01 - Suspended between life and death

A patient with severe respiratory failure from COVID-19 is ventilated in the prone position in a side room on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport. The Royal Gwent forms part of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) and serves the socially deprived populations of the former South Wales minining communities of Caerphilly, Torfaen and Blaneau Gwent. In addition to the now well-recognised links between social deprivation and chronic ill-heatlh such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure that predispose to severe, life-threatening infection with COVID-19, ABUHB also has one of the lowest numbers of ICU beds per head of population of anywhere in Europe. 

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