THERE are now 85 patients being treated for coronavirus in the Royal Berkshire Hospital, up from 22 last week.
Chief Executive Steve McManus revealed the figures as he guested on BBC Radio Berkshire this morning.
He told listeners of the breakfast show: “It was 22 when we spoke last Tuesday, I think I’d said that there were a number of patients that were in the hospital awaiting test results.
“That’s switched quite dramatically. We’ve had a lot of test results through now, we’ve got a few patients that are awaiting test results, but the number of patients that have been confirmed with Covid-19 is up to 85, with 15 of those in our intensive care unit.”
Mr McManus confirmed that at this moment in time, the RBH has “sufficient capacity” and could accommodate an additional 133 patients if necessary.
And the trust currently has 9% of its staffing levels on sick leave for various reasons and said that testing was taking place to see if some of those teams who are self-isolating could come back to work.
He also took time to praise Reading School for giving over space to create a special village of temporary accommodation for the health trust’s staff.
“This is 40 units of accommodation,” he said, adding that they were one-bed units with ensuite facilities and self-contained and had a big advantage of being so close to the hospital – the school is just around the corner from the Craven Road entrance to the hospital.
Mr McManus said that the units would allow staff to have some “rest and recuperation” away from the wards.
“I’ve not heard of anything like this elsewhere,” Mr McManus added. “It’s up and running now in terms of the units, which started to get delivered over the weekend.
“I went to see them yesterday and we’re hoping they’ll be fully … able to be occupied by the end of the week.”
