Routine NHS treatments and tests are being axed again as intensive care unit beds fill up with Covid-19 victims. The health service is still officially offering non-emergency treatments after postponements during the first coronavirus wave caused a huge backlog.
But hospitals are now having to halt planned operations as a second wave inundates the wards. In Liverpool, ICUs are at 90 per cent capacity – but doctors warn some units are already full and elective treatments are being halted.
Leeds is “very close” to having to strip back planned treatments and they have been postponed in Plymouth, Swansea and Belfast.