For Liverpool's critical care doctors and nurses, the past nine months have been an extraordinary and exhausting challenge. The city was devastated by the first wave of Covid-19 in the spring and just a few short months later weary staff at Liverpool's main hospital trust found themselves in the eye of the coronavirus storm once again.
The second wave struck here first and it struck hard. Suddenly the critical care team at the Royal Liverpool Hospital were starting to be overwhelmed with the number of very sick Covid patients arriving at their door and they had to carry out difficult transfers of deteriorating patients to other units in the region as they desperately fought for time and space.