[joglynne]

Interesting article

How huge regional differences in intensive care bed numbers threaten coronavirus postcode lottery
Those living in rural areas, the south west and midlands are most vulnerable, while London is best equipped

Snippet .....We know the NHS as a whole has too little capacity to cope with the coronavirus outbreak. That’s why all hospitals were on Tuesday ordered to send “medically fit” patients home and cancel all non-urgent operations, moves which will impact tens of thousands.

“Covid-19 presents the NHS with arguably the greatest challenge it has faced since its creation”, said its boss Simon Stevens, in a letter to all trust and hospital chief executives.

Despite such announcements, it’s a mistake to think of the NHS as a single service. It is anything but. Health care in the UK is run independently in each of the four nations. Even in England, the service Mr Stevens’ presides over, the NHS is not really one entity run and controlled from the centre. In reality it's a federation of sometimes competing services.

The analysis below showing huge regional variation in the NHS’s ability to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak is partly explained by this and partly by the nature of the virus itself.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-h...bers-threaten/