NHS alarm over rise in number of UK Covid patients on ventilators

[Northerner]

NHS bosses have sounded the alarm over the number of people on ventilators in hospital in the UK, which has risen over the past week.

The deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said the number of Covid patients in hospital on ventilation beds had increased by 41% in the last week to 227, which she said was a strong indication Covid was having an impact on health services.

Cordery told BBC Breakfast: “Trusts on the frontline are really coming under huge pressure ... they have plans in place to tackle the backlog, but with more Covid cases and demand for emergency care going up, that’s really challenging.”

Cordery said NHS leaders were already worrying about the potential for a Covid surge to collide with other winter illnesses such as flu and respiratory viruses later in the year, posing “a significant challenge” to the health system.

NHS alarm over rise in number of UK Covid patients on ventilators

Bosses say trusts under ‘huge pressure’ as people in ventilator beds increase 41% during last week

www.theguardian.com

 

[mikeyB]

That challenge to the NHS was predicted before Covid arrived on our shores. It's no use blaming Covid. In 2018/19 winter bed occupancy was at 95% in NHS England. The government will blame Covid, but it is due to chronic underfunding and at least a 30% cut in real terms funding since the Tories came to power

 

[Northerner]

That challenge to the NHS was predicted before Covid arrived on our shores. It's no use blaming Covid. In 2018/19 winter bed occupancy was at 95% in NHS England. The government will blame Covid, but it is due to chronic underfunding and at least a 30% cut in real terms funding since the Tories came to power

Indeed People have short memories

 

[pm133]

No suprises they are pushing this story after keeping restrictions in place. It's only been two days since lockdown was supposed to be lifted and they aren't wasting any time preparing us (building the case) to extend the current restrictions beyond the next given date. The NHS has been under stress for years and years.

The PM said the country could be in for a "rough winter for all sorts of reasons".

and

"You can never exclude that there will be some new disease, some new horror that we simply haven't budgeted for or accounted for," Boris Johnson said when asked if he could discount the possibility of reimposing COVID-19 measures later this year

COVID-19: Boris Johnson says it's 'looking good' for 19 July - but won't rule out further lockdowns in the winter

"I think it's looking good for 19 July to be that terminus point," the PM says, but warns the UK could be in for a "rough winter".

news.sky.com

277 people across the entire UK seems an awfully low number to be chucking the word "alarm" about but then these days everything seems to be a "crisis".
It sounds like they are just pressuring the government for more funds which is understandable but I'm not sure that shrieking headlines are the way to do it.

 

[pm133]

I'd like to know about this "new disease, some new horror"

That just like Boris doing his usual thing of opening his mouth and not thinking before speaking. You can't take that seriously. He obviously means that right now he's pencilling in 19th July rather than using pen. He's also realising his mistake when he used the word "irreversible" earlier on this year and wants to row back his "pile the bodies" comment from last year.
It's the same approach in Scotland to the 9th August.
The encouraging thing is that both governments are clearly indicating now that they are just waiting for a fair wind to re-open everything.

Obviously if get blind-sided by a variant which evades our vaccines then we will be looking at locking down again. I think that is probably a sensible approach.

Right now, there is zero reason to continue restrictions and hopefully we don't get hit with something new which requires another lockdown or a continuation of the current restrictions.

Are you reading more into it than that?

 

[Amity Island]

Are you reading more into it than that?

Perhaps or possibly he is better informed than us? you know how transparent those in government are, they wouldn't tell us owt if they knew.

 

[pm133]

Perhaps or possibly he is better informed than us? you know how transparent those in government are, they wouldn't tell us owt if they knew.

We can speculate till the cows come home.
It depends how much time and energy you want to spend worrying about "maybes". These politicians generally have no real influence on my life for the most part (pandemic restrictions aside) and I am usually happy to leave it at that - life is too short for over-speculation.

 

[mikeyB]

As I intimated in my first post on this thread, it takes just a flu epidemic to fill England's hospitals to dangerous levels, so everything is a crisis. I doubt there will be a flu epidemic anyway because nothing has showed up in the Southern winter yet. The only possible "new horror" that I can think of is the escape from Africa of the Ebola virus, but even that has an effective vaccine.