A drink driver was so intoxicated he needed to be put on a ventilator - taking up a bed which could have been needed by a coronavius patient.

Fenland police tested the man after a crash in Wisbech and he had to go to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn.

Subscribe to our daily coronavirus newsletter, with all the latest from where you liveOne officer tweeted: “Driver arrested at the scene for being unfit through drink. Due to level of intoxication, driver was taken to QEH who placed driver onto a ventilator.

“This has taken bed away from someone who might need it for Covid-19.”

A Cambridgeshire police spokesman said: “We were called at about 3.30pm yesterday with reports of a collision in Staithe Road, Wisbech.

“A Vauxhall Signum had been involved in a collision with two parked cars.

“Officers attended the scene and a man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of driving whilst unfit due to drink or drugs. He was taken to hospital for treatment where he remains.

“Nobody was injured as a result of the collision.”

The government has come under fire for the lack of ventilators available in NHS hospitals, as the number of virus cases surge.

In response to comments on social media, police posted: “I know this has made a lot of people angry on this subject in the current climate of Covid-19.

“However when someone is arrested by the police and they are taken ill we have a duty of care to that person, like any person we come into contact with.

“They will be taken to hospital and it is down to the hard working doctors to provide the right treatment for them.

“If that means they need to be placed into a coma to help promote their recovery then that’s what will happen, the police have no say on the person’s treatment.”