NHS back in action

SIR – NHS hospitals are not taking a “leisurely” approach to expanding non-urgent services following the first Covid-19 peak (Features, September 1).

The letter to NHS trusts from Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, which Allison Pearson quoted, was not written recently. It was sent on April 29 – just days after the peak Covid caseload, when the NHS was caring for more than 13,000 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals, including over 2,000 critically ill patients in intensive care.

During the first wave, 85,000 people got treatment for cancer, GPS held 102 million appointments, children’s mental health services delivered a record-high month of care, more than 1,800 babies were delivered every day, and over 10 million urgent tests and checks were carried out.

Since then, hospitals have been able to double the amount of routine surgery they are undertaking, with further expansions coming in the next few weeks.

Professor Stephen Powis

National medical director,

NHS England

Leeds, West Yorkshire

SIR – A local private hospital was taken over by the NHS at the beginning of lockdown until December 2020. It has since opened, in the evenings only, for private patients’ consultations and non-operating procedures.

I went for such a procedure last week, helped by two lovely nurses seconded from an NHS hospital. During the pandemic, they said, they had been bored, with nothing to do most of the time. Presumably, this same situation applies to other private hospitals hired with taxpayers’ money.

What is wrong with NHS management? Surely extra capacity now is the perfect chance for the NHS to catch up on its enormous backlog. Sally Gordon

Emsworth, Hampshire