Close to half the beds in some English hospitals are lying empty in a sign that people may be failing to seek help for other life-threatening conditions during the coronavirus pandemic. Sarah Neville, Andrew Bounds, Mure Dickie, Federica Cocco, and Bethan Staton write in the Financial Times that the National Health Service in England moved aggressively last month to release more than 30,000 beds in anticipation of a flood of patients infected by Covid-19, halting all non-emergency surgery from mid-April and discharging anyone medically fit into the community.
However, people familiar with the situation say that the speed and scale of the drop in demand for other services has surprised health leaders, fueling concerns that people are failing to seek help even for conditions as serious as suspected heart attacks.
NHS England said that across the country, about 60 percent of beds in acute hospitals were currently occupied. A year ago, the equivalent figure was a little over 90 percent.
A similar phenomenon has been seen in Scotland.
As the U.K. government considers how and when to lift the lockdown, ministers are also concerned about the knock-on health impact on citizens who are staying away from hospitals and not receiving treatment for other ailments.