How close were hospitals to collapse in Covid?

In 2020 , as Covid spread around the world, an anaesthetist was seconded to NHS England and sent out to the worst hit areas to support other medics.

In late 2020 , for example, he was sent to a midsize district hospital somewhere in England that was “bursting at the seams” This was just as the second wave of Covid was hitting its peak.

The inquiry restarts its live hearings this week with evidence from doctors and patient groups.

Health ministers and senior NHS managers are also expected to appear.

Staff ratios were pushed to the limit in Covid , something the public didn’t fully understand at the time.

Outside of a pandemic, specialist critical care nurses would be responsible for just a single patient.

In Covid they were looking after four , five or even six often all on a ventilator.

This was the main reason why temporary Nightingale hospitals only treated a handful of patients.

From December 2019 to February 2020 , only 68 of these capacity transfers had taken place in England .

Between December 2020 and February 2021 , 2,152 were needed, either by road or air ambulance.