Care home residents who fall ill with coronavirus are "unlikely" to be offered a ventilator, according to reports. It is understood that GPs have written to dozens of homes, warning that frail patients are "unlikely to benefit from mechanical ventilation" and therefore may not be put on a machine if admitted to hospital with the deadly bug.
The two-page letter, which has been seen by ITV news, was reportedly sent by a group of GP surgeries in the east of England.
Medics in the UK and around the world have been using ventilators, which pump the lungs to send oxygen into the bodies, as a vital tool to keep critically ill patients alive.