Almost 1,000 people have recovered from coronavirus at St George’s Hospital

By Sian Bayley, Local Democracy Reporter

Almost 1,000 people have now recovered from coronavirus at St George’s Hospital in Tooting.

The latest figures were revealed in the trust’s board report, which also showed that the hospital has passed the first peak, and the number of patients with the virus remains low.

The number of patients coming into hospital with coronavirus per week had reduced to 30 as of June 16.

This was down from a peak of 304 per week on April 2.

Likewise, the number of patients in intensive care has reduced to six, down from a peak of 83 on April 12.

A total of 945 patients who tested positive for the virus have been discharged, but sadly 297 have died.

“Our forecast is that we will continue to plateau in respect of Covid-19 patients,” said Robert Bleasdale, Chief Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention and Control.

He said that the trust still has more capacity than demand for coronavirus patients.

“As the current social distancing measures are eased, we will continue to track the impact closely on forecast demand, seven to 14 days in advance as part of the Trust site operational meetings,” he said.

However the virus has had a significant impact on the trust’s finances, resulting in £6.6m being spent in April and May.

This was due to additional staffing costs to support increased intensive care capacity and cover for staff screening and isolating as well as increased cleaning costs and costs for testing.