Times article - Coronavirus: Number of intensive care cases suggest ‘slow burn’ not second wave18 Oct 2020 19:58
Slowly rising admissions of coronavirus patients to intensive care suggest that the country is undergoing a “slow burn” rather than a second wave, a senior doctor has said, amid fears that planned surgery could be scaled back.
Data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre showed that admissions were increasing far less quickly than during the start of the pandemic.
Rupert Pearse, a professor of intensive care medicine at Queen Mary, University of London, wrote on Twitter: “This could make the vital difference to how well the NHS copes through the winter.
“This slower rise does not mean we will see fewer cases overall in the pandemic second phase. But it does mean we will see fewer cases at any one time.
Dr Pittard added that patients admitted to ICUs had “a much better chance of surviving now” compared to the beginning of the year.
She said this was partly due to improvements in treatment, but added: “As the pandemic went through its course and we look at mortality towards the middle to end of July, most intensive care units would have been back to their normal staffing ratio which meant we were better able to provide the same standard of care that we normally do.
“It is probably a combination of things but there is no doubt that if you become sick with Covid, if you come into hospital and certainly if you are admitted to an intensive care unit, you have a much better chance of surviving now than you did at the beginning of the year.”
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