Rationing intensive care

Abstract

# Intensive care provision varies widely in Britain {#article-title-2} EDITOR,—D W Ryan believes that high dependency units will solve some of the problem of insufficient beds in intensive care units in Britain andsuggests that some elective admissions to intensive care units could be diverted to such a unit, thereby freeing beds.1 Indeed, the fact that roughly 42% of admissions to Ryan's unit are elective surgical cases might seem to support this view. Furthermore, the small number of patients whose operations were cancelled or who had to be transferred from the unit suggests that Newcastle might …