NHS England director warns ‘we can’t surge beds and capacity’ this winter

An NHS England director has warned the health service will not be able to create the same extra capacity used to get through winter in previous years, adding to concerns about performance and safety pressures in coming months.

National director of urgent and emergency care Sarah-Jane Marsh said the NHS will not have the same ability to quickly increase the number of hospital beds or pay for extra social care support as it has had in previous years.

Ms Marsh told an NHS England board meeting on Thursday she was “very concerned” about the resilience of the service going into winter, despite it making headway with other seasonal preparations.

Ms Marsh told the meeting NHSE is also “doing additional work on our operational response” and “how we safely make choices to balance risk across systems” when waits get unacceptably long.

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Source: HSJ, 3 October 2024