Coronavirus: Hospital declares 'critical incident' due to surge in COVID-19 patients
Northwick Park hospital in Harrow, northwest London, contacted neighbouring facilities for help dealing with patients.
Friday 20 March 2020 19:06, UK
A hospital briefly declared a "critical incident" after a surge in coronavirus patients caused it to run out of intensive care beds.
Northwick Park hospital in Harrow, northwest London, contacted neighbouring facilities for help dealing with patients.
The hospital told its own staff that it did not have enough space for patients requiring critical care.
"We can confirm that our critical incident status has been stood down," the hospital said in a statement on Friday.
"Critical care capacity for patients with coronavirus is being organised on a cross-London basis so that hospitals and organisations work together to deliver the best possible care for patients and that is what has happened in this case."
One intensive care consultant from another London trust said hospitals in London are working together to share intensive care capacity, with a willingness to move patients between hospitals as needs be.
London is a hotspot for the virus, with more deaths registered in the capital than any other region.
As of Friday, the number of people who have died in the UK after contracting coronavirus rose to 177 after England saw 39 more deaths - the biggest rise in a day.
The Northwick Park message, which was revealed by the Health Service Journal (HSJ), said: "I am writing to let you know that we have this evening declared a 'critical incident' in relation to our critical care capacity at Northwick Park Hospital. This is due to an increasing number of patients with COVID-19.
"This means that we currently do not have enough space for patients requiring critical care.
"As part of our system resilience plans, we have contacted our partners in the North West London sector this evening to assist with the safe transfer of patients off of the Northwick Park site."
One senior director at an acute trust in London, who also saw the message, told HSJ: "Given we're in the low foothills of this virus, this is... petrifying.
"The thing people aren't really talking about yet is that we are going to have to quickly agree some clinical thresholds for admissions to intensive care.
The senior director added that trusts in outer London have been hit much worse, with Barnet, Lewisham and Greenwich, Epsom and St Helier, North Middlesex and Hillingdon are "all struggling".
"I was in denial about the seriousness of this virus a couple of weeks ago, but not any more," they added.
During his daily news conference on Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered cafes, pubs, bars, restaurants and gyms to close from tonight in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.
More follows...