Eight out of 10 ICU beds already being used in Victoria, DCMO says – as hospitals rush in ventilators

Victoria’s ICU bed capacity sits at 82%, but less than one in 10 patients is being treated for COVID-related illness, according to Deputy Chief Medical Officer (DCMO) Dr Nick Coatsworth.

“At the moment, based on normal capacity in Victoria, only 82% of beds are being used,” said Dr Coatsworth. “That is mirrored more or less nationally”.

Victoria has 446 ICU beds, but promised to activate another 4,000 beds with ventilators if the state’s ICU capacity needed to be increased during the pandemic, with more ventilators rushed in this week.

Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) took delivery of 22 additional ventilators this week, which will increase their ICU bed capacity to 64.

The numbers sound bad – but the DCMO says intensive care units would typically be close to 100% capacity at this time of year due to the flu season, so he is confident that Victoria still has existing capacity to deal with the increasing number of cases.

“It is also at least in part one of the reason why our results, out of intensive care, are so good compared to the rest of the world,” Dr Coatsworth added.