Hospitals may be forced to move Covid patients elsewhere

Several hospitals in the north of England are already at full capacity and may have to start moving patients to other regions, doctors have warned.

Consultants fear that if Covid infection rates do not begin to fall significantly the NHS will be overwhelmed in less than a month from now.

Members of the British Medical Association have reported that Intensive Care Units (ICU) in a number of regions, including Manchester, Liverpool and Hull, are close to capacity as the number of people hospitalised with COVID-19 continues to grow.

Dr Vishal Sharma, chairman of the BMA’s consultants committee, told The Telegraph: “Capacity in the north of England is at the limits and in some places above the limit. Our next concern is ICU capacity, which is always tight at this time of year, even without Covid.”

Dr Sharma said some general ward beds could be adapted to provide intensive breathing support for Covid patients, and the re-opening of Manchester’s Nightingale Hospital may also take the pressure off ICU departments.

But more radical steps may have to be taken if numbers of hospitalised patients continue to rise.

“We may have to move patients around the country to create extra capacity, but if the whole country starts to struggle things will get very difficult."

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Source: The Telegraph,