Covid inquiry revealed Treasury has denied funding request of 10,000 NHS beds.

However, they should never forget why they started aspirin. Ultimately though, some things never change! “Had we had that capacity, we could certainly have treated thousands more patients… as well as being more resilient as the pandemic continued into its second wave and winter generally,” Ms Prichard noted. In summer 2020, England had total permanent bed capacity to treat approximately 95,000 acute hospital patients under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s recovery plan agreement; that figure increased further during 2023 under an increase agreed upon under his recovery plan agreement. “That doesn’t mean, however, that staff in these locations didn’t find it completely daunting at this time – or that care being provided could even remotely resemble what it should,” according to her analysis. Ms Pritchard told the inquiry that her program had proved useful, with sites intended as military field hospitals at the time of implementation. Ms Pritchard stated this was done so to avoid what had occurred in Lombardy where intensive-care units had become overwhelmed and intensivist units became overburdened.