he National Health Service We should prepare for the “extraordinarily difficult” winter, Congressman heard about it.
As the NHS is struggling to deal with a record backlog of care, possible flu season and coronavirus cases, leading medical staff have expressed “fear” about the upcoming winter.
At the same time, members of the Health and Social Care Committee heard that the shortage of blood tubes could also have a major impact on the waiting list.
Dr. Andrew Goddard, Chairman Royal College of Physicians Said that spending a difficult winter in the medical service sector may also lead to an increasing number of waiting lists.
“In winter, we usually see the internal medicine ward being overcrowded, and the ward becomes a’winter ward,’ usually an orthopedic ward,” he said.
“So (the surgeon) can’t perform operations on people on the waiting list right away. I don’t think it will be easier this winter. If anything, I think it will be worse this winter due to the prevention of Covid infection, and we expect There will be a bad flu season this year.
“So I think the £5.4 billion funding is good news, but let us not imagine that this winter will be very difficult. It will affect the waiting list, probably more than anywhere else.”
Regarding the shortage of blood vessels, he added: “Obviously, performing blood tests is a real problem at the moment. We perform 1.7 million blood tests in the NHS every week, and this number has been greatly reduced due to the shortage of blood bottles.
“Therefore, more complications are likely to occur, leading to further delays in diagnosis, and you cannot start treatment, so you cannot leave the waiting list until the diagnosis is confirmed.”
Emergency medicine experts also expressed concern about the coming winter.
Dr. Catherine HendersonThe dean of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said: “We are currently at a truly critical moment, so we are also afraid of winter.”
