MORE than half of all people in a healthcare trust’s beds are sick with Covid, startling new figures have revealed.

East Sussex Healthcare is now seeing about five times the number of positive inpatients than the first peak – with the virus claiming nearly two dozen lives a day.

As more beds are added to cope with the demand, nursing leaders are warning of dangerous patient-to-staff ratios.

The new, more transmissible strain of coronavirus sweeping has led to a dramatic rise in people being hospitalised with the disease across the country.

In each of the four main NHS trusts in Sussex, the number of virus patients in hospital is now considerably higher than April’s peak and appear to still be rising.

Deaths, which lag behind hospital admissions, are increasing each day.

Last week, The Argus reported how the Royal Sussex Hospital had run out of critical care beds amid a surge in coronavirus patients.

New figures reveal the occupancy rates for all beds, not just critical care, in healthcare trusts.

East Sussex Healthcare (ESH) has 51 per cent of their beds filled with Covid patients.

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare (SSH) has 42 per cent.

Western Sussex Hospitals (WSH) has 28 per cent.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) has 27 per cent.

On their most deadly days during the recent wave, ESH had 18 deaths, SSH and WSH had ten and BSUH had seven.

Hospital trusts are adding beds to cope with the increased demands on their services.

However, national nurse leaders have warned staff-to-patient ratios are becoming increasingly dangerous.

This is due to the increasing hospital admissions along with rising staff absences.

Across the South East, 3,496 NHS staff are absent due to Covid – either through sickness or self-isolation.

In BSUH, this figure is 224.

Critical care patient ratios are normally 1:1. This was agreed to be stretched to 1:3 in November.

But this is already being breached in some regions, prompting a warning from the UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance.

It said: “Bedside nurse to patient ratios are already deteriorating beyond those set out by national pandemic guidance documents.

“Further dilution of bedside nurse to patient ratios should only happen in exceptional circumstances where there is a need to expand capacity despite escalation to regional and national critical care networks and when all local and regional mutual aid options, including inter-regional assistance, have been exhausted.

“Ratios must be returned to normal as soon as practicable as these staffing levels are unsustainable for nurses’ well-being and for patient safety.”

Data published by NHS England reveal the scale of the impact of the current Covid wave on key hospital services.

Almost 90,000 patients, one in four, admitted to hospital via A&E had to wait more than four hours for a bed to be found. Of those, 3,745 waited more than 12 hours.

There are now 4.46 million people on the waiting list for routine treatment, which includes knee and hip operations. Of those, more than 192,000 have waited more than one year.

Staff have had to be redeployed into critical care after rising Covid cases forced hospitals to increase the number of intensive care beds by a quarter since November.

Matt Hancock has said he does not believe a change in the law was necessary to protect doctors if they are forced to make decisions on which patients to treat due to the pressure on the NHS.

The Health Secretary told a No 10 news conference: “I am very glad to say that we are not in a position where doctors have to make those sorts of choices and I very much hope that we don’t get in that situation and everybody can get the treatment that they deserve.

“The clear advice that I have at the moment is that it is not necessary at this point to change the law on this matter. Of course, I keep this under review and take very seriously questions of this nature.”

Mr Hancock was asked about regional variations in the vaccine, as places such as Slough move to vaccinate the over-70s.

He said: “What we’re doing now is making sure that whilst they, of course, will be able to move onto the next group, we’re prioritising the supply of the vaccine into those parts of the country that need to complete the over-80s.

“But we don’t want to stop the areas that have effectively done that job already, we want them to carry on, but the priority of the vaccine is according to the JCVI prioritisation list.”