The region’s major hospitals are already bracing for winter chaos. Greater Manchester’s NHS could see ‘the highest number of patients in A&E ever’, according to one hospital trust chief.
In the pre-pandemic years, summer typically made way for recovery time for the NHS, with fewer patients needing emergency and urgent care. But for the last two years, medics have sounded alarm bells that summers have provided no respite.
Over the past few months, the system has been mired by a dire combination of ever-increasing demand from a rising number of sick people, short-staffing, and an absence of free beds on wards. Patients waiting 12 hours in emergency departments continues to rise across Greater Manchester - and nationally, NHS bosses have issued warnings that hospitals should be tackling delays which can prevent paramedics from getting back out on the road when they drop patients off at A&Es.
