Sheffield Children's Hospital Covid admissions nearly trebled in December, new figures reveal

The rise in cases came at a time which has seen the number of cases soar in all the city’s hospitals, although the number of patents on ventilators in Sheffield because of the condition dropped.

NHS figures show that during the week ending on Boxing Day, Sunday, December 26, there were 22 new Covid-19 admissions at the Children’s Hospital. That represented a rise of 175 per cent on the week ending December 1, when there were only eight such admissions.

The figures also revealed none of those Covid admissions at the children’s hospital had needed to be put on a ventilator.

Craig Radford, acting executive director of operations at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Across the trust we are seeing more children with Covid due to the increased community transmission rates, but generally children continue to have a milder illness.

"Patients may also have Covid, but may be with us for other treatment. We recommend that everyone makes sure they take precautions such as social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands to keep the spread of Covid as low as possible.”

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The number of Covid admissions at the Children’s Hospital is much lower than at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, which saw its figures rise from 45 to 119 over the same period, and said it was treating 234 Covid patients as of January 4.

However, the trust, which runs Northern General Hospital, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Jessop Wing, Weston Park Hospital and Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, saw the number of patients on ventilators drop from 14 to 10 between December 1 and December 26.

On Tuesday, STH chief executive Kirsten Major said it was only coping because of staff ‘going above and beyond every single day’.

On Friday, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals denied having the highest level of staff absence in the country due to Covid, after official figures suggested that was the case, with bosses insisting the trust had supplied the wrong data to NHS England.

Most Covid-positive patients in English hospitals are being treated primarily for coronavirus, although the Omicron wave has resulted in a growing minority who are admitted for other conditions but who test positive for Covid-19 as well.