The idea that saved many lives in Manchester as the country braced for Omicron

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

In the run up to last Christmas, the NHS was preparing for a huge wave of Omicron infections.

Cases were soaring to eye-watering levels, and there were fears about how those most at risk from the virus would be impacted.

Despite huge numbers of patients coming through the doors, busy doctors and nurses at one hospital trust gave up what little time they had to build a vital new service.

READ MORE:How Omicron brought our NHS - and its staff - 'one admission away from disaster'

The Coronavirus Medicines Delivery Unit (CMDU) was launched by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust on December 22.

Since then, it's helped stop hundreds of vulnerable people in Greater Manchester who have tested positive for the virus being admitted to hospital.

Dr Tim Felton is a clinician in ICU at Wythenshawe Hospital and clinical lead for the Covid-19 Medicine Delivery Unit. He was asked to lend his expertise to launching the service as the country was braced for Omicron to take hold.

The unit operates by contacting a list of vulnerable patients - at risk of becoming seriously unwell - who contract covid, and supplying them with potentially life-saving drugs.

"It's the kind of patients who are having chemotherapy, are immunocompromised because of something like an organ transplant - those at really high risk of covid," says Dr Felton.

"We identify them very early - within the first few days of their covid illness. Then they are brought through and assessed by a clinical team.

"If they are within the high risk group we have two treatments we can use - sotrovimab which is an antibody against the covid spike protein and the second is called m olnupiravir."

Patients are able to collect their prescriptions from a drive-thru pharmacy, or