UK hospitals running out of intensive care beds

British hospitals across the country are running out of intensive care beds in a crisis that has resulted in hundreds of the most urgent operations being cancelled, official figures show.

Many UK hospitals repeatedly did not have enough critical care beds for all patients during the period from November up to last week, show National Health Service (NHS) figures published by British newspaper The Telegraph on Sunday.

On an average day, 30 hospitals have run out of beds on intensive care and high dependency units, according to the NHS data.
The shortage resulted in more than 440 urgent operations – meaning medical procedures necessary to save life, limb or a major organ – have been cancelled in the past two months.

Furthermore, the figures show that on one day last week 50 hospitals across the UK ran out of critical care beds. This forced patients in need of life and limb-saving operations to endure risky delays.

Dr Bruce Taylor, the former president of the Intensive Care Society, commented on the situation, saying he is concerned that the British government does not have an understanding regarding the problems in intensive care.

“A lot of the units are having it very hard this winter. My concern is that the government doesn’t have a grip on the problems in intensive care – they talk a lot about Accident & Emergency (A&E) but actually there are far wider problems, in terms of how overstretched many hospitals are,” Said Taylor.

A spokesman for the Department of Health responded by saying, “Winter is tough. But the NHS has never been better prepared and is performing well.”

However, shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said, “It is extremely worrying that, on a single day last week, there were no available beds for critically ill patients in many parts of the country. This is a clear sign of a system in distress and a crisis in emergency care that is getting more serious by the day.”