More NHS Inefficiency

On the TV, this morning, I heard reports that, in three hospitals in London, Intensive care Units were full, leaving some patients waiting to be transferred to other hospitals.  Simply absorbing this information as a passive consumer of news, you might think, "Oh what a terrible situation, and indication of the problems being caused by COVID".  But, a little critical thinking, leads one surely to ask two questions 1) were all of these ICU beds being used by COVID patients (and how many of them were infected having already been in hospital for other causes), and 2) why did the NHS allow such a situation to arise?

Either those in the ICU, were indeed people who had gone into hospital with other complaints, and became infected with COVID whilst in hospital, in which case that is an indictment of the NHS for failing to keep patients safe, and ensure that COVID patients are isolated from other patients, or else they are critically ill patients newly brought into hospital.  We know that 25% of patients in hospital being treated for COVID are people who contracted the virus after going into hospital for some other cause.  So, its possible given that hospital capacity is always used up during the Winter that these ICU patients were people already in hospital for other causes, rather than COVID. But, if they are new patients, and if the ICU capacity in these hospitals was already used up, why did the NHS continue to send critically ill patients to these hospitals?

When I drive in towards the town centre, information boards tell me that this or that car park of such and such capacity is full, or how many free spaces are available.  Often where the nearest car park is already full, the information board will tell me which other car parks still have capacity, so that I do not waste my time going to a full car park, and can instead head for another car park with spaces.  Why can't a supposedly high-tech and integrated NHS do that?  Why does the NHS send critically ill patients to hospitals that are already full, where they then have to wait to be transferred to some other hospital, rather than ambulances being directed, from the start to take those critically ill patients to alternative hospitals that have spare capacity, and where those critically ill patients do not spend vital time simply waiting to be transferred to some other hospital?

The bureaucrats that run the NHS are very highly paid, and tens of millions of pounds is spent on NHS computer systems.  If a local council can get such logistics right to be able to divert thousands of motorists per day to appropriate car parks, why can't the NHS?