Wes Streeting holds winter crisis talks with NHS bosses in England

Wes Streeting has held urgent talks with NHS leaders in England about how the service will cope with an impending winter crisis, amid signs that it is already under intense pressure.

At the meeting today, the health secretary told the chief executive of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard, and the bosses of large hospital trusts to prioritise patient safety over trying to meet waiting time targets.

He convened the meeting days after NHS England said hospitals faced being overwhelmed by a potential “quad-demic” of flu, Covid, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the diarrhoea and vomiting bug (norovirus).

There is mounting alarm that more than 2,000 of the service’s 100,000 beds are already filled with people with Covid (1,390) or norovirus (756), another 142 occupied by children with RSV and that ambulance services are struggling to cope with the number of 999 calls they are receiving.

Streeting said: “We inherited a broken NHS that saw annual winter crisis as the norm. This year, we’re seeing record pressures on services as we move into winter. This winter I want to see patient safety prioritised as we brace ourselves for the coming months.”

He has asked local NHS leaders to make it a priority to get patients out of ambulances and into their hospitals as soon as possible, so crews can get back on the road to attend other incidents, and also to ensure that patients do not wait too long for care in A&E units.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 December 2024