The number of people in hospital with the coronavirus has continued to fall, Brighton and Hove health chiefs said this afternoon (Tuesday 8 December).
A report to the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said: “The situation in terms of covid-19 infections across Sussex remains stable … improving slightly after a peak in terms of community cases and acute hospital cases in the early weeks of November.
“Critical care capacity remains stretched although Sussex providers have not had to stand up surge capacity as has been the case in neighbouring (areas).
“As at (Thursday) 26 November there were 151 patients in Sussex hospitals, compared with 163 on (Thursday) 19 November, and 16 in critical care.”
The CCG’s chief nursing officer Allison Cannon said: “We’re starting to deliver our first covid vaccinations.
She thanked all those who had helped with the process and called it “a tremendous effort”.
She added that 975 vaccinations had been delivered to the Royal Sussex where a team was planning how to ensure they were all given promptly to those most needing them.
A virtual meeting of the CCG governing body was told that the case rate had fallen from a peak some weeks ago to about 60 per 100,000 people.
While this was one of the lowest rates in the country, health chiefs were actively monitoring the situation, not least given that some nearby areas such as Kent had markedly higher rates.
They were also concerned to see what would happen to the rate of new infections now that the second national lockdown had ended.
Just 11 GP surgeries across Sussex have expressed an interest in being in the first wave of family doctors to vaccinate patients. Further details are expected imminently.
Jerry Luke told the CCG that GPs (general practitioners) wanted to help but “the contract being offered by offered by NHS England is not one that a lot of GPs want to sign up to”.
Chief executive Adam Doyle told Dr Luke that work was under way to look at the balance of risk that doctors were worried about ending up having to carry.
