NHS: Hunt Warned Over Urgent Cash Needs

The body representing the NHS in England has called for an urgent cash injection to save lives this winter, warning the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that the service could face its worse winter in recent years due to a critical lack of beds and funding. That is a grim outlook given that the British Red Cross called the situation last winter a “humanitarian crisis” with long waiting times causing preventable deaths.

The report by NHS Providers said that time is running out to prepare for winter and called for an immediate injection of “between £200m and £350m to enable the NHS to manage patient safety risk this winter.”

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, acknowledged that last winter the health service came under pressure “as never before.”

“At its height, the NHS had to provide 4,500 additional beds a day, equivalent to more than eight extra hospitals. Patient safety was compromised as local services struggled to cope with the pressures.

At times, in some places, the NHS was overwhelmed. We must act now to prevent the situation becoming even worse this winter.”

Targets Missed

“The report has been informed by regular feedback from front-line NHS trusts and discussions with system leaders, as well as analysis of the latest data on key performance targets such as the four-hour A&E standard and bed occupancy levels,” NHS Providers said.

The report said that a lot of progress had been made since last year, with extra funds made available for social care services in a third of local areas to help them look after patients who were medically fit to leave hospital but needed additional support.

Nevertheless more needed to be done and the target for transfers of care to free up NHS beds had been missed. Despite a big emphasis on meeting the four-hour waiting time for A&E the actual performance on that measure had been no better than last year. The report also noted that trusts were under even greater financial pressure than last year.

“The overwhelming view of NHS trusts is that without immediate extra funding they will not have sufficient capacity to manage this winter safely,” said Hopson.

“This risk has been heightened because, in many areas, the £1bn of extra support for social care announced in the Budget will not ease winter pressures on the NHS, as the Government had planned. Patients will therefore be put at greater risk as local trusts won’t have the extra beds, staff and services they need to meet the extra demand they will face. The only way to mitigate these risks is through an urgent NHS cash injection to ensure the NHS has the necessary capacity this winter.”

Staffing Crisis

Another key issue the report identified was the critical understaffing of the service. Nick Hulme, chief executive of Colchester Hospital University Foundation NHS Trust said the situation had reached a crisis.

“The first quarter of this year has been as challenging as any I can remember – there has been no let up,” he said. “Acuity, attendances and admissions have all stayed high.” Hulme said planning meetings had been dominated by “firefighting” the issues at hand without being able to look ahead to prepare for winter.

“Our major concern going into this winter is staffing – going into August we are 50 junior doctors short on our rotas across the hospital. Every day is a constant struggle for junior doctors and registered nurses.”

by Stewart Vickers

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