Plans to increase capacity at Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals
Plans have been drawn up to increase capacity for patients at Shropshire's major hospitals, bosses say.
Sara Biffen, deputy chief operating officer at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said with social distancing measures in place, its hospitals have only been able to see around 50 per cent of the patients they would have seen before the pandemic, particularly within diagnostic procedures.
These involve patients who may require an X-ray, CT scan or MRI scan.
Speaking during a community engagement meeting, Ms Biffen said: "What we have experienced as a result of social distancing and infection control procedures is that we now cannot see as many patients in our environments as we used to.
"That capacity isn't there at present to the level it was pre-Covid.
"Clearly we've put in plans last week to address that in terms of more capacity so some mobile CT scanners, MRI scanners and some modular wards.
"We clearly haven't had a decision on any of that at the moment but this is something we've had to respond to in terms of to try and get our activity to pre-Covid levels.
"What we have experienced is that we've had a lot of patients who have not wanted to attend our hospital just because of Covid so what we are trying to do is separate out what we call green zones, which is the clean in terms of patients in Covid free areas, and then red zones where we treat our Covid patients."
She said urgent and emergency care has continued throughout the outbreak of the virus, and other services that had to be halted are starting to be restored.
Challenge
She added: "We're still not back to pre-Covid levels but I'm pleased to say our cancer referrals are almost back to pre-Covid levels.
"That's really great that patients are now presenting at their GPs, and they are not sitting on their conditions.
"They are going to their GPs and patients are being referred."
The trust, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, also set up an incident control room during the pandemic which is expected to remain in place for some time.
Julia Clarke, director of corporate services, said coronavirus had been a "huge challenge" to the NHS but the trust was now starting to get back to normal.
She said the trust was also investing in additional hearing loops, particularly for patients who are hard of hearing and may find it difficult to communicate with staff who have to wear masks.
