A third of Covid-19 intensive care patients do not recover, study shows

A third of coronavirus patients admitted to Scotland's intensive care units (ICU) did not recover, a new NHS study has found.

The report into 472 patients admitted up to 2 May revealed 32.9% died there, 44.1% recovered and were discharged and the rest were still in intensive care.

Men made up nearly 75% of the people in ICU with Covid-19, it also revealed.

The groups with the highest number of admissions include older people and those living in areas of deprivation.

• What is intensive care and which patients need it?

• Death rate twice as high in poorest areas

• Scottish death rate continues to fall

The Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group study looked at 472 adult ICU patients with confirmed Covid-19 infections between 1 March and 2 May.

The study's ICU mortality rate of 32.9% for Covid-19 patients is higher than normal death rates for critical care settings.

In 2018, 18% of all Scottish patients admitted to ICU and combined units died in hospital.

A similar study of coronavirus ICU patients in the rest of the UK has found 46.8% died where their care outcome was reported.

Older people with coronavirus dominate admissions to ICU.

By 2 May, there were 25 Covid-19 admissions per 100,000 population for those aged 60 to 69-years-old.

By comparison, there were 3.6 admissions per 100,000 in the 16 to 49-years-old category.

The study found the average survival rate, when measured at 30 days after ICU admission, was 60% but there were big differences by age category and whether a person needed advanced respiratory support or not.

For those aged 70 years or older, the 30-day survival was 42.3% compared with 79.3% for those in the 16 to 49-year-old category.

The number of people in Scotland's intensive care units has been decreasing in recent weeks as this graph shows.