LONDON – UK hospitals are under unprecedented pressure as variable coronavirus tears spread across the country, with the pressure mounting as doctors say they are saving more lives, which means more hospital beds are being used.
The more contagious virus variant has led to the highest numbers of hospitals and the extension of the government-run National Health Service to its borders in some parts of the country. As they handle the increase, medical doctors are trying to reduce deaths in a number of ways, guided by the hard lessons of spring.
They have established protocols so that elderly people carrying the virus are not sent from hospitals to nursing homes, where such movements have spread the spread of the virus that has killed thousands. They use improved therapies for Covid-19 that keep more people alive.
In the meantime, they have continued with selective surgeries so that people with very serious conditions such as cancer can have procedures. That also means more hospital beds.
The downside: hospitals are even more complete and under pressure than they were last spring.