NHS beds, an explainer

Under normal circumstances, most NHS acute hospitals will have several types of inpatient areas

1. Assessment unit
2. Specialty wards
3. Intensive care

As well as outpatients, emergency department, day case surgery etc.
Patients admitted from A&E would go to 1, then move to 2. Some might go directly to 2, sickest ones to 3.

In many hospitals, the assessment unit is vital to flow of patients out of Emergency Department.
With COVID, several blocks have been introduced. Firstly patients have to be treated as "hot" in 2m apart bed spaces until their test results are back. This reduces an average six bedded bay to four.
There are rapid tests that turn around in around an hour or two, but their availability is limited. PCR still takes up to 24 hours to get back (often quicker), and lateral flow in the population admitted to hospital isn't sensitive enough to pick up silent cases.
On top of which, specialty ward bed availability are limited. Because staff are coming down with COVID, and outbreaks on non-covid areas forces their closure to admissions.

As a result, there is then a backlog on the assessment unit, then A&E.
What's often not mentioned and doesn't immediately become clear when you look at the stats is the number of beds becoming covid positive.

We have taken over wards normally occupied by gynaecology, paediatrics, orthopaedics. This is completely unprecedented.
To give you some idea, on boxing day, we had two COVID positive wards. We are now up to six.

ICU has increased in size out of their base, to take on another entire ward.

Of the non-covid wards, these are now general, a mix of medicine and surgery.
Staff have been redeployed. Community doctors are now back in hospital, specialist nurses are working on general wards, and nurses usually seeing more specialised problems are now dealing with COVID instead.

Elective operations, except for cancer surgery, have been cancelled.
People often say "oh but the corridors are empty" well firstly, we are doing our darnedest to avoid this. Especially because of infection control measures, having COVID positive patients waiting on trollies infecting passing folk is not good.
Secondly, instead they're waiting in ambulances, with crews in a small space. This exposes them to additional risk, is suboptimal for care, and takes an emergency ambulance off the road.

Some hospitals are now considering setting up tents outside A&E.
I don't know how else to explain this. I have nothing to gain from lying about this.

We are all exhausted, we will keep going as long as we can, as long as we can help. We only ask you to stay at home, wear a mask in crowded places, isolate if you're sick.

Thank you.

More from Health

No-regret #hydrogen:
Charting early steps for H₂ infrastructure in Europe.

👉Summary of conclusions of a new study by @AgoraEW @AFRY_global @Ma_Deutsch @gnievchenko (1/17)
https://t.co/YA50FA57Em


The idea behind this study is that future hydrogen demand is highly uncertain and we don’t want to spend tens of billions of euros to repurpose a network which won’t be needed. For instance, hydrogen in ground transport is a hotly debated topic
https://t.co/RlnqDYVzpr (2/17)

Similar things can be said about heat. 40% of today’s industrial natural gas use in the EU goes to heat below 100°C and therefore is within range of electric heat pumps – whose performance factors far exceed 100%. (3/17)


Even for higher temperatures, a range of power-to-heat (PtH) options can be more energy-efficient than hydrogen and should be considered first. Available PtH technologies can cover all temperature levels needed in industrial production (e.g. electric arc furnace: 3500°C). (4/17)


In our view, hydrogen use for feedstock and chemical reactions is the only inescapable source of industrial hydrogen demand in Europe that does not lend itself to electrification. Examples include ammonia, steel, and petrochemical industries. (5/17)

You May Also Like

“We don’t negotiate salaries” is a negotiation tactic.

Always. No, your company is not an exception.

A tactic I don’t appreciate at all because of how unfairly it penalizes low-leverage, junior employees, and those loyal enough not to question it, but that’s negotiation for you after all. Weaponized information asymmetry.

Listen to Aditya


And by the way, you should never be worried that an offer would be withdrawn if you politely negotiate.

I have seen this happen *extremely* rarely, mostly to women, and anyway is a giant red flag. It suggests you probably didn’t want to work there.

You wish there was no negotiating so it would all be more fair? I feel you, but it’s not happening.

Instead, negotiate hard, use your privilege, and then go and share numbers with your underrepresented and underpaid colleagues. […]
Margatha Natarajar murthi - Uthirakosamangai temple near Ramanathapuram,TN
#ArudraDarisanam
Unique Natarajar made of emerlad is abt 6 feet tall.
It is always covered with sandal paste.Only on Thriuvadhirai Star in month Margazhi-Nataraja can be worshipped without sandal paste.


After removing the sandal paste,day long rituals & various abhishekam will be
https://t.co/e1Ye8DrNWb day Maragatha Nataraja sannandhi will be closed after anointing the murthi with fresh sandal paste.Maragatha Natarajar is covered with sandal paste throughout the year


as Emerald has scientific property of its molecules getting disturbed when exposed to light/water/sound.This is an ancient Shiva temple considered to be 3000 years old -believed to be where Bhagwan Shiva gave Veda gyaana to Parvati Devi.This temple has some stunning sculptures.
I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x