HSJ Primer: Breaking point (25 April 2022)

Summary

Recently the Financial Times health and data reports produced an incisive piece showing the world what is all too readily apparent to people in the NHS: bed capacity has been stretched to breaking point.

The report said this “calls into question [the NHS’s] ability to meet a commitment to increase non-urgent hospital treatment by 30 per cent above pre-pandemic levels over the next three years”.

It also demonstrates the dangerous congestion that is causing ambulances to stack up outside emergency departments and medically fit patients to languish in vital beds past their due time for discharge.

This congestion is causing dangerous delays, leading to a rising number of serious incidents in ambulances queuing to get to the front door of the ED.

There is doubtless much that can be done inside hospitals to improve efficiency, alleviate bottlenecks and improve patient flow.