LONDON – British hospitals are under unprecedented strain as a rapidly spreading coronavirus variant tears across the country, with pressure mounting as doctors say they are saving more lives, meaning more hospital beds are being used.
The more contagious virus variant has led to a record number of hospitalizations and the government-controlled national health service in some parts of the country has stretched to its limits. As they deal with the boom, medical practitioners are trying to reduce deaths in several ways, guided by the hard lessons of spring.
They have drawn up protocols so that elderly people who carry the virus are not sent from hospitals to nursing homes, where such movements last year caused the spread of the virus that killed thousands of people. They use improved treatments for Covid-19 that keep more people alive.
Meanwhile, they continued with elective surgeries so that people with serious conditions such as cancer receive procedures. It also means more hospital beds are occupied.
The downside: hospitals are even fuller and more crowded than last year.