Coronavirus: Patients with underlying health conditions are recovering and being discharged home from Southampton General Hospital

University Hospital Southampton Foundation NHS Trust is pouring £2m into critical care equipment as Covid-19 spreads.

A spokesman said: ‘We have and will continue to treat patients with Covid-19 and we would like to reiterate our thanks to the teams who are caring for them and their professionalism under very difficult circumstances.

‘A number of patients we have treated in hospital recently who tested positive and had underlying health conditions recovered well enough after receiving the appropriate care to be discharged home and that is a really important message to share.'

There are 75 cases in the Hampshire local authority area, and three apiece in Portsmouth and Southampton.

The hospital is writing to all patients to prepare them for appointment cancellations.

The spokesman added: ‘We are currently in the process of writing to all patients with booked appointments to inform them that we may need to cancel them in order to prioritise urgent cases on clinical need as we manage demand, may transfer them to virtual outpatient clinics or telephone appointments where possible and that they may be seen by other members of their clinical teams during this period.

‘Currently, if patients have a planned appointment and have not heard from us then they should attend unless they are contacted by us directly or are self-isolating and following government guidance. If they cannot attend we will endeavour to telephone them at the date and time of their appointment.

‘There has been a fantastic effort from staff across the Trust over the past two weeks to adapt and put contingency plans into play and, as part of these preparations, the organisation has agreed £2m investment in critical care equipment.'

He added: ‘We have a highly-skilled and experienced team of experts which includes clinicians from infection prevention, microbiology and infectious diseases, divisional clinical and operational management, emergency planning and senior executives dealing with our response 24/7 and we would like to assure everyone immediate and robust action is taken when any issues arise.’