Recently, the number of confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom has been growing rapidly, and the health care systems in London and southern England are under great pressure.
According to British media reports on the 1st, internal emails of the “Royal London Hospital” show that the hospital has launched a “disaster response model”.
It is understood that the “Royal London Hospital” is one of the main institutions of the British National Health Service to treat COVID-19 patients in London. According to British media reports, on December 31, 2020, local time, the “Royal London Hospital” wrote in an email to hospital staff that the hospital has launched a “disaster response model” and “can no longer provide patients with a high standard of intensive care”.
Local hospitals are generally overrun in the severe London and southern part of England — in some of them, unable to take in patients constantly drawn by ambulances because of the lack of spare beds, according to the Associated Press.
David Carr, senior intensive care nurse in the UK: Generally speaking, an intensive care nurse takes care of a patient, but now a nurse has to take care of two or even three patients. I have worked in intensive care for 21 years and have never seen such a bad situation. It seems much more difficult than the first wave of the epidemic.
British doctor Megan Smith: I think January and February will be the most difficult and terrible months in the careers of most British health care workers. It’s terrible. We don’t want to be in such a situation that as doctors, we are used to making difficult decisions, but for now we even have to decide which patient a ventilator is more effective.
To relieve the pressure of beds, London’s Nightingale Hospital has been reopened with intensive care beds and respiratory equipment, but there are no reports of receiving patients.
Nightingale Hospital, known as the British version of the “square cabin hospital”, was established in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United Kingdom. There are a total of seven such temporary hospitals, the others are also located in England.
London’s Nightingale Hospital is located in the London Convention and Exhibition Center and can provide about 4,000 beds. After May 2020, due to a significant decline in the number of patients, the hospital is closed on standby.
Nikki Creedlander, President of the British Association of Intensive Care Nurses: The question is how to support the operation of the square cabin hospital of Nightingale Hospital, which is crucial and needs to be answered by the British government.
