A combination of COVID-19, flu, RSV, and norovirus is putting immense strain on the UK's accident and emergency departments, with over half reporting being at capacity. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine describes the situation as 'pretty grim', with a lack of beds and staff exacerbating the problem.
Approximately half of the UK's accident and emergency departments are facing immense strain due to a 'quad-demic' of respiratory infections. The surge in cases of covid, flu, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and norovirus, also known as the 'winter vomiting bug', is putting pressure on hospital capacity nationwide, according to a survey by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).
Dr Ian Higginson, RCEM vice-president, described the situation on the NHS front line as 'pretty grim' this festive season during an interview with Sky News.He said half of hospitals had responded to polling and 'all but two of them said that the emergency departments were absolutely full to bursting'. Dr Higginson further explained: 'Normally just before Christmas, we'd expect a bit of a lull. So I'm afraid things are looking pretty difficult out there for our patients and for our staff.' 'We simply don't have enough beds in our hospitals for patients who are admitted as emergencies.' 'We don't have enough staff for those beds and we don't have any headroom at all. So if something like flu hits as it has done, it makes a bad situation even worse.', reports the Express. Hospital backlogs occur when A&E-treated patients cannot be moved to other hospital beds. This can be due to several factors, including slow discharge of healthy patients from wards and a shortage of staff and beds. Dr Higginson, RCEM vice president, stated: 'In England alone, we reckon we're about 10,000 beds short in our hospitals to deal with the predictable, urgent and emergency care... the equivalent of approximately two wards in every hospital.' He further highlighted that the current state of social care is 'in a really difficult place at the moment', resulting in older people getting stuck in hospital when they are ready to leave, exacerbating the bed shortage
HEALTH CRISIS RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS UK NHS HOSPITAL BACKLOGS SOCIAL CARE
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