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The numbers are a bit wobbly in detail, but the point is that I think Italy has had it way worse in Lombardy specifically, but less bad in other regions. The horror stories you've read have mostly been from those really badly affected areas.
Basically the Italian got caught with their trouser down and trying their best to bring it up.
While us, in the UK, slowly put down our trouser to show the world how much of a cocks we are, give it five more minutes then slowly bring it back up again and release an app.
edscoble-
Rep.
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Anecdotally, Italy tried to get everyone they could into ICU even when recovery was unlikely due to underlying conditions, and so swamped their units with patients who were very likely going to die and couldn't admit patients who might have benefitted from interventions. Worst of both worlds.
One of the first things NICE did in the UK was put in place guidelines for clinicians on appropriateness of admitting to ICU to stop this.
miro_o
dubtap
From what I remember, ICU usage has been high, but still within the limits of capacity in the UK. In Italy, it seems about half of all deaths happened / are happening in Lombardy, a region with ~10m inhabitants and >14k deaths, while a lot of other regions were significantly less affected. In comparison, Greater London with (I assume) the highest density of population in the UK and about ~9m inhabitants has had <7k deaths*.
*Using this calculation: ~5.2k deaths in hospital, which are ~80% of total deaths (same source, citing ONS) --> 5.2k/0.8 = 6.5k
The numbers are a bit wobbly in detail, but the point is that I think Italy has had it way worse in Lombardy specifically, but less bad in other regions. The horror stories you've read have mostly been from those really badly affected areas.