Average hospital stay is 13 days for Black Country and Staffordshire Covid patients
Coronavirus patients at hospitals in the Black Country and Staffordshire spent an average of 13 days in hospital at points last year, figures suggest.
The Nuffield Trust said Covid-19 patients require intense care from stretched staff and that despite positive signs, the NHS is still under "significant pressure" across England.
NHS Digital data reveals how long patients with suspected or confirmed coronavirus spent at the Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust between March and November last year – during which time there were 1,565 admissions. The median stay peaked for patients admitted in June – 18 days. By contrast, patients admitted in September spent just three days in hospital on average.
There were 1,730 admissions between March and November at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust – where the median stay peaked for patients admitted in June, at 14 days. Patients admitted in August and September spent just two days in hospital on average.
At the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, during the same time period there were 2,560 admissions. The median stay peaked for patients admitted in June at 13 days – with patients admitted in September and October spending just three days in hospital on average in comparison.
Meanwhile, the data shows that between March and November there were 1,235 admissions at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust. The median stay peaked for patients admitted in May – at 10 days. By contrast, patients admitted in August spent just two days in hospital on average.
And at the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust, during the same time period there were 2,735 admissions. The median stay was longest for patients admitted in May and June at 10 days – with patients admitted in March and August spending just four days in hospital on average.
UHNM medical director, John Oxtoby, said: “The length of stay of any patient depends on a number of different factors and our aim is always to discharge patients as rapidly as we can from hospital because we know that this provides the best outcomes for our patients. This is particularly the case during Covid-19 and in this specific group of patients the increased length of stay reflects the fact that more patients are surviving their illness.
“We now have a much better understanding of how to treat patients than when the pandemic started, including when to ventilate, meaning people spend half as long in intensive care on average and the use of new medicines and therapies which have also made a huge big difference. It is down to these developments that the time spent in hospital has increased because people are less likely to die from the infection now than in the spring last year. On average a patient who dies from Covid will need a bed for fewer days than those who are eventually discharged.
“We are hopeful with continued learning and developments and the roll out of the vaccination programme that hospital admissions due to Covid 19 will continue to fall but would encourage our local communities to continue to follow the lockdown guidance and remember hands, face, space.”
The Nuffield Trust said national figures up to December showed the median hospital stay – used to exclude extreme values which could skew the average – was seven days for Covid-19 patients. This is compared to just five days for an average flu patient.
Across England, coronavirus patients discharged in June had the highest median length of stay of 11 days.
'Distressing'
Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the think tank, added: “Pressure on the NHS is not only from the hundreds of people still being admitted a day, it is also the length of time that Covid patients tend to stay in hospital.
"Longer stays do not only lead to pressure on the NHS, they are also more distressing for patients.
“Covid patients require more intense care, such as help with breathing, and recovery takes more time, so they will occupy hospital beds for longer, requiring more time from stretched care staff."
She added that treatment has improved and the number of cases and deaths have fallen amid the vaccine roll-out. But she said the NHS is still under "significant pressure" and the number of Covid-19 patients will remain high for some time due to the large numbers of admissions during the second peak.
Edge Health, which provides data to NHS trusts, said there are many factors which could cause a rise in the average hospital stay.
George Batchelor, co-founder of the organisation, added: "It became both harder to discharge into the community – an attempt to avoid further spreading in care homes – and less urgent to discharge people from hospital that had many available beds.
"It is also important to remember that there has been improvement in treatments that mean some people who would have died quickly are now staying in hospital longer before going home."
