NHS Providers has warned that NHS leaders are grappling with challenges on multiple fronts as they seek to meet rising demand for health services alongside a rapidly growing waiting list and a worrying surge of coronavirus.
The health service is coming under concerted pressure with recent figures revealing a record 5.1 million people on waiting lists, over two million A&E attendances in the last month and a steep increase in demand for mental health services.
Trusts and frontline staff have now ensured that 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels of operations are now being carried out and a small, but welcome fall in the number of people now waiting over 52 weeks for treatment to begin.
However, the latest NHS Providers survey found widespread concerns amongst trust leaders that winter pressures and further surges of coronavirus will derail plans to deal with the backlog of care and undermine hard-won progress.
The survey responses reveal that: 88 per cent of leaders feel it is likely that another surge in coronavirus cases would place additional pressures on their services, with a similar number (89 per cent) saying that they were worried these additional pressures would come during the challenging winter months.
Additionally, almost three quarters of respondents raised concerns that plans to clear the backlog of care over winter risked being disrupted because of the need to prioritise demand for urgent and emergency care, whilst almost half said they have seen evidence of staff leaving their organisation due to early retirement, coronavirus burnout, or other effects from working in the pandemic.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: "Trusts are committed to clearing the backlog of care that built up during the pandemic. We are confident vaccines are breaking the chain between infections and hospital admissions, but the reality on the frontline is that even a small increase in Covid-19 admissions or emergency care pressures could affect our ability to deliver non-Covid services.
"Trust leaders are doing all they can, but there are three steps the government can take immediately to ease the current pressure trusts are facing. First, the government must provide much needed short-term capital funding so trusts can direct it to the services that need it most. Trusts tell us they need capital quickly to expand intensive care units, to invest in digital to transform pathways to see patients more quickly, and to adapt estates to create more capacity.
"Second, trusts need to maintain patient flow and maximise their capacity. We're urging the government to commit to permanent, dedicated funding for the discharge to assess programme, which ensures patients who are ready to leave hospital are placed in a more appropriate setting freeing up hospital beds.
"Third, we need national bodies to work with NHS leaders to get the planning for winter pressures right to help manage the risk ahead. We know the NHS faces a perfect storm of Covid-19, flu and other respiratory illnesses as well as a growing backlog of care. We must act now."
