No ITU Covid-19 patients in England’s biggest hospital trust, says Birmingham health chief
No ITU Covid-19 patients in England’s biggest hospital trust, says Birmingham health chief
There are no Covid-19 patients in intensive care at England’s largest hospital trust for the first time since the pandemic began, its chief executive has said.
Dr David Rosser, who heads the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), also said there were signs coronavirus-infected patients “don’t seem as sick, on average, as they were”.
Speaking on a webinar with regional journalists on Friday, he said the trust had lost 30% of its normal treatment capacity for ordinary services having to cope with Covid-19.
Dr Rosser also said Apple and Google were “disgraceful” for not doing more to ensure the now-scrapped NHS contact tracing app could work across both firm’s operating platforms.
The West Midlands has been among the hardest hit regions in the country by the virus, with 4,735 dying after testing positive for Covid-19.
The latest NHS figures released on Friday showed 943 people had died with the virus at the UHB trust which runs four hospitals including Birmingham’s vast Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
