Covid patients in critical care are decade younger than in previous waves, data shows

Increasing numbers of pregnant women are also being admitted to intensive care units

Hundreds of critically ill Covid patients have had to be moved between hospitals to relieve pressure on beds in recent months, according to new data which also shows those sick with the virus are a decade younger then in previous waves.

The latest assessment of admissions to hospital critical care units showed 176 patients in intensive care had been moved to different hospitals 198 times since the start of May this year.

The Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) has been analysing Covid admissions to NHS ICUs throughout the pandemic and in its latest report, published on Friday, it compared the patients admitted to ICU since May with those admitted since September.

The average age among 2,889 patients admitted to ICU since May was 49, compared to 59 in the previous surges. This has been put down to the effect of the vaccine programme with older higher risk patients being prioritised for vaccination first.

Age was the biggest risk factor for dying from coronavirus although young people can still become seriously unwell.

According to the ICNARC report, around 6 per cent of Covid ICU patients are aged 16 to 29, with just under 9 per cent of patients aged 30-39.

Hospitals across England have been forced to cancel operations in recent weeks as the cases of Covid-19 admissions have risen while hospitals have tried to maintain routine services.

Many of the transfers for critically ill patients have been to try and spread the demand around regions to maintain a supply of available beds.

The chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said: “Trusts’ experience of Covid-19 has strongly confirmed what we already knew: that the NHS is significantly short of intensive care capacity, both beds and staff.

“The level of ICU transfers over the last few months, to alleviate pressures in a number of different hospitals, further confirms that.”

He added: “The UK is towards the bottom of the European league table for intensive care beds per head of population. Whilst the UK has seven intensive care beds per 100,000 people, Germany and the US have 34. We also have comparatively fewer ICU beds than France, Italy, Australia and Spain.

“A significant expansion in the number of intensive care beds needs to be a lasting legacy of Covid-19. That would ensure that the NHS can provide the right quality of intensive care to the sickest patients where access to that care is literally a matter of life and death.”

Across England the number of Covid admissions has started to fall in recent weeks, in line with the drop in cases, but on Monday the number of patients in hospital with Covid jumped back above 5,000 after having fallen for several days.

In the past 14 days, ICNARC said a majority of ICU admissions were in the northwest with 167 patients needing a bed. London and the Midlands were close behind with 164 and 162 admissions to critical care respectively.

One stark feature in the latest data is the proportion of young pregnant women now being admitted to intensive care. A total of 17 per cent of women aged 16 to 49 were pregnant in ICU compared with 7 per cent in the September to April period.

Pregnant women were delayed receiving the vaccine and were not prioritised once trials concluded the vaccines were safe.

The NHS has now launched a campaign to encourage pregnant women to get vaccinated.

Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “Getting the vaccine is the best way to protect you and your baby against Covid-19. It really is that simple. Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women worldwide have been vaccinated, safely and effectively protecting themselves against Covid and dramatically reducing their risk of serious illness or harm to their baby.

“It’s so important for pregnant women to get their jab, particularly with the virus being so prevalent and the Delta variant proving itself to be so much more transmissible. If you have questions, talk to your midwife, talk to your obstetrician, talk to your GP. Get the answers you need and get the jab.”