The NHS is facing colossal challenges this winter, but people can help themselves speed up their treatment, says Greater Manchester’s medical chief. Health chiefs are frantically trying to open new beds amid a massive shortage, and curb demand on rammed emergency services before the peak of the cold weather.
But despite attempts to ease gridlock in both general practice and A&Es, these same problems the region’s NHS have been dealing with all year remain pervasive. Any solution could be hamstrung by the social care and health sectors being chronically short-staffed, with high level sources telling the Manchester Evening News that workforce is the problem they are ‘most worried about’.
Yes, more beds are being created to deal with an unprecedented influx of patients, but delays will continue as long as there are not enough boots on the ground to treat them. Here, with the help of Greater Manchester medics, the M.E.N. explains why the NHS is facing a winter like no other - and what is being done to avert disaster.
