The South Eastern Health Trust is expecting to reach the peak of the third coronavirus surge in the coming week.
As of Monday morning, there were 69 patients who have tested positive for coronavirus across their hospitals – mostly at the Ulster Hospital but also at Down Hospital and Lagan Valley Hospital. The highest number of Covid positive patients during surge two was 73.
Most of the Covid patients are in the Ulster Hospital, which offers the only intensive care unit within the trust. On Monday, there were five Covid positive patients in intensive care and five non-Covid patients.
ICU capacity is 16, after which patients will be transferred to the Nightingale facility at Belfast City Hospital.
Director of hospital services Dr David Robinson said: “We are expecting to be at worst of this third surge, the worst of the three surges, very soon.
“We have pressures building in our inpatient wards and in critical care.”
As part of its surge plan, the South Eastern Trust has closed most of its outpatient services, with the exception of time-critical emergency patients and maternity appointments.
The move is designed to free up staff to support colleagues in hospital wards.
Dr Robinson said the trust is maximising the number of critical care beds it has at the Ulster Hospital and supporting colleagues across Northern Ireland.
“The ask of us is the same as everyone else and so we’re meeting with colleagues in Belfast and across the region daily, and talking to how we are managing to do that,” he said.
Director of nursing Nicki Patterson said she has been nursing for 37 years and anticipates that the coming weeks will be the most challenging of her career.
“For ourselves in South Eastern we are not perhaps feeling just the extent of the pressure that our colleagues in some other trusts are feeling, we have no doubt that across the region these incoming weeks are going to be extremely challenging,” she said.
