- On Tuesday, the United Kingdom reported a record number of new COVID-19 infections.
- Public health officials have expressed extreme concern about the strain that hospitals are putting on.
- The number of patients in English hospitals is now higher than during the first peak in April.
- Ambulances piled up outside hospitals due to lack of beds.
- London hospitals, especially intensive care units, are overwhelmed, and some hospitals are voicing their concerns about the dwindling oxygen supply.
- Scientists are calling for a total national exclusion, but Health Secretary Matt Hancock has delayed a decision.
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Hospitals in England have an unprecedented level of demand due to an increase in people seriously ill with COVID-19, amid fears that the country’s health service is collapsing under the incessant pressure on its resources.
Much of the country remains under restrictive Tier 4 lock-in regulations – an attempt to grapple with the new, possibly more contagious infectious variant, which could potentially be behind the worrying boom in reported cases.
Despite the restrictions, the numbers continue to rise and public health officials are becoming increasingly concerned.
Susan Hopkin, a senior medical adviser at Public Health England, said on Tuesday: “We are still seeing unprecedented levels of COVID-19 infection in the UK, which is extremely worrying, especially as our hospitals are at their most vulnerable.”
Data from NHS in England revealed that there were 20,426 patients in its hospitals on Monday morning. More patients are now in English hospitals than during the peak of the first wave in April.
NHS hospitals are under so much stress that some patients need to be treated in ambulances, according to Sky News.
An unnamed doctor told the broadcaster: “The patients are first treated by the ambulance staff while being picked up from their homes. And then, when they reach the emergency department, they wait in the vans until a bed is available. “
According to the BBC, ambulance staff have been waiting up to six hours in recent days to hand over patients to hospital staff.
The lack of beds in hospitals has led to ambulances stacking outside some.
Footage posted on social media shows fleet of emergency vehicles outside Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital and two London hospitals – the Royal London Hospital and the Queen’s Hospital.
—Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) 29 December 2020
—Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) 29 December 2020
In London, the situation is dire. On Boxing Day, the London Ambulance Service (LAS) told ITV News that they had ‘one of their busiest days ever’.
On Tuesday, many Londoners received a text requesting them not to call an ambulance unless it was an emergency. “The London ambulance service and our hospitals are very busy,” the text explained.
—Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) 29 December 2020
The extraordinary number of calls to emergency services has forced the staff of the control room to make difficult decisions about who is being treated by paramedics. “Our control room staff have 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 ticking time bomb’
Within the British hospitals there are also signs of serious tension.
The critical care capacity in London was 114% on Monday night. Due to excessive capacity, according to the Health Service Journal, requests have been made to transfer some patients hundreds of miles from London to Yorkshire.
The transfer of patients between struggling hospitals takes place regularly, a senior NHS source told the Independent. “It’s a ticking time bomb,” they said.
In some cases, the need to transport patients is due to the dwindling oxygen supply.
According to the Independent, the London North Middlesex University Hospital Trust said on Tuesday afternoon that the influx of patients was putting a strain on oxygen supply.
A day earlier, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London was forced to divert ambulances to other hospitals due to similar oxygen supply. The hospital then declared a ‘major incident’.
A ‘major incident’ has also been declared in Essex.
Essex Police Chief Constable BJ Harrington told The Guardian: ‘Declaring a major incident enables us to seek further government support over the severe pressure the health system is experiencing as a result of Covid -19 to address. ‘
Scientists from the Independent Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies have called on the British government to apply “immediate national exclusion” to help ease the pressure on hospitals.
Despite this call, Matt Hancock told Good Morning Britain that a national exclusion is not imminent. Instead, the health secretary is expected to announce that more areas will be locked in the 4-level restrictions.
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom recorded its highest number of new COVID-19 infections. The daily toll of 53,135 new infections trumps the previous 41,385 cases recorded just the previous day.