NHS staff from Derby and Burton hospitals are fighting for their lives having contracted coronavirus.

They are among dozens of Covid-19 patients in intensive care at the Royal Derby Hospital and Queen's Hospital, in Burton.

The two hospitals are engaged in an intense battle to contain the disease, protect front-line staff and care for critically ill patients.

The trust now has 30 patients in intensive care, all confirmed to have Covid-19.

Of these, three are Derby and Burton hospital staff.

Further staff have also been admitted into intensive care in the past few weeks but the precise number could not be specified.

The trust's executive medical director, Magnus Harrison, said: "The risk to our staff is that every interaction they have with the public is potentially another infection.

"Our staff are more at risk due to being in a healthcare setting, but we have got to quash the belief that the threat from this virus is nothing – it is significant and it is real."

Many more healthcare workers are self-isolating after developing symptoms, meaning more pressure on remaining staff.

The hospital trust usually has 22 intensive care beds across Royal Derby Hospital and Queen's Hospital in Burton – this is to increase nearly six-fold to 129 beds.

This will include converting now disused surgical theatres – empty following a full-scale step down in non-urgent surgery care.

Hospital chiefs say that during a normal flu season the trust would be unlikely to breach capacity in its intensive care units, even with 22 beds.

Hospital chiefs say they "cannot emphasise enough how serious the situation is" and that the current crisis is unlike anything they have ever faced.

More than 100 patients have now died within the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust after contracting Covid-19, its chief executive has confirmed.

Among those was Burton consultant Amged El-Hawrani, who died last month after contracting the virus.

Derby has one of the highest rates of infections per 100,000 people out of all of the cities and towns in England, far higher than its fellow East Midlands cities, Leicester and Nottingham.

Several of those in charge at the trust shared details of how the ongoing pandemic is affecting local services, staff and patients in an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

We spoke to Gavin Boyle, chief executive of the trust; Mr Harrison, executive medical director; and Krishna Kallianpur, interim chief nurse.

They said that while the best way for people to help NHS services is to follow social-distancing and self-isolation guidance, they do not want patients who should be in hospital to avoid coming to them for help.

Health chiefs at the trust fear some patients with heart conditions or other ailments may not visit hospital due to the fear of catching the virus and that they could be worse off for it.

They also agree that as health professionals are aware there will be scenarios in which they must tell patients they will not survive, the mental health burden on staff is unlike any trust or its employees have ever witnessed.

The regularity in which these difficult conversations are being carried out is a strain on staff – who "will struggle with that, they are human", says Ms Kallianpur.

She says the trust is fully aware of the psychological impact the virus has on patients, their families and staff.

The trust is allowing one family member to see patients who are at the end of their life, if they are self-isolating and do not show symptoms.

Ms Kallianpur says staff are arranging phone calls, video chats and taking photos so that families can stay in contact – from a safe distance.

There are already 30 critically ill patients being treated and the trust has expanded to create space for nearly six times that number.

Mr Boyle does not think that the hospital trust will get to the stage where it has to make a large number of decisions around which patients receive ventilator care and which will have to go without, possibly leading to their death.

However, he says that medical professionals do have to make these difficult ethical decisions as part of their duties and are "used to them".

Dr Harrison says "every patient admitted is a decision made". He says it has not had to make these tough decisions yet and "even if the trust is full to the rafters" it will work with other hospitals to find space.

Hospital chiefs warn that every contact between a patient and a member of staff is a risk of spreading the virus and that it is vital to keep the numbers down to reduce the impact on NHS workers trying to combat the virus.

More than 200 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 are currently in beds at the trust. Eight or nine wards across the Burton and Derby sites are full with Covid-19 positive patients.

Another 80 people are being tested and a further 20 to 30 are being admitted into beds after testing positive at the trust every single day.

The trust says that patients seen at the trust match the national trend, with those aged over 70 and with underlying health conditions are those most affected by the virus.

However, Dr Harrison says: "As we have seen with the Prime Minister there are no boundaries to who it affects."

Members of staff in leadership roles who normally would not have daily contact with patients are taking on front-line shifts and there has been a surge in volunteers and retired staff who are also pitching in.

Other non-clinical members of staff are being trained up to help with patient support.

Hospital chiefs agree that "hindsight is a wonderful thing" and that it could have made a difference to bring social-distancing measures in earlier, even as far back as February, but that this was never going to be the case.

They say that lessons will be learned and there are certain things the trust would have done differently.

Herd immunity with 80 per cent of the population having had the virus, paired with a vaccine, is the solution to the pandemic, Dr Harrison says.