NHS summer crisis: Birmingham Queen Elizabeth hospital cancels all planned operations for two days

One of the largest hospitals in the country has cancelled all its planned operations for Thursday and Friday because of a lack of beds and space in intensive care.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, which has more than 1,100 beds, has had to stop dozens of elective operations, including liver transplants, because of increasing numbers of coronavirus patients as well as wider demand.

The hospital’s intensive care unit, one of the largest in Europe, was full on Thursday with 10 patients in the wider hospital on a watch list who may need a bed in the critical care unit. This meant there were no spare beds for planned operations and transplants where patients would need an ICU bed post-surgery.

The University Hospitals Birmingham Trust is the latest to be hit by the perfect storm of rising emergency demand from patients, with long queues in A&E and ambulance demand as well as rising numbers of coronavirus patients.

Staff at Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospital were told on Wednesday that operations were being cancelled, while earlier this month The Independent revealed cancer operations were being delayed at Leeds Teaching Hospitals because of rising pressures.

The Birmingham trust has already postponed some cancer operations and warned it may have to delay more in coming weeks.

It comes as the NHS has been hit by a summer crisis in patient demand which has seen hospitals and ambulance services experiencing record pressure. June was the busiest month ever for major hospital A&E departments across England while ambulance trusts have received unprecedented levels of 999 calls.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said last week that its six busiest days ever were all in the first week of July.

At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham staff were told operations were being cancelled “because of bed capacity” in the trust.

There were 163 Covid-19 patients in the trust on Thursday, an increase of 36 in 24 hours.

There were a total of 107 patients in intensive care, 28 of which were Covid patients.

Adding to the trust’s pressures are staff absences. Data seen by The Independent shows 1,091 staff are absent from work, of which a quarter, 275, are absent because either they are sick with Covid-19 or they are isolating.

Elective operations were going ahead at the trust’s other sites including Good Hope Hospital, Heartlands Hospital and Solihull Hospital.

One hospital worker said Covid wards were filling up and patients were having to be transferred to maintain capacity. They added: “This is going south very quickly.

Ian Sharp, deputy medical director at the University Hospitals Birmingham said the pressures on the trust were a perfect storm and the situation could deteriorate over the summer.

He said: “The pressure at the front door, whether its people who should be able to access care elsewhere, or people with Covid, or people with other acute issues, flooding our front door makes it very difficult to function effectively.

“We don't wish to cancel any operations, certainly not on the day of surgery or the day before, and especially not cancer operations, but the reality is that we have to sometimes reconsider cases that require ITU or a certain high level of post-operative care.”