Liverpool’s intensive care units over 90% full, says city councillor

Liverpool’s intensive care units are more than 90% full, with the city soon expected to reach levels of bed occupancy seen during the first wave of Covid-19, a city council leader has said.

Liverpool City Region is the only part of England under the toughest Tier 3 restrictions, with the closure of pubs and bars and bans on socialising.

Paul Brant, cabinet member for adult health and social care at Liverpool City Council, said intensive care capacity in the city was over 90% full, with Covid-19 patients making up an increasing proportion of patients.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Our intensive, critical care beds are filling up very fast.

“The most recent figures I’ve seen suggest they are over 90% full and our acute hospital trusts have occupancy levels of Covid-positive patients of over 250.

“At the current rate of increase, we would expect Liverpool to surpass the peak of the first wave probably within the next seven to 10 days.”

Addressing the intensive care situation, he added: “They are not all Covid patients, I should say, but they are running very full and they are running with an increasing number of people who are Covid-positive.

“It has become clear that the intensity of the demand on hospital services here in Liverpool is crowding out anything other than dealing with Covid.”

Last night on a live Mayoral Q&A Dr Fiona Lemmens Chair of Liverpool’s Clinical Commissioning Group and also a GP in Aintree Park gave some insight into what life is currently like within Liverpool’s hospitals. You can watch the full sessions with Fiona and Mayor Joe Anderson here.

On Monday, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Steve Warburton told staff in a memo that it had reached a “critical point”.

He said the trust was scaling back planned procedures, adding it was “taking a phased approach to reducing our elective programme, while exploring options with other providers to maintain some of this work in alternative locations”.