Number of London patients hospitalised with coronavirus ‘falls by 16% in a week’

The number of coronavirus patients being treated in London hospitals has fallen by a sixth in a week, it can be revealed today.

Admissions reduced from a peak of 4,813 on Wednesday last week to 4,031 on Tuesday — a drop of 782 patients, or 16 per cent — the latest Downing Street figures show.

Hospitals across the capital confirmed that patient numbers appeared to have reached a plateau — but one doctor warned it was far too early to lift the lockdown.

It came as the Office for National Statistics today revealed that coronavirus was the third biggest killer of people in England and Wales last month, behind dementia/Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease.

Draft data from King’s College Hospital seen by the Evening Standard showed coronavirus admissions falling from 246 to 200 in the week to April 6.

A King’s source said that “Armageddon didn’t happen”. The source added: “Out of nowhere the numbers got smaller: new cases, admissions, deaths all lower than feared.”

An intensive care doctor at nearby St Thomas’ Hospital said: “There has been a lessening of the increase in admissions to ICU across the south London area.”

The total number of declared London hospital deaths from coronavirus increased by 153 to 3,224 yesterday. Many more will have died at home or in care homes.

Two London NHS trusts — the Royal Free London, with 335 deaths, and London North West Healthcare, with 327 deaths — are together responsible for more than a fifth of all hospital deaths in the capital.

Barts Health, the capital’s biggest trust, said provisional figures showed that as of yesterday morning it had 494 patients with confirmed Covid-19, down 21 from 515 on Monday.

It had 147 patients in intensive care yesterday, up 16 from two days earlier.

A Barts doctor told the Standard: “There’s certainly a slowdown [in admissions]. The challenge now will be to balance capacity for new cases while maintaining forward flow of patients already on ICU, as many patients [are] requiring two to three weeks on intensive care. I’d say we’ll still have a strenuous two to three weeks in London.”

Imperial College Healthcare, London’s second biggest trust, said admissions and numbers in critical care “seem to be levelling off rather than falling”.

As of Tuesday it was treating 332 patients confirmed to have Covid-19 and a further 24 suspected to have the virus. Of these, 110 were on ventilators.

Homerton hospital, in Hackney, has turned its children’s inpatient ward into a Covid ward, though its children’s A&E remains open.

It is also seeing a “tailing off” of admissions but said the pressure had been “like dealing with a major incident each day”. It has increased its critical care beds from 10 to about 30.

One London doctor warned that patients were having to be transferred to intensive care several days after being admitted as their condition deteriorated.

She said: “We are intubating many people every day. We thankfully didn’t see the exponential rise in cases which was described in Italy — the lockdown is making a huge difference. But I am very worried about people discussing lifting the lockdown already. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

Professor Andrew Shennan, an obstetrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’, tweeted today: “It’s been hard and tragic but talking with all my frontline colleagues I do think we are within capacity and largely succeeded in avoiding preventable deaths.”

The ONS found there were 3,912 deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales last month. Of these, it was the “underlying cause of death” in 3,372 cases, 86 per cent of the total.

In addition, 91 per cent of patients who died with coronavirus had at least one other health condition.

Heart disease was the most common condition, found in one in seven patients.

Twice as many men than women died from coronavirus.