Changes in emergency service access after spread of COVID‐19 across Italy

The Italian National Health System is currently living through some catastrophic days, owing to the rapid spread of COVID‐19 across the country. At the time of writing, our Government has passed emergency laws (March 11, 2020), with a view to preventing widespread viral infection among the population, which may well lead to an increase in the number of people requiring intensive care unit (ICU) hospital treatment. Currently, most of the northern Italian regions are close to saturation point in terms of the number of available ICU inpatient beds.