The latest figures available are for the week ending Tuesday November 10 and show there were 76 patients in Derriford who had tested positive for the virus, although not all of these may have been hospitalised with the virus. (Compared with 64 the previous week).

In Cornwall the number of patients in hospital this week has remained steady – seven as opposed to six - and no patients have died in Cornish hospitals for more than a month.

NHS England figures, released this morning, give the latest details of the admissions and diagnoses of coronavirus patients by hospital trust.

It shows that as of Tuesday, November 10, the most recent date the information is available for, there were 213 people in Devon’s hospitals and seven in Cornwall, compared to 156 and six as of November 3.

Dr Paul Johnson, chairman of Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, told yesterday’s Local Outbreak Engagement Board meeting that it wasn’t until the end of November that they expected to begin seeing the impact of Lockdown 2 and patient numbers begin to reduce, but not all patients included in the figures were admitted for Covid-19.

He told the meeting that the ‘breathing space’ they had in the first wave no longer exists and that hospitals are under more pressure that they were in the Spring.

He added: “We are having to close some wards as people who when admitted, tested negative initially but have in subsequent screenings tested positive and when happens, they are usually on a non-covid ward so that had implications around discharges and bed occupancy.”

Of the 220 patients across Devon and Cornwall, there were 43 in Torbay Hospital (up from 38), 69 Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (38), 19 in North Devon District Hospital (16), 76 in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth (64), three in Cornish Partnership Trust hospitals (0), and four at the Royal Cornwall Hospital (down from six).

There are also two beds in Devon Partnership NHS Trust hospitals and four beds in Livewell SouthWest facilities in Plymouth taken up with patients after a positive Covid-19 test.By Daniel Clark, local democracy reporter