- Thousands of hospital operations and appointments are to be cancelled
- This winter’s move is part of Government plans to free up hospital beds
- Health officials trying to tackle worst bed-blocking crisis in NHS history
- Senior practitioners to be drawn from operating theatres and into AE
Glen Keogh For The Daily Mail
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Madlen Davies for MailOnline
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Thousands of hospital operations and appointments will be cancelled this winter in order to free up beds, under plans by the Government and senior health officials.
To tackle the worst bed-blocking crisis in NHS history, senior practitioners will be drawn away from operating theatres and into wards and AE departments this winter.
Winter is the busiest time of year for the NHS as the cold weather and rise of illnesses such as flu mean hospitals see a rise in vulnerable patients.
Doctors will be asked to concentrate on discharging patients who can safely be sent home in a desperate effort to make beds available.
The NHS is facing a shortage of doctors – especially in emergency departments – and last night a senior AE doctor warned the situation is so severe an outbreak of flu would be enough ‘poleaxe’ the NHS.
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Bed-blocking crisis: Thousands of hospital operations and appointments will be cancelled this winter in order to free up beds, under plans by the Government and health officials
In evidence given to the House of Commons health select committee, officials described the measures they had planned.
This included cancelling thousands of operations and appointments in the run up to Christmas so doctors would be free to treat patients in hospital.
Each trust has also been ordered to convey how they will cope once winter sets in, establishing ‘AE delivery boards’ to oversee their plans.
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The move comes as junior doctors have threatened to go on strike later in the year in further protest at their new contracts.
And this month hospital bosses warned many trusts are in financial crisis and cannot recruit enough medics to provide safe healthcare.
With a growing and ageing population and after years of efficiency savings, the NHS now faces its biggest deficit in history.
Experts said there needs to be a national discussion about whether the NHS can continue to offer all services for free within the same budget – or whether some services will have to close.
In a bid to tackle the worst bed-blocking crisis in NHS history, senior practitioners will be drawn away from operating theatres and into wards and AE departments this winter
This week, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) warned that numbers of doctors and beds are falling far short of what is required.
Dr Cliff Mann, RCEM president, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘What is really worrying is that when you look at last winter, the NHS came under very heavy pressures despite mild weather and little flu.
UK’S NEW EYE SURGERY SHAME
Cataract sufferers in Britain are much less likely to have vital surgery than patients in most other Western countries.
The NHS performs fewer of the life-changing operations per head than Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Portugal.
The Mail has already revealed that three in four hospitals are rationing the procedures, despite them costing as little as £800.
Desperate patients have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to prove they need the operation. Others are encouraged by hospitals to go private – paying around £3,000.
Patients say they have been told to ‘eat more green veg’ or to wear dark glasses by doctors who have refused them surgery.
And yesterday it emerged that one NHS trust is threatening to suspend all cataract operations for four months to save money.
‘All it would take is a bad flu outbreak this winter and we would be poleaxed.’
The RCEM also revealed the UK now has the lowest number of beds per capita in Europe.
Each consultant sees 11,000 attendances, the highest of any developed country.
There are also said to be 6,000 more daily AE attendances than six years ago, in part due to an ageing population.
Last year, more than 100,000 operations were cancelled on the day, according to the Patients Association.
In evidence to the same inquiry, the Royal College of Nursing said hospitals were ‘buckling’ under the strain of rising demand, while warning of a ‘drastic shortfall’ of nurses in AE.
Last night a spokesman for NHS England said: ‘The NHS again proved resilient this winter despite further increase in demand, with fewer trusts reporting serious operational issues and a significant reduction in trolley waits.
‘We are already preparing for the upcoming winter with hospitals, GPs, social services and other health professionals coming together to work out the best way of responding in every area of the country.’
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