NHS: Winter Flu Could Break Service

An outbreak of winter flu could break the health service and lead to a wave of unneccessary deaths, according to the head of NHS England. His ominous warning came shortly after doctors reminded the Government of the severity of last winter, which the Red Cross dubbed a “humanitarian crisis” and called on Ministers to provide an urgent cash injection to help cope with demand.

The industry group NHS Providers warned last week that there was already a bed shortage due to the poor state of social care which means that medically-fit people are often left in hospital taking up beds.

Forewarned

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS Engand, warned about the severity of recent flu outbreaks in the southern hemisphere at the NHS Expo conference in Manchester.

“For the next three, four, five months, the top priority for every NHS leader, every part of the NHS, is ensuring that the NHS goes into winter in as strong a position as possible,” he said.

“We know we’re going to have more hospital beds open. We know we are better prepared but we also know that the pressures are going to be real.”

“The signs from Australia and New Zealand who are just coming out of their winter are that it has been a heavy flu season and many of the hospitals down there have struggled to cope. We know that there is a great deal of work to be done over the next six to eight weeks with our partners in local authorities to put the NHS on the right footing for the winter ahead.”

A Winter of Woe

Professor Derek Alderson, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, voiced his own concerns after data from July showed poor results even in summer with a third more patients having been on waiting lists for six months compared to the same time in 2016.

“Hospitals and local authorities must look carefully at what they can do to speed up the transfer of patients between different types of care,” he said.

“NHS leaders have already warned of a bad flu season this winter. Unless the backlog of delayed discharges begins to clear before then, it is hard to see how the NHS will cope with increased demand. NHS staff are doing the best they can with the resource they’ve been given and the unabating pressure they’ve tackled this year means morale remains low. Unless patients are moved more quickly to community care and planned bed capacity is better protected the NHS will face a winter of woe with patients feeling the brunt of this.”

Humanitarian Crisis

A report by NHS Providers said time is running out to prepare for this 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, said that last winter the health service came under pressure “as never before.” At the winter’s peak the NHS “had to provide 4,500 additional beds a day, equivalent to more than eight extra hospitals,” he said. “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.”

by Stewart Vickers

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