Intensive care beds double in swine flu fight

Published on Thursday 10 September 2009 22:11

INTENSIVE care beds in Scotland's hospitals will be doubled to cope with any surge in swine flu cases this winter, the Scottish Government has announced.

Plans have been made for adult intensive care beds to rise from 180 to at least 378, while paediatric beds will increase from 24 to 48.

An extra 40 adult ventilators and 15 for children will also be bought at a cost of 1.4 million.

Yesterday, the Scottish Government warned that any rise in demand caused by the H1N1 pandemic could lead to other hospital activity being hit, such as canceling non-emergency operations.

But Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said such action was necessary to prioritise the sickest patients.

Yesterday, figures showed that the number of people seeing their GP with flu-like illness in Scotland increased last week – from 40 consultations per 100,000 people to almost 44.

Of the samples tested, almost 20 per cent were positive for H1N1, which officials said was partly due to more tests on children, who have higher positive rates than adults.

Overall, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) estimated that 3,336 people contracted swine flu last week, up from 2,500 the week before.

England yesterday reported about 3,000 new cases last week – but the Scottish Government said different methods of estimating the number of cases meant they could not be compared with levels in Scotland.

However, it is expected that cases in Scotland could rise sooner than in England due to children returning back to school earlier than south of the Border.

Yesterday, Ms Sturgeon said that the number of people hospitalised – 130 since the start of the outbreak and three currently in hospital – remained low and the illness was mild for most patients.

But she added: "If we do have a surge in cases over the winter months, and that is what we are expecting, then even if the virus doesn't become any more severe, it is simply a medical fact that we will have more people needing critical care treatment than there are facilities normally available to treat them."

Ms Sturgeon said the extra capacity would only be activated as it was needed, but boards would have the ability to do this by the end of October at the latest.

To increase intensive care beds – also known as Level 3 care – some staff may require further training to give them the skills to look after those patients and redeploy them from other areas.

It may also be necessary for staff to postpone holidays and to work longer hours.

Ms Sturgeon also warned that increased critical care capacity may mean non-urgent surgery and appointments having to be cancelled.

"Making use of that increased capacity will have an impact and elective and routine hospital activity, but as I am sure everybody would agree it is vital that during the kind of exceptional circumstances that a pandemic flu outbreak represents, it is vital the NHS is using its resources in a way that prioritises those who are most in need of intensive care," she said.

Health boards have been given guidance on workforce planning and by October will have to deliver plans looking at factors such as using retired medics and nurses.

Asked whether swine flu could lead to a slip in waiting time performance, Ms Sturgeon said: "That is of course possible but we would look to keep this to a minimum."

Meanwhile, six schools in Scotland have reported higher levels of absences potentially linked to swine flu, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday.