Heart and lung patients on machines exceed first wave peak

By Julia Gregory, local democracy reporter

The number of patients on specialist machines at leading London heart and lung hospitals has just exceeded the peak during the first wave of the pandemic.

Staff at the Royal Brompton in Chelsea are currently caring for 26 people on ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machines with six more at Harefield hospital.

The machines oxygenate blood from the patient and then return it if they are unable to do it for themselves. It is similar to equipment used during a heart-lung operation and has been used for some of the sickest Covid patients.

Last spring the trust had 27 patients on the machines “for some considerable time”.

The trust’s medical director consultant cardiologist, Professor Mark Mason, said it had just reached the “important landmark” on Tuesday (Jan 26) morning.

The number of critical care beds in the two hospitals has more than doubled from 42 to 96.

Professor Mason said 92 are currently open and 83 are occupied by patients, although not all of them are suffering from coronavirus.

Dr Richard Grocott-Mason, acting chief executive of the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, said there are “some green shoots of recovery”  as transmission rates  in London are starting to come down.

He said pressure on ambulances is also beginning to reduce, along with pressure in acute admissions.

But he stressed that Covid transmission rates in London  are still high at about 500 to 550 cases per 100,000 people.

He said: “There’s a feeling we are probably just about at the peak, the plateau of critical care requirements  and we expect that pressure not to fall any time quickly , but it will remain at quite a high level. We expect that pressure will not fall anytime quickly and that it will remain at quite a high level.”

He warned: “We are not out of the woods of this by any means. There is worrying data emerging about the impact inequalities about differences in instances and outcomes for different ethnic groups.”

Dr Grocott-Mason said despite the increase in critical care beds in London, some patients have been transferred to hospitals elsewhere. When rates drop in the capital it is expected that some patients will be transferred to London for treatment.

Urgent cardiac care is continuing at both hospitals too, including cardiac surgery for sick children at the Brompton. And urgent cancer surgery has also been performed at the two hospitals.