LONDON, Jan. 24 The British government released data on Jan. 23 that the number of patients receiving ventilator treatment for new COVID-19 in the United Kingdom exceeded 4,000 for the first time, surpassing the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in April last year.
The British government’s medical sector data show that the number of patients receiving ventilator treatment in the United Kingdom has been increasing every day since a low of 1,364 people on December 18 last year.
As of January 22, 2021, there were 4,076 patients on ventilators in hospitals, more than the 3,301 at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic on April 12 last year.
Dr. Charlotte Hopkins, deputy chief medical officer at NHS Trusts, told the press that the number of patients receiving ventilators has increased at a “fast pace” since Dec. 18, 2020.
More than a third of these patients are in major London hospitals.
According to Ami Jones, a consultant in critical care at the University of Wales Health Board, “There is a steady stream of otherwise healthy, young patients who need ventilators, who need intensive care, and unfortunately some of them are going to die.
It’s been that way for the last few weeks and we haven’t seen any signs of it stopping.”
Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, recently told a Downing Street news conference that “the high level of mortality is worrying and I fear it will continue for some time before it starts to fall.”
Statistics report data show that the NHS has 30,000 ventilators, an average of 1 for every 2,200 Britons. Currently, critically ill patients are being transferred from hospitals that are overstretched for treatment beds on an unprecedented scale due to a shortage of treatment beds.
Dr. Rupert Pearse, medical advisor to the British Intensive Care Society, expressed concern to the media that “while it is known that infection rates may now be close to peaking, we have reached a tipping point in terms of being able to provide patients with resources for medical care.”
