Hospitals ready for rush
PATIENT NUMBERS SET TO SOAR AS WINTER BITES AFTER MILD FESTIVE SPELL
DOCTORS are braced for a rush of patients as winter bites after hospitals reported a quieter than expected festive period.
A year on from the worst NHS winter crisis in memory, staff at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital have reported things have run smoothly over Christmas and New Year.
The relatively quite period reflects the national picture, which shows fewer A&E closures and ambulance delays than the same period last year. Levels of flu and vomiting bug Norovirus also remain low.
NHS England said the improvement was a result of good planning and hard work by staff.
Managers at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) told the Examiner they were currently operating well with no need for extra beds and no wards closed due to infection.
But a senior doctor based at the Halifax hospital has warned the picture could deteriorate in the coming week because of an impending cold snap.
Dr Nick Scriven, a consultant in acute medicine at CHFT and president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said he was “expecting severe difficulties” as the cold weather sets in and adds further stress to stretched NHS services.
He said the number of cases of viral chest illness was growing and the outlook was “ominous” if temperatures plunged.
NHS England issued a Level 2 cold weather alert on Friday morning amid a 60% probability of “severe cold weather” this weekend.
NHS chiefs say prolonged periods of cold weather can be dangerous, especially for the very young, very old or those with chronic diseases.
Dr Scriven said: “Influenza is here and is already impacting the NHS and, with colder weather starting to set in, this will further stress already stretched services.
“I and many colleagues across the country are anticipating mayhem this weekend as temperatures drop – but it will come as no surprise to us There was a sense before Christmas that government and NHS leaders believed all was well despite only marginal performance differences to the crisis of 12 months ago.
“My feeling is that this was more out of hope than judgement and, sadly, the issues we have predicted for some time will soon take hold.
“Within the last week I have had colleagues warning of emergency departments and intensive care units being full and that will only worsen in the coming weeks.”
Chief operating officer at CHFT, Helen Barker, said: “Cold weather always brings extra challenges, yet our hard work with all our partners to develop robust winter plans is paying dividends.
“We would thank, in particular, our social workers, discharge coor
.“dinators and voluntary sector colleagues, who have worked tirelessly to support our patients going home; our front line staff in A&E and our teams on the wards.”