A UK NHS leader has given a graphic account of the pressure that the health service is currently under. In an article in today’s London Times, Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, urges ministers to discuss “sensible precautions” that the public can take to help reduce pressure on the health service.
“There is concern across the NHS that the government doesn’t seem to want to talk about coronavirus any more,” Hopson said. “But we think we need a proper grown-up national debate about what living with Covid actually means.” He said pretending that the coronavirus “doesn’t exist any more and that nobody needs to take any precautions” was one of the reasons for the current prevalence of infection.
4/25 Challenge 1. Much higher levels of covid prevalence than we were expecting, and anyone had predicted, at this point. 15,000 patients with covid in English hospital beds on 14 April, compared to 8,210 six weeks earlier. Numbers growing, not falling as we had expected…
5/25 …Majority in hospital with, not because of, covid. Success of NHS vaccination campaign & new treatments mean much lower levels of serious illness/mortality than before. But operational consequences are same – need to separate covid/non covid patients across all services…
9/25 Challenge 2. Very pressured urgent and emergency care pathway. Worryingly high levels of delays in answering 999 calls, conveying patients to hospital, ambulance handover delays outside hospitals, 12 hour waits in A&E and delays for urgent mental health care…
