Thursday 24 September 2015

Prepare for a catastrophic NHS winter meltdown

Prepare for a catastrophic NHS winter meltdown The 90% of trusts predicting a deficit are caught in a catch-22: to skimp on staffing and standards, or spend money they don’t have.

The NHS is on the brink of a major, messy failure. If nothing is done to address the underlying issues now, the failure will be deep with grave consequences and a long recovery. This winter things are set to go catastrophically wrong.

Pressure on health services normally reduces in summer, often producing undue optimism about how they will cope come winter and delaying necessary preparations. Last summer there was virtually no reduction in pressure. Oddly, this failed to dent the optimism. The revised story was that unrelenting pressure had become a year-round phenomenon, so increased numbers and longer waits were now normal and the coming winter wouldn’t be any worse. Continue reading... The Guardian

No comments:

Post a Comment