Seven days in medicine: 6-12 May 2020
BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1885 (Published 14 May 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;369:m1885
Covid-19
Study shows pregnant women admitted with virus
Results from a large UK study showed that, from 1 March to 14 April 2020, 4.9 pregnant women per 1000 were admitted to hospital in the UK with covid-19, around 1 in 10 of whom received intensive care. The UK Obstetric Surveillance System is being conducted by the University of Oxford,1 with input from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and others. The RCOG said that the figures supported its clinical guidance that pregnant women are at no greater risk of severe illness with covid-19 than the non-pregnant population.
Nightingale hospitals are set to shut down
The mothballing of Britain’s Nightingale hospitals, some of which had yet to treat a single covid-19 patient, raised questions about whether resources to fight the pandemic were disproportionately focused on building intensive care capacity. Five emergency hospitals, with capacity to treat almost 10 000 covid-19 cases, were opened last month at sites around the country to help prevent the NHS being overwhelmed, after northern Italian intensive care units were swamped with seriously ill patients. But such high demand for intensive care in the UK never materialised. (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.m1860)
Let pharmacists dispense controlled drugs without prescription, say specialists
The UK home secretary, Priti Patel, was urged to immediately enact revised legislation allowing pharmacists to supply some controlled drugs without prescription. The relaxation allows pharmacists, in a pandemic …
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