You don't run an ICU with stretchers out the door, because that's not how you can provide ICU treatment. Overflowing ICU means "queue of ambulances out front wa

You don't run an ICU with stretchers out the door, because that's not how you can provide ICU treatment. Overflowing ICU means "queue of ambulances out front waiting if someone dies or doctors decide someone can be pushed to lower intensity care" or "patients being driven further away in the hope to reach available capacity elsewhere". And if you need an ICU, 10 mins, 30 mins or 2 hour ambulance driving time makes a lot of difference (and means the ambulance is blocked longer of course as well, again hurting other patients needing one). And re general capacity: Someone I know spent a day waiting to be seen in an emergency room and then got sent home from the hospital with a (non-covid) lung infection with "you really should be kept under supervision, but we need the space for people who probably will die tonight if they are not here". He did make it (with help from family and some emergency intervention by a local doctor), but certainly had a higher risk than if he'd been kept in a normally-operating hospital.