GREAT Western Hospital’s chief executive has spoken about the challenges staff currently face while caring for a high number of Covid patients.

The hospital was carrying for 62 patients with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, of which eight were in the intensive care unit as of Friday.

“We have to set aside a significant portion of hospital beds for Covid patients,” Kevin McNamara said. “They need a different type of infection control than other areas.

“Our long Covid demand remains a concern. I think the numbers that we’ve seen in terms of Covid are similar and have surpassed where we were in the autumn lockdown in November last year.”

Last year PM Boris Johnson announced a four-week lockdown for November to help control infections. Mr McNamara said: “It had an impact and brought those numbers down relatively quickly. Given that we haven’t got that to rely on this year, we obviously don’t quite know how long this surge is going to last. And that’s a real worry if we have Covid plus flu.”

He highlighted the staffing challenges they are currently facing.

“We have staffing challenges across, not just this trust but across the NHS,” he said. “That’s driven by the community case rates.”

The UTC is currently closed overnight to relocate those staff to support the emergency department.

“That gives you a sense of some of the decisions, and difficult decisions we’re having to take,” Mr McNamara added.