Intensive care crisis.

Matthew Hill investigates what seems to be a current crisis in NHS intensive care units. Advances in modern medicine and an ageing population are both factors in the increased demands on intensive care beds. We hear from Dr. Chris Hargreaves at the intensive care unit at the Whittington Hospital and get an inside view of how stretched the staff are to provide the one to one care that many of the critically ill patients need. File on Four sent a detailed questionaire to doctors involved in intensive care medicine in which they were asked to assess how this crisis is affecting patients. A large percentage of them reported negative effects on their patients' health and some reported deaths.