An intensive care doctor has given an insight into life on the front line battling the ‘brutal, relentless’ coronavirus crisis. 

Prakash Naik, a consultant in London’s Queen’s Hospital intensive care team, said patients numbers from the Covid-19 outbreak are ‘enormous’ and that patients are now coming in from ‘struggling’ neighbouring hospitals.

Dr Naik, one of the longest-serving doctors with the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, said his team was ‘coping’.

He explained: ‘It’s brutal and yes, it’s relentless. Numbers are enormous, but we are coping. 

‘We are coping because we all have pulled together, proactively anticipating problems and trying to find solutions.’

Dr Naik, who has worked at the Trust for over 16 years, continued: ‘We have significantly increased our capacity so we still have more beds. 

For our Coronaviruslive blog click here.

For all the latest news and updates on Coronavirus, click here.

‘We’ve even started taking patients from neighbouring hospitals which are struggling. 

His intervention comes as remarkable new footage emerged of NHS staff at nearby University College Hospital working in an intensive care unit. 

Despite widespread concerns about NHS workers not having enough protective equipment, he said: ‘Be assured we have enough supply of the necessary PPE to cater to all ITU staff, and no one has had to take unnecessary risks.’

London has been the hardest hit area in the UK and there are concerns that some hospitals will be unable to cope when the peak of the virus hits. 

Today the death toll topped 6,000 nationwide, after a further 854 recorded deaths.

Describing some of the success stories after discharging ‘quite a few patients’ in the last week, he added: ‘When a patient is discharged home after recovering from Covid-19 it gives a huge boost to the whole team and, most importantly, it gives hope.’

The prime minister is currently in intensive care after his condition worsened following a positive result in a coronavirus test. 

Meanwhile, a healthy father aged 39 has today told of how he recovered after being in intensive care for a week. 

He also urged the public to stay home and said: ‘Yes, it’s going to change our community, our demographics, and our patient population. Many of us will know someone who has died before their time.

‘But I think we all have left no stone unturned to care for our community in this very difficult time and I am sure my colleagues on the frontline will agree.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Coronavirus latest news and updates

• Visit our live blog for the latest updates: Coronavirus news live
• Read all new and breaking stories on our Covid-19 news page
• Coronavirus symptoms explained
• Find out the latest on which shops can stay open in a lockdown
• Who needs to go to work, who needs to stay at home and who is classed as a key worker?

Source: Read Full Article