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The For/With Ratio is a very useful way to normalise the raw Occupied (or Admissions) data.

I hadn't realised it was now as low as 0.33, because of the way the Primary Diagnosis data is buried in a Supplemental spreadsheet, which then needs to convoluted with the headline figure: it's a pity UKHSA don't offer that as running Indicator.

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Thank you for this. I'm interested in you thoughts about the longer term. Where might we be in May 2024, and in ten years time? Will there always be c. 2,000 people in hospital "for" Covid, or will that fall over time? And does that mean the NHS needs 2,000 more beds (and staff, wards etc) to do the same amount of work it was doing in 2019?

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It's a fair question, and it gets into crystal ball territory. My guess is that (barring a big jump away from omicron type variants) admissions are going to broadly decay over time - though of course we might not still measure it! This is based on an assumption that second, third etc infections are less likely to put people in hospital, but that it is going to continue to circulate.

I think it's still not clear if 1890s Russian flu was a coronavirus, but it might be interesting to know what the trajectory of that was after all the big waves?

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Value these updates. Thanks Prof.

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