The UK has half the number of ventilators and ICU beds as Italy despite having a bigger economy. Our hospitals will be overwhelmed faster and for longer. A disaster is in the making.

This is the reality of 10 years of Conservative government. No wonder Johnson wants to pretend the virus is not real.

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

The obvious flaw being that we have an absolutely bobbins climate and - especially in the north-western fringes - you can't guarantee a week of mainly warm/hot, dry and sunny weather.

I enjoy a mini break in the UK, and have struck lucky with the weather on the odd occasion, but it's rarely the sort of weather condusive to sitting round a pool relaxing and drinking cold beer, or spending half a day on the beach sizzling in the sun.

Originally Posted by: Saint Snow 

The UK has half the number of ventilators and ICU beds as Italy despite having a bigger economy. Our hospitals will be overwhelmed faster and for longer. A disaster is in the making.

This is the reality of 10 years of Conservative government. No wonder Johnson wants to pretend the virus is not real.

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

The NHS runs a tight ship - in normal times, why would the NHS have more ventilators and ICU beds than it usually requires? However, that said, the Government should have forced the ramping up of production of ventilators two months ago, once the nature of the epidemic in China became apparent.

P.S. Italy is a worst case scenario - what happened there does not have to happen here if all people follow basic rules and the vulnerable self isolate.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

Why does it need fewer than other similar countries? 

"The overall health of British people is similar to the OECD average, considering life expectancy and other general measures of health status. This is also the case for the major risk factors of smoking and alcohol consumption, but obesity rates are considerably worse than the OECD average. " - OECD

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

The NHS runs a tight ship - in normal times, why would the NHS have more ventilators and ICU beds than it usually requires? However, that said, the Government should have forced the ramping up of production of ventilators two months ago, once the nature of the epidemic in China became apparent.

P.S. Italy is a worst case scenario - what happened there does not have to happen here if all people follow basic rules and the vulnerable self isolate.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

If the last three days of figures are to be believed Denmark looking like the first European country to get a semblance of control

Originally Posted by: Chidog 

You don't do yourself any favours sometimes, Richard! There is no getting around the fact that the NHS doesn't have enough respirators for inpatients suffering acute respiratory disorders in normal times!

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

What time is the COBRA meeting today and I assume the first of the subsequent National updates?

Originally Posted by: nsrobins 

Is this a joke or are you being serious? 

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

Well that is something I really could not comment on - but these are not normal times, so even if we had enough for normal times, it would be far from having enough now.

Question - how long does a respirator last for? How many consecutive patients can a respirator support before it is binned? Presumably, they have single use parts which have to be replaced after each use.

Anybody an expert on respirators here?

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

Why is no one holding the government to account and asking fundamental questions:

1) Why were tests down 2400 yesterday?

2) Why has comprehensive contact tracing been abandoned? (it has regardless of what they may say - it's a consequence of 1)

3) Why is "our" NHS taking 7 days to process some of the tests?

4) Why are people being told they can't test unless they meet rigorous criteria?

5) With the above how will it be possible for the UK to monitor the spread of the virus? Are we now entirely dependent on hospital admissions and deaths? Lagging indicators. 

6) How many new ventilators have been bought a) this year b) in the last 2 weeks

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

Yes, these questions highlight the very risky approach taken by HMG and Labour is also failing to challenge them.

Originally Posted by: xioni2 

Yes, these questions highlight the very risky approach taken by HMG and Labour is also failing to challenge them.

Originally Posted by: xioni2 

Good  Morning.

This week in the UK marks the start of what future historians might look back at with interest but with their hindsight will understand far better than we ever can. Just as with the Spanish Flu in the early 20th century we now have a better grasp of what occurred even if until recently few people bothered to recall it. But lessons were learned and it is those that we are going to have to use at these difficult times.

Some of us in the next few weeks, months and years will discover wonderful people we never gave time to before. Others we thought we could trust will turn out to be villains and crooks. The freedoms we enjoyed last week may well be swept away by those who think they know better than us but eventually we will emerge from the dark days in better shape than we probably think right now.

When this period is over, the world will be a very different place to what we have known and it won’t all be bad. The value of money will be one, what seemed unremarkable and taken for granted things such as cheap overseas holidays another. Many jobs and lifestyles will change and most of us will have to rely on friends either for board and lodging or other kinds of help we haven't even considered until now. Humanity has been through many of these kinds of events before and will do so again so please talk to your neighbours and make every effort to help those less fortunate than yourselves.

Originally Posted by: NMA 

No apparent rush to get to business today. They are meeting this afternoon.

Originally Posted by: Heavy Weather 2013 

Well it's going to take a long while, punctuated with several breaks for naps and elevenses and a bit of rumpy-pumpy, for Bozo to digest the latest information as it can't be condensed onto one side of A4.

Originally Posted by: Saint Snow 

Chickens are coming home to roost. The Conservatives have sown the wind with the NHS; the general population is about to reap the whirlwind.

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

Not sure I'd class as next overseas holiday (if it went ahead) as "cheap". £1,500 for a week B&B for 2.

Originally Posted by: westv