London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

'Like a bomb had gone off on either side of their chest.' London doctors speak of 'continuous tsunami'

'Like a bomb had gone off on either side of their chest.' London doctors speak of 'continuous tsunami'

The rapidly rising number of deaths in Italy and Spain have placed Europe at the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis. Both countries now have higher death tolls than China, where the outbreak began, and with more than 7,500 fatalities Italy has the most deaths anywhere in the world.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last Sunday that the UK is only "two or three" weeks behind Italy, and warned that its National Health Service (NHS) could be "overwhelmed" by the virus, like its continental European counterparts. The following day, Johnson imposed the most stringent restrictions seen in Britain since the end of World War II, after it became clear that advice about social distancing was not being adhered to.

The country's health workers are now bracing for a wave of Covid-19 patients. Sanderson's hospital, the Whittington in north London, is one of a number of UK facilities that has already attempted to scale up capacity and transform the way it is being run, in an effort to accommodate an increase of arrivals in the past week. An emergency medicine registrar at a north London hospital, Dr. Robert Lloyd, returned from holiday this week to find his department had changed radically. "Over the last few days, it is empty in the morning and in the afternoon it gets flooded, literally flooded, completely at capacity, and all patients are almost perfectly positive [for coronavirus]."

This mirrors the situation at south London's King's College Hospital, which has spent weeks training staff and converting wards into intensive care units, according to a critical care worker, who wanted to remain anonymous out of concern that speaking publicly would put their job at risk. They added that the caseload "has been pretty unprecedented." King's College Hospital told CNN that it has been "training staff as required to be redeployed to support teams who are treating patients who test positive for Covid-19 as well as increasing bed capacity."

The case numbers are already increasing rapidly at hospitals in London, where coronavirus cases are rising faster than anywhere else in the country.

Chris Hopson, head of NHS Providers, which represents hospital administrators, said London was facing a "continuous tsunami" of coronavirus patients. In an interview with BBC Radio 4 on Thursday, Hopson said London hospitals had increased critical care capacity by between five and seven times in the past few weeks, but are now struggling to meet the "explosion of demand."

“is by far the biggest challenge the NHS has ever faced in its history and it is striking how everyone is pulling together to prepare for the explosion in demand that is going to come."

The critical care worker at King's said the main message that London health professionals want to get out to hospitals that have yet to be hit by cases is: "Do the preparation, because without it you won't be able to cope."
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×