The NHS and Government need to “plan, prepare and pull together” to face off additional pressure on services going into winter, a minister has said.
Giving an update to MPs on the health service’s preparedness for winter, health minister Karin Smyth also encouraged people to take up flu and other seasonal illness vaccinations.
Every year the NHS faces more pressure going into winter, with demand for services increasing as flu and other bugs spread in the community and the cold weather sets in – which can exacerbate symptoms of pre-existing medical conditions.
Experts have expressed concern that the NHS is running “red hot” right at the start of winter, with some sounding the alarm that this winter could be “one of the worst the NHS has faced”.
Ms Smyth, who is a former NHS manager, thanked the staff who will keep the service running over the festive period.
She said: “The challenges that winter can bring with increased demand and higher rates of infection, there are things we can’t predict.
“Storms Burt and Dara have added pressure, and we might have a cold snap. I know many people like a winter cold snap of snow and ice, but it’s not something the NHS ever wants to see.
“The NHS has excellent people that have done this before, and unlike last year, thanks to this new Government, many of them won’t be on strike. While we cannot control the weather, we can plan, prepare and pull together.”
The minister updated the House as to the current situation the NHS is facing, saying that seasonal illnesses are “high”.
She said: “The most recent figures show that last week there was a 350% increase in flu cases compared to the same week last year, but this is comparable to levels we saw two years ago.
We have made it crystal clear that we do not want to see trusts prioritising patients who can be seen and discharged more quickly over those with the greatest clinical need
“Norovirus cases are high, Covid rates are low, and although RSV rates have been high, we expect them to start coming down over the next few weeks.
“I want to make it clear that the current rate for both bed occupancy and ambulance delays are unacceptably high.”
Lord Darzi’s independent report into the NHS found there is a “perpetual bed crisis”, which Ms Smyth said meant staff have been “wasting precious time solving process problems, ringing round wards to find beds and desperately trying to hold the system together”.
She said: “But this winter NHS staff will be on the front lines, not the picket lines, because we took a different approach on how to work with staff and the unions.
“That is why for the first time in three years, this Government are fully focused on winter and not focused on planning for strikes.”
Ms Smyth announced a number of measures including strengthening same-day emergency care with more fall services for older people, support for struggling systems through NHS urgent and emergency care tiering programme, and weekly meetings between Health Secretary Wes Streeting and senior NHS leaders.
The minister said Mr Streeting met with trusts last week and told them to “prioritise patient safety”.
She said: “We have made it crystal clear that we do not want to see trusts prioritising patients who can be seen and discharged more quickly over those with the greatest clinical need, because this Government will always prioritise people, not performance.”
Ms Smyth encouraged people to take winter vaccines in order to ease pressures associated with winter illnesses.
She said: “The best and easiest way to keep people out of hospital this Christmas is to encourage them to come forward and get vaccinated.
“For instance, last year, people who received a Covid vaccine were half as likely to be admitted to hospital compared to those who didn’t.
“So far, we have delivered over 17 million flu jabs, nine-and-a-half million Covid jabs, and we introduced the first-ever public vaccination campaign for RSV, with over a million vaccinations delivered, and counting, protecting young babies and the elderly.”
For the Conservatives, shadow health secretary Edward Argar said: “We know that winter is always tough for the NHS irrespective of who is in government, but services are feeling the strain even earlier than previous years.”
Mr Argar said the minister provided “very little” in concrete terms on how to increase NHS capacity over the winter, adding: “This will give scant reassurance to those working in the system or patients needing the system.”
Liberal Democrat MP Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) raised concerns over patients not being discharged despite being ready to go home.
She added: “I’m really concerned that we’ve got to a point now with winter pressures where corridor waits are normalised, not only within A&E departments but with initiatives like continuous flow models seeing corridor trolley waits being pushed out into regular wards.”
