British hospitals are on the brink of saturation

British hospitals, faced with a continuous flow of Covid-19 cases, are approaching the point of saturation, at a point where they are looking for available beds in nursing homes, warns a hospital service official.

“The situation is escalating rapidly. “Last week we saw 5,000 new Covid-19 patients arrive in hospitals, the equivalent of 10 hospitals full of Covid patients,” Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, an organization representing public-sector hospitals, told the BBC.

“We are reaching the point of saturation,” he said, adding that available beds are being sought elsewhere, for example in nursing homes.

Faced with the outbreak of a virus mutation, the United Kingdom yesterday surpassed 1,000 dead in a 24-hour period for the first time since April. Now, the deaths in the country have reached 77,346 in total.

More than 62,000 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, according to yesterday’s report, which is an ominous harbinger of what will follow in the coming weeks.

The number of hospitalized patients has exceeded 30,000, surpassing the record of the peak of the first wave of the epidemic.

Even if the number of patients increases according to the most optimistic forecasts, and the plans to increase the nursing capacity work, there will be a shortage of 2,000 general and intensive care beds in London hospitals by 19 January, according to public figures. England health care system given to hospital administrators.

Rupert Pierce, an intensivist at Royal London Hospital, told the BBC that the situation was “definitely worse than during the first wave and more difficult to manage”.

And when asked if he thinks the health services will be flooded in the next two weeks, he replied: “Throughout my career I never thought I would say such a thing, but yes I do.”

“Unless we take the lockdown seriously, the consequences for the provision of health services across the country can be catastrophic.”

The British government is betting on the lockdown, which officially took effect yesterday in England, and on speeding up the vaccination process with the two approved vaccines (Pfizer / BioNTech and Oxford / AstraZeneca).

The government aims to vaccinate those over the age of 70 and the medical staff, ie 14 million people, by mid-February.