Hospitals being overwhelmed by new COVID-19 peak: UK health bodies chiefs
National Health Service chief Sir Simon Stevens tried to strike a note of optimism as he said that with vaccine supplies continuing to come, things should start turning around by late spring.
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LONDON: The UK is back in the eye of the storm , the head of the NHS said on Tuesday as the country s health chiefs warned that hospitals were being overwhelmed by a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic, largely driven by a new highly transmissible variant of coronavirus, which has seen clinic admissions surpass the first peak.
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Some ICUs in London are now so overloaded that doctors have requested patients are transferred to Yorkshire. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian
Hospitals could soon face “horrendous choices” about which Covid-19 patients receive potentially life-saving treatment because the NHS is so dangerously overloaded, doctors fear.
The health service is struggling to cope with record numbers of Covid cases to such an extent that some patients may be denied access to an intensive care unit or the chance to go on a mechanical ventilator, the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) said on Tuesday.
Pressure for a toughening of the government’s tactics against Covid comes as Matt Hancock prepares to update MPs on Wednesday about how well the tiers system of restrictions on everyday life in England are helping to contain the disease’s resurgence.
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REUTERS/Carl Recine/File Photo
Doctors in England have warned that National Health Service staff at breaking point, and hospitals are running out of oxygen.
It comes amid an alarming new surge in COVID-19 patients across the country, with scientists warning that a new, possibly more infectious coronavirus variant is responsible for a steep rise in infections.
There are now more COVID-19 patients in hospital than at any other point in the pandemic, and the London Ambulance Service said that December 26 was one of its busiest ever days.
A hospital in south London was forced to declare an internal incident over the weekend over the strain on services.