NHS Highland exceeds Scottish Government targets to quadruple the number of intensive care unit beds
NHS Highland has managed to surpass calls made by the Scottish Government to quadruple the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds available by the end of April to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak.
The health board managed to exceed targets set by health secretary Jeane Freeman at the end of last month by increasing the number of beds to 28.
Fortunately, the vast majority are unused with the health board only seeing a handful of patients in the ICU.
Despite the relatively low levels of infection in the board area the “means” exist to expand the number to 40 beds should they be required, a fact welcomed by some staff.
Currently there are 28 ICU beds available according to NHS Highland’s deputy medical director Dr Paul Davidson, who is leading the community response to Covid-19 with responsibility for the Covid hub and 13 assessment centres.
Speaking earlier, he said: “There are 14 ICU beds in Raigmore, these are the only ICU beds in the Highlands. We have expanded that to 28 ICU beds already and we have in place the means to expand that to 40 beds, if they are required.”
