NHS chiefs have said the Government should consider bringing back lockdown rules - including masks in public and a ban on meeting indoors - in a bid to control the spiraling Covid infection rate. Very high rates of Covid-19 infections are having a “major impact” on the health service, which is facing pressures as they would in a “bad winter” well into spring, health leaders have said.
The NHS Confederation called on the Government to reconsider its Living with Covid plan as it said that ministers risk “abandoning” the NHS if they do not take action. The membership body, which represents healthcare organisations across Wales, England and Northern Ireland, said Government messaging to the public could “mislead the public and discourage them to take steps to reduce transmission, contributing to the very high rates of Covid-19”.
It called for “mitigating actions” to help the NHS which is grappling with 20,000 Covid patients, high rates of staff absences, full hospitals and severe demands on emergency care. “The brutal reality for staff and patients is that this Easter in the NHS is as bad as any winter,” said Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
Downing Street rejected a call by the NHS Confederation for greater mask-wearing and a push to encourage mixing outdoors. A No 10 spokeswoman said: “There is no change to our guidance and our living with Covid plan still stands.”
The spokeswoman added: “Thanks to a combination of vaccination and treatment and our better understanding of the virus we are now able to manage it as we do with other respiratory infections, so that remains the case with our approach.
“But obviously we continue to monitor any changes in the behaviour of the virus.”
Asked about the confederation’s view that NHS leaders felt abandoned by the Government, the spokeswoman said: “We are incredibly grateful to NHS staff who worked flat out throughout the pandemic and continue to do so in the face of Covid backlogs.”
The NHS “is clearly under pressure” but the health and care levy will provide additional funding alongside £10 billion “to recover services and relieve Covid pressures”.
“But we are alive to the pressures that they are facing,” the spokeswoman said.
The organisation said that in the last week alone 20 emergency departments in England have been forced to turn patients away as they issued “diverts” due to being too full. It called for stronger messages to the public on how to reduce transmission, including wearing the best possible face masks, and urging people to get vaccinated.
There also needs to be medium-term plans put into place, including better ventilation in public spaces, it added.
Mr Taylor said that the nation was “behaving as if this pandemic is over, but it is not over in relation to the challenges facing the health service”. He told BBC Breakfast: “There is a lack of awareness of engagement pressures the health service is under and it’s particularly felt in hospitals at the ambulance service, but it’s actually across the system as a whole.
“Because although we’re much better at dealing with Covid, with fewer people dying and ending up in intensive care, it is still a disease that puts immense pressure on the health service. It is adding to the demand which already exists – partly to do with the number of people who are waiting for treatment.
“So we have a situation in our health service now which is as bad as any winter, even though we’re approaching Easter and it’s really important that we understand that this has happening. In our view, we do not have a ‘Living with Covid’ plan, we have a ‘living without restrictions’ ideology, which is different. We need to put in place the measures that are necessary to try to alleviate the pressures on our health service while this virus continues to attack.”
Mr Taylor told Times Radio: “We have unprecedented demand in all parts of the health service, last week we saw several key incidents where, for example, accident emergency departments had to turn ambulances away and we had NHS trusts declaring a particular state of urgency in terms of what services they’re able to provide.
“A large part of that is because we have 20,000 patients in the UK in hospital with Covid – now only about half of those people are in hospital because of Covid but nevertheless, if you get Covid when you’re in hospital that adds complications, and they’re also issues of infection control."
