Pressure on UK ICUs due to the COVID-19 pandemic will continue for many months to come, even as the vaccine reduces transmission rates. We will all be required to play our part with the road map out of lock down as hospitals turn to consider how normal work will fit in alongside COVID. All of our critical care units have seen huge increases in patient numbers and stretched capacity to accommodate these rising patient numbers.

This document from the Intensive Care Society ‘Recovery and Restitution of Critical Care Services during the COVID- 19 Pandemic’  considers how critical care services and standards can be restored to their normal  pre COVID activity. This includes reducing stretched nurse patient ratios back down to normal ratios of 1:1 for level 3 patients and 1:2 for Level 2 patients.