Greater Manchester hospitals stand up extra critical care beds and seek mutual aid as Covid admissions, primary care pressures and record A&E attendances ramp up further: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...extra-21050865
Hospitals (London and Manchester) cancel operations and appeal for staff to volunteer for Covid redeployment, as summer crisis bears down on NHS: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/h...-b1883826.html
The current covid wave has been described to me as a "nightmare" by NHS sources in the North East (of England). Emergency departments "heaving," many staff off due to covid illness/ isolation, younger people in ICUs - some vaccinated, some not: https://twitter.com/mattdiscombe/sta...57101472428035
NHS summer crisis: Major hospital (Birmingham) cancels all planned operations today and tomorrow: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/h...-b1884914.html
The summer is meant to be the quiet period for the NHS so I would presume it doesn't take much for far greater pressure than normal being felt.

The SAGE minutes I posted earlier said they knew about the surge, they wanted it now instead of autumn and winter and there needs to be strong, clear communication about what people can do to protect themselves and others (and what businesses can do to protect their staff/consumers) to lessen the impact otherwise we could end up with another extreme peak. The question needed being whether different government's and different ministers are all communicating that well enough?

Another thread mentioned Tory pledge for extra 50,000 nurses a day (originally this meant somehow dissuading 19,000 expected to leave from leaving) after years of underinvesting in the service so will be interesting to see if more than 19,000 leave due to exhaustion, whether higher number than expected stay-on because this has reaffirmed how valuable the NHS is or whether more than 31,000 are attracted to the position because they've been inspired.