Posted on 03/11/2020 7:46:03 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Ministers have accepted that the coronavirus outbreak will spread in a "significant way’" within the UK, meaning many people are likely to need hospital treatment. So can the NHS cope with the increase in demand?
How many critical care beds are there in England?
Public Health England say one in every 20 coronavirus patients could need critical care, based on China's experience.
NHS England has 4,048 adult critical care beds - around seven beds for every 100,000 people.
Critical care beds run at between 70% and 80% capacity most months, according to data from NHS Digital.
Figures vary by region, with almost 80% of beds occupied in London compared to 68% in the eastern region.
Are there enough nurses to cope with an outbreak?
Three out of five critical care units said they did not have enough nursing staff, according to a 2018 Faculty of Intensive Medical Care (FICM) survey.
Shortage of supplies
Doctors are reporting of a shortage of clinical masks and surgical protection supplies - most of which are imported from China.
NHS staff say they are unable to get hold of some face masks and other specialist personal protective equipment (PPE) - required to prevent them falling ill.
Hospital flu admissions
Despite a peak in hospital admissions for flu in December, latest UK flu figures do give some cause for optimism.
Compared to last year, the number of people admitted to hospital has been down considerably since the end of January.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
BernieKare
Short answer? Yes, Britain's NHS can cope with it at least as well as our CDC...Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.
/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/5a/2a/5a2abdb4-3b55-4438-9bc8-491888296bad/michael_wolgemut_-_dance_of_death_-_wga25860.jpg)
.
“Free” health care on parade.
People are going to have to ‘die at home’... the challenge is to find a way it can be done humanely and with comfort.
Resources need to be used to keep those alive who have the best chance of making it.... Young doctors need to be protected. People who run our nuclear plants, power plants, water and sanitation facilities... drive our trucks and keep the economy moving.
Every critical job has to have backup people - people who can step in on a moments notice. Again, nuclear plants,power plants etc.
In China, Worldometer statistics shows for March 10th that 23% of all current COVID-19 patients are in "serious" or "critical" condition. The same source and date shows that only 1% of COVID-19 patients are in "serious" or "critical" condition in the US. They don't show any stats for the UK.
I wouldn't base any conclusions on the "China experience".
Nevertheless, if you want to be overly cautious, by all means, do so.
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