On Thursday evening, Northwick Park hospital in north-west London was forced to declare a “critical incident” after running out of critical care beds. It asked nearby hospitals to look after patients as it could not cope with the Covid-19 patients it was receiving. “I had to turn my operating theatre into a four-bed ICU and we are intubating two or three patients every eight hours or so,” said a doctor at one London hospital. “In our critical care unit we have about 20 intubated patients, who are a mixture of suspected and positive cases. Speaking of the Northwick Park critical incident, a senior manager at another London trust said it raised serious concerns about the ability of the capital’s hospitals to deal with the surge in patients.

Source: The Guardian March 20, 2020 17:07 UTC