NHS bosses in East of England asked to find extra Covid beds

NHS England has asked trusts to try and find extra bed capacity to deal with Covid cases

NHS leaders across the East of England are being asked to find extra hospital capacity, as the number of Covid cases grows.

An email sent this week from NHS England to trust chief operating officers asked whether they had space to build "temporary structures".

The request also asked if extra beds could be found within existing facilities.

NHS England told the BBC that hospitals were already adding extra bed capacity.

The email was sent on Monday and followed a meeting at 12:45 GMT.

It asked three questions: whether trusts had an existing clinical facility that could be used for 50-100 patients, an existing non-clinical facility and whether they had space to build a temporary structure.

It is not known what the responses were, but a source told the BBC it had been followed by high-level meetings to see what could be progressed.

The nature of the temporary structures was not disclosed in the email, which also said: "We recognise that staffing will be a constraint to running any facility."

In terms of which patients would be using these extra beds, the email stated trust bosses should "assume they are low acuity" with low oxygen requirements, but not yet ready for discharge.

Rising numbers

Almost 10,000 people tested positive for Covid in the East of England yesterday, according to the government Covid-19 dashboard.

Across the UK the figure was more than 90,000.

The Omicron daily overview from the UK Health Security Agency from Wednesday stated there were 3,700 confirmed Omicron cases in the East of England, up by more than 1,000 on the previous day.

The regional doubling rate is currently 1.75 days.

An NHS spokesperson said: "In light of the potential threat posed by Omicron, it is right that the NHS prepares for any surge in hospital admissions.

"Hospitals are already putting measures in place, including by increasing bed capacity, and the single best thing the public can do to help is come forward and book their booster vaccine."