Authors Dr Philip Lee
7 days
30 days
All time
Recent
Popular
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.
A well-balanced piece. Bed occupancy rate in NHS is actually lower than usual - even with fewer beds. (Though spare capacity has been created through cancellation of non-urgent operations etc, and higher levels of staff sickness are causing pressures.) https://t.co/CH8hGcFOs9
— Paul Embery (@PaulEmbery) January 8, 2021
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.