NHS ‘requires more investment in intensive care beds’

Introducing more intensive care beds to NHS hospitals should be considered a key priority in order to help save lives and improve outcomes.

This is the view of Peter Gibb, secretary for charity organisation ICUsteps, which suggests that such a move would help to improve care standards and ease working conditions for staff.

The comments come in response to a recent study published in the Lancet, showing that UK hospitals have fewer intensive care beds than in any other developed nation, despite the growing global burden of critical illness.

Mr Gibb said that problems arising from a lack of intensive care facilities include patients being discharged too early and being sent to a ward where their needs are not catered for.

He suggested that intensive care unit-specific recovery wards could be a way of combating this, as such facilities would be better equipped to treat patients for multiple conditions.

"It comes down to the continuity of care," added Mr Gibb.