Reports show NHS running hot with services under strain

There were reports this week of services facing extreme demand, with emergency services under particular pressure. There were wide-ranging calls for people to access the most appropriate services for their specific needs and to use the NHS 111 service if they weren’t sure.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System said that almost every hospital bed across the area was full, with more than 650 people with Covid-19 being cared for in its hospitals. The workforce was also depleted with more than 2,800 staff off sick – almost half of which were due to coronavirus.

‘With staff sickness rates well above average, rising cases of Covid-19 and very high numbers of people needing treatment, we face a perfect storm,’ said Derek Sandeman, the system’s chief medical officer. He called on families to help them discharge recovering relatives when they were fit to go home, even if they were still testing positive. ‘That is enormously important to help us make beds available for those in greatest need,’ he said.

In West Yorkshire, integrated care board medical director James Thomas said there was rising demand across all services, with increased attendance at emergency departments and across primary, mental health and community services.  Rising Covid-related staff absences were adding to the pressure. Dr Thomas said that it was important for people to be helped to navigate the system to receive the appropriate treatment or support in the right place.

The latest winter situation report shows that nearly 27% of patients arriving at accident and emergency by ambulance faced handover delays of at least 30 minutes. Staff absences due to Covid averaged more than 28,000 per day over the most recent week – close to 40% of all absences at times.

The government’s Covid-19 dashboard shows that more than 2,000 Covid patients are being admitted to hospitals across the UK each day, with more than 20,400 confirmed Covid patients in hospital beds at one point this week – above the Omicron peak at the beginning of this year

Layla McCay (pictured), director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said the unprecedented levels of demand and rising staff absences due to Covid were evidence of a worsening double emergency, with hospital and emergency department demand the consequence of mounting pressures across all parts of the system.

‘This pandemic is not yet over, despite government rhetoric and the publication of its living with Covid plan, rising Covid hospitalisations are undermining the efforts of exhausted and over-stretched NHS staff to tackle the large treatment backlogs that have developed over the past two years,’ she said. ‘Ultimately, the government must be honest with the public about the need for people to take steps to curb the spread of Covid where it is possible for them to do so,’ she added. ‘The government must also be honest about what people can expect from the NHS during this period of incredible strain.’

NHS Providers director of policy and strategy Miriam Deakin said the reports demonstrated how busy trusts continued to be, despite having moved beyond the traditional busy winter months.

‘The number of general beds occupied in hospital, as well as critical care beds, both remain steady but continue to be at a very high level, and the number of beds occupied in paediatric intensive care has increased this week,’ she said. ‘Meanwhile, the length of time people stay in hospital has also increased across seven, 14 and 21 day metrics, and are now remarkably higher than the same time last year.’

Delayed discharges were a further concern and in total it added up to a ‘picture of the NHS running hot’, with the service making slower progress on recovery than it would like.

‘As the new health and care levy sets in this week, we must be realistic about how quickly the NHS can overcome the workforce, capacity and social care fault lines that developed in the 2010s and the further disruption caused by Covid-19,’ she said.