In a letter to the Prime Minister, leaders from all parts of the NHS are calling for a period of ‘recuperation’ for staff after the extreme and sustained pressures of the pandemic.

Organised by the NHS Confederation, the letter warns that although cases of coronavirus are continuing to drop nationally, as are the numbers of patients in hospital with the virus, they are still very high and are placing significant strain on patient services and staff.

While there is commitment to resume elective and other services that have been disrupted, NHS leaders want staff to be able to take time off to recover and for them to receive ongoing mental health support.

Therefore, NHS leaders are calling on the government to set out clear expectations to the public on when routine procedures and other treatments will be fully back online. This will take many months given the NHS will be operating with reduced capacity due to the ongoing impact of the virus and with an exhausted workforce.

The letter also calls for the 52-week waiting time standard for non-urgent treatments to be suspended and be replaced with a more patient-centred approach that enables the NHS to focus on clinical need and avoids enforcing unattainable expectations on the NHS.  The standard was introduced in 2010, when this list was over 20,800.

Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said: “Over the last year, health and care staff have worked tirelessly in response to an unprecedented global threat. While it is encouraging that cases of coronavirus are beginning to come down in England, it is from a very high point and the impact on staff and patient services has been colossal.

“We are encouraged by the government’s commitment to act with caution as it considers how and when to ease the lockdown restrictions in England as a further national wave would be a disaster for the NHS and would see more lives lost and the treatment backlog spiral even further.

“Health leaders will continue to prioritise urgent care and patients with the greatest clinical need, but staff are on their knees and many of the pre-pandemic challenges are still very much at play. We are calling on the Prime Minister to be up front with the public about what the NHS can safely deliver in this next phase.

“This includes setting clear expectations on activity, allocating resources where they are needed most, and moving away from upholding unrealistic standards that will be impossible to deliver in the short-term. These do nothing but demoralise NHS staff and perpetuate the misleading view that the service is failing.”