Elective recovery requires ‘very radical’ service change, says Stevens
The NHS must think “very radically” about how it redesigns its elective pathways following the coronavirus pandemic, Sir Simon Stevens has told HSJ.
Speaking at the HSJ Leadership Congress yesterday, NHS England’s chief executive said the service should ensure as much elective work is done as possible, while covid prevalence is low, while at the same time thinking about “different ways of doing things”.
He declined to outline how many very long-waiters the service had or would have in coming months, explaining that some predictions have been “significantly off” in the past, and that future demand is unknown.
The NHS chief stressed that other areas of the service would also face post-covid pressures, announcing a further investment in and expansion of long-covid clinics.
“We want to see equivalent attention paid to the increased needs we’ve seen in mental health services, including eating disorders, and we want to make sure that the health service continues to expand its offer for long covid,” he said.
“To that end we have 69 clinics identified last year, we will have 83 long covid clinics in place by the end of this month, so a significant expansion there.” There will be at least one in each integrated care system area, he said.
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Source: HSJ, 14 April 2021