The BBC's Daniel Sandford

Tuesday, 28 December, 1999, 04:49 GMT

Intensive care fears for millennium

There may be no spare beds for the critically ill

England faces a serious shortage of intensive care beds during the millennium celebrations, doctors have warned.

Stuart Withington, who runs an intensive care unit at the Royal London Hospital, says that most units in the capital are already full.

And doctors in Liverpool and the north-west say there have not been more than two beds available since the beginning of November.

Mr Withington warned that there might be no beds available at all for those who became critically ill over the period - when a substantial rise in the number of patients is expected.

"There are no critical care facilities. I think it could be a potentially disastrous situation," he said.

At one point over Christmas, he added, patients in London had to be moved to free beds in South Yorkshire and Somerset, both more than 200 miles away.

The government admits the system is under pressure, but says there is no crisis.

Philip Brown, director of millennium planning for the London region of the NHS, said it was fully prepared for the occasion.

"We've put in about 10% extra capacity for intensive care with the millennium in mind," he said. "So this year there are more beds."

Months of planning

The latest worries follow months of planning by the NHS to cope with the extra problems expected to be encountered this new year's eve, on top of the usual strains of winter.

In London, the NHS has spent #2m on extra hospital beds, and #70,000 on an advertising campaign to educate the public about sensible use of services over the millennium holiday.

An extra 1m people are expected to visit the capital for the weekend's celebrations.

Medical staff have been trained for "worst case scenarios" such as revellers drowning or being crushed as they celebrate by the Thames or in Trafalgar Square.

The London Ambulance Service is also expecting to spend up to #2m this winter paying for extra staff and coping with increased demand.

The service is expecting four times the usual number of calls over the period.

Health minister John Hutton said that the Government was keeping the situation under close review, but insisted that patients were getting the treatment they needed.

"This is a very tight situation. What we have at the moment is a particular period of acute pressure on intensive care beds," he said.

But he added: "I think it would be quite wrong to say the situation is in crisis. It isn't."

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