March 28, 2024

Hospitals approach “critical point” as millions wait for routine treatment - BBC News



Published May 10, 2023, 3:40 p.m. by Arrik Motley


Hospitals approach critical point as millions wait for routine treatment.

The nhs is facing a critical shortage of hospital beds, with millions of people waiting longer than they should for routine treatment.

Figures from the National Audit Office show that in england, the number of patients waiting longer than four weeks for an operation has more than doubled since 2010.

The nhs is now struggling to cope with the demand, with hospitals reaching their "critical point" in terms of capacity.

The National Audit Office has warned that unless the situation changes, the nhs could face "significant financial challenges".

nhs england chief executive Simon Stevens has said that the nhs is "stretched to its limits".

He has called for an "urgent and unprecedented" investment of £8bn over the next five years to help the nhs cope with the rising demand.

'critical point'

The nhs is now struggling to cope with the demand, with hospitals reaching their "critical point" in terms of capacity.

Figures from the National Audit Office show that in england, the number of patients waiting longer than four weeks for an operation has more than doubled since 2010.

The nhs is now struggling to cope with the demand, with hospitals reaching their "critical point" in terms of capacity.

The National Audit Office has warned that unless the situation changes, the nhs could face "significant financial challenges".

nhs england chief executive Simon Stevens has said that the nhs is "stretched to its limits".

He has called for an "urgent and unprecedented" investment of £8bn over the next five years to help the nhs cope with the rising demand.

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the damage being done to many hospital


services in england in the wake of the


pandemic


is exposed by new nhs figures more than


four million patients are now waiting


for routine surgery and treatments


nearly half have been waiting for longer


than the official target of 18 weeks


and doctors are warning that a second


wave of the pandemic especially during


the winter months


could make things even worse in fact


more than 110


000 people in england have been waiting


for treatment for more than a year


that's the highest figure


for 12 years more than 20 000 cancer


patients


did start treatment in august but that's


a reduction


of 5 000 on the same period last year


and hospital admissions for covid


are still rising and they've doubled in


the past two weeks across england


our health editor hugh pim reports from


a hospital in bournemouth


which is preparing for the challenges


ahead


eight in the morning and the pressure's


already on at the royal bournemouth


hospital


um okay next patient any idea people are


staying away from a


e is a distant memory she has


regularly self-harmed over the last


couple of years all the bays filled up


overnight


now comes the staff hand over so she is


a 24 year old lady


again known to the mental health team


who had crisis last night


irrespective of kovid hospitals like


this are facing up to the build-up


of the usual winter pressures here


they've seen some of their busiest ever


days in the emergency department


dr farhad islam is a senior consultant


here


he's seen an increase in patients


needing mental health crisis care


it might be a call for help might be a


psychiatric


problem might be a self-harm patient a


person


that's got mental problems mental health


problems


so um you know we're seeing the whole


array of patients but


in amongst that the the rate of covert


is


increasing kofi case numbers are


relatively low in the local area


so i think the goal today was to try and


clear another bay if possible but at


this meeting they need to work out how


to make space


while protecting other patients we do


need to get another bay empty i


completely agree


and we're still seeing numbers of


patients come in with non-covered


related conditions


but we've got a small proportion of


patients with covid and we


um are unable to mix those pathways so


we need to find a way to


to do that safely so this is our


intensive care unit


that we have ready to use for the second


surgery


at the peak there were 20 patients in


intensive care here


half with kovid they've got room for


more if needed


so we're all still fairly raw from last


time we're very used to having family


members on the intensive care unit and


suddenly be told that we can't see


those family members and they can't see


all the work that goes into helping


their loved ones


was very difficult for the staff and


that anticipation of having


to go back to that is quite traumatizing


for critical care staff


so can you just uh take me through what


we're doing uh yeah so we're actually


going to be doing a double ward refa


video which is the first time we've done


this


elsewhere they're preparing for the


usual winter challenges


creating a frailty unit to help the


recovery of elderly patients


and their safe return home so


you've been seen by our nursing team and


you've been seen by our surgical team


some patients like christopher are


coming back in for non-urgent operations


i'm having


um destructive surgery september


christopher's ankle operation was


postponed in march


he's pleased it's now about to be done


though the weight's been difficult


quite a lot of pain um i've got quite a


lot of heavy dose painkillers


um it's difficult to walk really because


i'm putting a lot more weight on my


other leg


yeah pretty tricky i asked the chief


executive how they were tackling the


backlog of


operations put off because of covid19


we've been going through all the long


waiters and really trying hard to get


people who've been waiting


longer it's none of us want that for our


friends and family


and none of our clinicians want that


everybody wants to treat patients we


know how awful it is when people have to


wait a long time


so it's a top priority during the first


surge much of their focus was on the


sickest covid patients


but now there are other worries as well


if we see


a flu season if we see covert rising


and how we balance that with keeping all


the other


patients who need to be treated in


hospital coming through in a timely way


and that that's going to be the biggest


challenge


it'll be tough for staff some still


exhausted from their efforts


earlier in the year but they all want


people to know they're there and ready


to help


patients whatever their needs


cupim bbc news bournemouth


so let's take a look then at the


official figures and they show a


significant rise


in new infections 17 540


were recorded in the latest 24-hour


period


and that is up from just over 14 000


yesterday


it means the average number of new cases


reported per day in the past week is 14


520. hospital admissions as we said have


jumped significantly on average 528


people were being admitted


every day over the past week that number


does not include scotland


77 deaths have been reported of people


who died within 28 days


of a positive covid19 test and it means


on average in the past week


56 deaths were announced every day which


takes the total number of deaths


so far across the uk to 42


592. so now that we've seen those


figures let's talk to our health


correspondent


lauren moss we mentioned the new cases


lauren and of course this issue about


rising admissions so let's take stock


and


what's the picture tonight well hospital


admissions if we look at those they're


an important indicator the scale of the


pandemic because they show really how


many people are seriously


unwell with coronavirus and if we take


just england alone


more than 500 patients were admitted to


hospital


on tuesday now approximately 3 000 are


being treated


in total but to put that into context at


the peak of the pandemic


there are about 3 000 new patients being


admitted every single day


and the numbers are varying across the


country the northwest the northeast and


yorkshire and the midlands have greater


numbers in hospital compared to say


london


and the south west for example and today


we also got the latest figures for test


and trace in england so these figures


are up to the week of the 30th of


september and one of the important


things to look out here for here is that


the test turnaround times and we have a


graph that we can


show you now which will show that by


july when we look at those figures as


they come out it show


when people are going in person to get


their tests so that's going to a test


center the test turnaround times


uh in july we're around 24 hours for


those results coming back but over the


last


six weeks they've they've slowly


declined and in fact the latest figures


show that just a quarter


were returned within 24 hours and 24


hours is the target


and time is critical with this to limit


the spread of the virus and also


to contact those who potentially may


also have it and nhs representatives


are saying that both of these are big


issues right now okay lauren


once again many thanks lauren moss there


are health correspondents


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