- On Tuesday, the UK reported a record number of new COVID-19 infections.
- Public health officials expressed “extreme concern” about the pressure on hospitals.
- The number of patients in British hospitals is now higher than during the first peak in April.
- Ambulances accumulate outside hospitals due to a lack of beds.
- London hospitals, especially intensive care units, are overloaded and some hospitals report concerns about a shortage of oxygen supply.
- Scientists are calling for a total national blockade, but Health Secretary Matt Hancock has postponed the decision.
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Hospitals in England face an unprecedented level of demand due to an increase in the number of people seriously ill with COVID-19, amid fears that the country’s health service is giving way under the relentless pressure of its resources.
Much of the country remains under strict Tier 4 blocking regulations – an attempt to deal with the new, possibly more infectious and contagious variant, which may be behind the worrying increase in reported cases.
Despite the restrictions, the numbers continue to rise and public health officials are increasingly concerned.
Susan Hopkin, senior medical consultant at Public Health England, said on Tuesday: “We continue to see unprecedented levels of COVID-19 infection across the UK, which is extremely worrying, especially as our hospitals are the most vulnerable. . “
NHS England data revealed that there were 20,426 patients in their hospitals on Monday morning. More patients are now in British hospitals than during the peak of the first wave in April.
NHS hospitals are under so much pressure that some patients need to be treated in ambulances, according to Sky News.
An unidentified doctor told the station: “Patients are first treated by the ambulance staff when they are picked up from their homes. And then, when they arrive at the emergency room, they are waiting in the vans until a bed is available.”
In recent days, ambulance teams have been waiting up to six hours to deliver patients to hospital staff, according to the BBC.
The lack of hospital beds has resulted in ambulances stacked outside several of them.
Images posted on social media show fleets of emergency vehicles lined up in front of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and two London hospitals – Royal London Hospital and Queen’s Hospital.
—Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) December 29, 2020
—Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) December 29, 2020
In London, the situation is dire. On Boxing Day, the London Ambulance Service (LAS) told ITV News that they experienced “one of their busiest days”.
On Tuesday, many Londoners received a message urging them not to call an ambulance unless it is an emergency. “The London Ambulance Service and our hospitals are extremely busy,” explains the text.
—Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) December 29, 2020
The extraordinary number of calls to emergency services forced the control room staff to make difficult decisions about who will be treated by paramedics. “Our control room team is having to make incredibly difficult decisions to decide who gets an ambulance first and who they are going to ask to wait,” a paramedic told Sky News.
‘It’s a time bomb’
Within hospitals in the UK, there are also signs of great tension.
Intensive care capacity in London was 114% on Monday night. Overcapacity has resulted in requests for transfer of some patients hundreds of miles from London to Yorkshire, according to the Health Service Journal.
The transfer of patients between distressed hospitals is happening regularly, a senior NHS source told the Independent. “It’s a time bomb,” they said.
In some cases, the need to transfer patients is the result of a decreased oxygen supply.
On Tuesday afternoon, London’s North Middlesex University Hospital Trust said the flow of patients “was putting pressure” on the oxygen supply, according to the Independent.
A day earlier, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London was forced to divert ambulances to other hospitals due to similar concerns about the oxygen supply. The hospital then declared a “major incident”.
A “major incident” has also been declared in Essex.
Essex Police Chief of Police, BJ Harrington, told The Guardian: “Declaring a major incident allows us to seek more government support to deal with the severe pressures that the health system is under because of Covid-19.”
Scientists from the Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies urged the UK government to implement an “immediate national blockade” to help ease some of the pressure on hospitals.
Despite that call, Matt Hancock told Good Morning Britain that a national blockade is not imminent. Instead, the health secretary is expected to announce that more areas will be subject to Level 4 blocking restrictions.
On Tuesday, the UK recorded the highest number of new COVID-19 infections to date. The daily number of 53,135 new infections exceeds the 41,385 previous cases recorded just the day before.