Shortage of critical care hospital beds prompts calls for review

NHS Providers has said the NHS’s “insufficient” critical care capacity has been laid bare by the pandemic, with the UK having one of the lowest number of beds per heads in Europe.

The group, which represents hospital trusts throughout England, is calling for a review of the health service’s capacity.

Analysis has found the UK has 7.3 critical care beds for every 100,000 people, compared to the US’s 34.3 and Germany’s 33.8, with comparatively fewer critical care beds than Spain, France, Australia and Italy.

The east of England, the South East and South West are areas of particular concern.

The group said “The UK is towards the bottom of the European league table for critical care beds per head of population.

“It’s neither safe nor sensible to rely on NHS hospital trusts being able to double or triple their capacity at the drop of a hat as they’ve had to over the last two months, with all the disruption to other care and impossible burdens on staff that involves.”

They added “There have been too many reviews of NHS capacity in the past where huge amounts of time have been wasted because the government has not been willing to fund the results of what’s been found”

A spokesperson from the Department of Health said “The government is determined to back the NHS in every possible way in its fight against this virus, investing £52bn this year and £20bn next. This is on top of £9.4bn capital funding to build and upgrade 40 new hospitals and £3bn earmarked for supporting recovery and reducing the NHS waiting list.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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