LONDON – Hospitals in the UK are under unprecedented stress as a rapidly spreading variant of coronavirus breaks out across the country, with pressure intensifying as doctors say they save more lives, which means more beds are being used. hospital.
The more contagious virus variant has led to a record number of hospitalizations and expanded the government-run National Health Service to its limits in parts of the country. As they grow, doctors seek to reduce the number of deaths in several ways, guided by the hard lessons of spring.
They have established protocols so that the elderly who carry the virus are not sent from hospitals to nursing homes, where last spring such movements sowed the spread of the virus that killed thousands. I use improved treatments for Covid-19, which keep more people alive.
In the meantime, they continued with elective surgery so that people with serious conditions, such as cancer, could receive procedures. This also means that more hospital beds are occupied.
The downside: hospitals are even fuller and under more pressure than last spring.