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100,000 covid cases in borough so far say health officials

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Staff at Mayday have now separated out all their covid-19 work from other medical work

Nov 18 UPDATE: The figures provided by the NHS to the council scrutiny committee were WRONG, and a vast overstatement of the number of covid cases in Croydon, as pointed out by so many of our loyal readers in the comments below. Please see our new report by clicking here

There have been more than 100,000 positive cases of coronavirus recorded in Croydon since March.

That’s according to the chief executive of the local NHS trust, in a presentation and report given to a council scrutiny meeting last week.

According to Matthew Kershaw, there have been

101,225

covid-19 cases in the borough by last Tuesday.

It appears to be a remarkable figure, since assuming there have been very few instances of individuals testing positive for the virus multiple times, it suggests that 1 in 4 people in Croydon have tested positive for the virus. And this all during a period when there has been very little in the way of a proper testing system.

The figure was not questioned nor challenged by any members of the scrutiny committee.

Of those covid-19 cases, Kershaw said that 1,312 covid-positive patients had received treatment at Mayday Hospital.

The majority were treated successfully and discharged, but 303 patients had died “including former colleagues and members of the Croydon family”, Kershaw’s report states.

“We are ready for the second wave and will continue to care for our community throughout another lockdown and beyond,” Kershaw told the committee.

“We are encouraging residents to speak to their GP or seek help from the NHS if they feel unwell,” the report states.

According to Kershaw, Croydon is London’s leading trust for restoring elective surgery and treatment – carrying out the kind of work which in normal times might be regarded as “routine”, but much of which had to be postponed during the first covid lockdown to avoid the risk of transmission of the virus, and while resources were diverted to deal with the pandemic.

Mayday Hospital has since devised special restricted zones around the site to exclude covid cases from staff and patients working in other departments.

Matthew Kershaw: ready for the second wave

“We have seen the number of covid cases grow steadily” in Croydon, Kershaw’s report states. As at Friday, November 6, Mayday was treating 25 patients for the virus. Last Tuesday, Kershaw said, “A further 60 cases were confirmed in the borough in the past 24 hours”.

According to more recent figures from Public Health England, the number of positive cases in Croydon soared at the end of last week: 133 on Thursday, November 12, and 150 on November 13. In total, there were 610 new cases last week, up 31 per cent on the previous week.

In his report to the scrutiny committee, Kershaw said that working with other boroughs in south-west London, the preparations for dealing with a second wave of infections were well in hand. “We have restarted the Incident Control Room, or ICR. It is Gold Command for the NHS in south-west London.

“The ICR is operational seven days a week, from 8am to 8pm. We report directly into NHS England in readiness to support our NHS leaders to continue safely managing the growing incidences of covid-19 within our community and across our wider health and care system.

“Croydon was one of the hardest-hit areas in the country by covid-19 in wave one. The strength of our response has been built on the commitment of our workforce and the success of our partnership working in the borough.

“It is essential that local people continue to seek NHS advice, support and treatment for non-covid related illnesses and health concerns.

“Our engagement work over the summer told us that local people were worried about contracting covid-19 if they attended an NHS appointment in a healthcare setting. People were clear that they needed explicit reassurance and detailed information about what the NHS is doing to keep them safe in GP practices, hospitals and mental health settings.”

The NHS in Croydon has even produced this video to help to get that messaging across…


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