An ICU consultant at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary has said his most recent Covid patients have been “mostly unvaccinated and young”, as more than 50 people with the virus remain in NHS Grampian hospitals.
Dr Lee Allan said the sustained number of people with Covid in the intensive care, on top of the “usual workload”, has made the current period an “incredibly challenging time” to work in that section of the hospital.
Yesterday, there were 57 patients in NHS Grampian hospitals, of whom 10 were being treated at the health board’s only intensive care unit in ARI.
Speaking to BBC Scotland, Dr Allan said: “One of the most difficult parts of that for us to cope with is that the patients are very young, usually fit and extremely sick, and not all patients are lucky enough to make it out of here.
“In the last few weeks, we’ve seen some of the most difficult times that we’ve experienced in the last year altogether. On the whole, the patients that we’re seeing are largely unvaccinated and young.
“That’s on the back of our usual workload of sepsis, trauma and post-operative patients so it continues to be an incredibly challenging time in intensive care.”
Patient numbers down from peak
Hospital numbers have fallen since their peak earlier this month, although the decline has not been completely smooth.
There were 1,107 people with coronavirus being treated in Scottish hospitals on September 21, the most recent peak of the ‘third wave, and that figure dropped to 1,004 last Sunday. However, yesterday it was at 1,020.
The fall in ICU numbers has been more direct, with 71 people in Scottish intensive care with Covid yesterday compared to the September 19 peak of 100.
Unvaccinated people continue to be overrepresented among Covid-positive acute admissions to hospital, making up more than a third of those admitted in the week ending September 24 despite being less than 9% of the over-18 population.
A majority of people who test positive for Covid in hospital have had at least one dose of the vaccine – however, this is because the uptake has been extremely high and the vaccines are not 100% effective.
These figures also show the number of total patients in hospital, as a breakdown for those specifically in intensive care is not available.
‘Very few vaccinated patients in ICU’
Dr Allan said the pressure on the ICU has meant decisions need to be made about which patients can have their operations postponed.
He added: “It’s incredibly frustrating for us looking after patients that are unvaccinated.
“There’s always that thought that they might not have ended up in front of us if they’d had the vaccine.
“In this current busy period, there’s no doubt that there are very few vaccinated patients ending up in intensive care.
“By far and away the most patients are unvaccinated, so the vaccine is looking from our perspective to be very effective.”