AN INTENSIVE care consultant in South Wales has predicted that January could be the most difficult month so far for the NHS since it was established in 1948.

Dr Matt Morgan, who is from Sully and works at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, told BBC Wales he believes January “is going to be and already is such a hard month”.

He said: “We knew it was going to be a marathon. What we didn’t know was that January was going to be the hardest month so far.

“It might possibly be the hardest month in the 73 years since Aneurin Bevan started the NHS.

“That’s not just the ICU, it’s important to know about the whole hospital system."

On Wednesday leading doctors in Wales provided a bleak forecast and predicted a dire situation for NHS hospitals in the weeks and months to come.

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At the government press briefing on Wednesday afternoon Dr Frank Atherton and NHS Wales chief executive Dr Andrew Goodall said there was a “material risk” of the NHS being overwhelmed over the next 21 days.

They said 16 Welsh hospitals were now reporting levels three or four – the two highest levels of pressure. Six of those hospitals are now at the highest level (four).

Dr Morgan added: “The information or disinformation we’ve heard about empty corridors in hospitals is simply not true. They were empty because the staff haven’t got time to have a break.

“But there is hope. We will get through this. We’ve got a vaccine which is safe and which works.

“You are now more likely to survive with Covid than ever before.

“Spring will come. The daffodils will be there again at some point. But to get through this we need to get through it together as a society.”

On Thursday the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board - covering Gwent - recorded the most cases in Wales, with 348.