There is, I think, an ongoing and pervasive misunderstanding about hospital 'capacity' during COVID-19 Capacity is NOT the TOTAL NUMBER of beds It is the number of FREE beds This is a very important point
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Oh, and important to add (as many have already) that a free 'bed' is not just the physical bed, but the expert staff to manage the patient and stop them from dying
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Having worked in hospital finance, it is easy to use the shorthand 'beds' when I really mean 'everything that goes into treating a patient' because we usually measure all that stuff with bed numbers
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Something further to add - the free bed capacity is not a fixed number, and usually varies over the seasons. Most hospitals operate at close to 100% capacity during winter ALREADY, which makes the COVID-19 situation in Europe even more worrying
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Also about the extra number of suitably qualified staff needed as well.
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I'd like to add a related misconception which is that whatever the current number is of either ICU or hospital admission, it is not the true reflection of the number of patients being treated during a given period, but instead it is the sustained level of occupancy. 1/n
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So you may have 100 ICU beds full for two weeks straight, but in reality 500 patients might have passed through there and 100 is simple the balance between inpatients and outpatients.
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