Coronavirus patients admitted to intensive care have a better chance of surviving now than they did in April, according to the dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.
But these gains levelled off over the summer, Dr Alison Pittard said.
The proportion of patients admitted to critical care who die fell by almost a quarter from the peak and as much as half in hospitals overall.
It is too soon to know the survival rate for patients admitted this autumn.
A better understanding of the disease has allowed doctors to treat patients better, including using the steroid dexamethasone and less invasive types of ventilation.
The Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), which reports on the outcomes of patients who end up in critical care units, has begun separating out the cases of people admitted after 1 September.
These figures at first glance suggest a dramatic fall in the proportion of patients dying between the first wave (up until the end of August) and the second (from 1 September).
On average, 39% of patients admitted to critical care died between the start of the pandemic and the end of August and this appears to have fallen to just under 12%.
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