Coronavirus patients might SHARE ventilators as NHS prepares for ‘tsunami’ in London
CORONAVIRUS patients may have to share ventilators – as the NHS is braced for a “tsunami” of cases in London. Doctors could be forced to hook up two people to one machine if hospitals become overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients. ⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates Meanwhile, nurses from across […]
CORONAVIRUS patients may have to share ventilators – as the NHS is braced for a “tsunami” of cases in London.
Doctors could be forced to hook up two people to one machine if hospitals become overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
Meanwhile, nurses from across the country will be drafted to the capital to help cope with a surge in cases in the coming days.
The NHS will also ask doctors to sleep on-site at the newly-built Nightingale hospital for six weeks, according to the Guardian.
Health bosses will also scrap limits on the number of patients nurses can look after in intensive care wards.
The unprecedented series of measures have been drawn up as London prepares for the pandemic to peak early next month.
‘Tsunami of cases’
Chris Hopson, head of NHS Providers – which represents hospital trusts, has warned that hospitals in the capital were facing a “tsunami” of cases.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “They [London trusts] are struggling with the explosion of demand in seriously ill patients.
“They are saying it’s the number arriving and the speed with which they are arriving and how ill they are.
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“They talk about wave after wave after wave. The words that are used to me are that it’s a continuous tsunami.
“As one said to me, it’s much bigger and large numbers with a greater degree of stretch than you can ever have possibly imagined.
“The CEOs are concerned that all that extra capacity is now being used up very, very quickly.
“We’ve got the surge capacity at the ExCel centre but this is filling up very quickly.”
Ventilator splitting
One of the potential measures the NHS planners have had to explore is whether one ventilator could be used to keep two patients alive.
The technique, dubbed “ventilator splitting”, has been approved for use in New York – which has recorded more than 37,000 cases and 385 deaths.
However, connecting more than one person to the same machine can increase the risk of bacterial infection, experts warn.
It’s not been given the go-ahead in the UK yet, but with the country facing a shortage of ventilators and critical care units reaching saturation point, the health service has said it’s something it would consider.
The country is racing to get its ventilator capacity up from 8,000 to 30,000 – but admitted most of them won’t be available for months.
Downing Street said on Thursday that 8,000 additional ventilators had been ordered by the Government to boost the stock of 8,000 already available to the health service.
But with Covid-19’s peak expected to strike the UK in around three weeks, there were concerns hospitals will not have the numbers required in time.
Machines ordered
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman assured that 8,000 approved machines had been ordered.
“We would say we expect thousands of those to arrive in the coming weeks and thousands more in the pipeline to arrive in the coming months,” he told a Westminster briefing.
A day earlier, a key scientist who has been advising the Government, Professor Neil Ferguson, suggested the majority may be needed sooner than that.
He predicted that intensive care demand would peak “in approximately two to three weeks and then decline thereafter” if the current lockdown measures work as expected.
There was also criticism of Boris Johnson for not taking part in an EU scheme to boost the number of ventilators, with allegations that Brexit ideology was being placed above demand for the essential equipment.
The PM’s spokesman said: “Well, we are no longer members of the EU,” when asked why the UK was not utilising the scheme, and pointed towards other efforts to secure ventilators.
Pressed if the decision was related to Brexit ideology, the spokesman said: “No, as I say, this is an area where we’re making our own efforts.”
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth criticised the decision not to take part in the EU scheme.
“With widespread concerns about our ventilator capacity and the urgent need to scale-up that capacity, we should be co-operating through international schemes to ensure we get these desperately need pieces of kit,” he said.
Liberal Democrat acting leader Ed Davey added: “There is no reasonable justification for Boris Johnson’s refusal to participate in the EU’s procurement of ventilators.
“Let’s be clear: getting more ventilators to our NHS will save lives. Why won’t the Prime Minister put his Brexit views aside, given this crisis?”
Downing Street also contradicted a claim by billionaire entrepreneur Sir James Dyson that the Government had ordered 10,000 ventilators from his firm.
Sir James emailed Dyson staff to say “we have received an initial order of 10,000 units from the UK Government”.
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But the Prime Minister’s spokesman said all manufacturers turning their efforts to making ventilators must pass tests from expert clinicians and health regulators before purchases are made.
“New orders are all dependent on machines passing regulatory tests; this is the case with Dyson,” he said.
“Their machines must meet the necessary safety and regulatory standards – if they do not, they will not be brought or rolled out to hospitals.”