How close is the NHS to being ‘overwhelmed’? Just 1,800 out of 110,000 occupied beds are taken up by Covid-19 patients as thousands more than normal die at home of other causes

• Just 478 out of 110,000 beds in use were by Covid-19 patients on September 3, according to official data
• Government warns NHS could be pushed to brink if it is faced by another influx of coronavirus patients
• But latest figures published by NHS England suggest capacity in a good place heading into winter months

Connor Boyd – Mail Online Sept 30, 2020

Covid patients are currently occupying fewer than 2 per cent of all hospital beds in England, official data suggests.

The most NHS recent snapshot — released three weeks ago — shows just 478 out of 110,000 beds in use were by Covid-19 patients on September 3.

This has since risen to 1,883, according to Department of Health data. Health chiefs have yet to update the total beds occupied figure since but it barely changed over the summer.

Even at the peak of the crisis in Britain, only a quarter of all beds were occupied by virus patients. On April 7, 26.5 per cent of the 67,206 people in England’s hospitals were being treated for coronavirus — the highest proportion on record.

Waiting for a second wave. One of the Florence Nightingale hospitals that were set up in Britain to deal with an expected throng ofcoronavirus patients but which have remained almost empty. Click to enlarge

NHS England officials have not publicly revealed how many beds they have in total but it’s thought to be around the 110,000-mark. Capacity was bolstered by standby beds commandeered through a deal with private facilities, plus extra space at seven Nightingale hospitals purposely built to stop the NHS from being overwhelmed.

Separate data also shows NHS hospitals across England and Wales are still recording hundreds of fewer deaths than expected every week since the outbreak began to tail off in May. But the number of patients dying from the coronavirus did rise slightly in the week ending September 20, in line with a national spike in cases, from 64 to 98.

Deaths of people in their own homes from causes other than the virus continued to run at far above average rates. There were 2,962 such fatalities during the week, 711 more than the average for the time of year, and doctors noted Covid-19 symptoms in only eight of their cases.

NHS England today said the service was still encouraging people to visit hospital for all medical needs if and when they need to, amid fears Britons are still too scared to visit in case they catch the virus. Boris Johnson this summer had to urge the public to seek treatment if they need it, insisting the service was safe from Covid-19.

It comes as shocking data today revealed 1million women have missed out on breast cancer screening as a result of lockdown. The huge backlog means the killer disease may have gone undetected in around 8,600 of them.

The charity Breast Cancer Now estimates 986,000 patients are waiting for life-saving mammograms because screening ground to a halt when the pandemic struck. Early diagnosis hugely improves survival chances and doctors warned the delays mean young and otherwise healthy women will ‘die unnecessarily’.

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