Challenges for NHS hospitals during covid-19 epidemic
John Willan, Andrew J. King, Katie Jeffery, Nicola Bienz
Abstract
Delivery of every aspect of care by all clinical and non-clinical departments in the UK's NHS is being reassessed and fundamentally reorganised in the expectation of an imminent surge of patients with covid-19. 1Modelling of the outbreak assumes an infection fatality ratio of 0.9% and a hospital admission rate of 4.4%, with 30% of those admitted requiring critical care or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. 2 3The increased demand on healthcare services will be compounded by the apparent increased risk of infection among healthcare workers, 4 and staff absences because of illness or self-isolation may be as high as 20%. 11 The government has made recommendations for case isolation, social distancing, and household quarantine intended to reduce the peak of the epidemic and the resulting pressure on NHS hospitals. 5