Winter’s over . . . now NHS faces a summer crisis

THE NHS’s winter crisis will continue through to the summer, doctors’ leaders warn.

Thousands of patients will languish on trolleys and face ‘unacceptably’ long waits in A&E, according to the British Medical Association, which says this summer will be as busy as the winters of 2015 and 2016.

Although winter is traditionally busiest time of year for hospitals, experts say there is very little let-up in spring and summer. Only last week a major teaching hospital declared it was on the highest level of alert and cancelled all operations, including cancer surgery.

Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge said it needed to take ‘exceptional’ measures following a surge in demand. The BMA’s analysis predicts that in a best-case scenario, 5.9million patients will turn up in A&E units in July, August and September. One in ten will wait longer than four hours to be seen, including 127,000 patients who will languish on trolleys.

But in a worst-case scenario, 6.2million patients would turn up in A&E and one in eight would wait longer than four hours. This would include almost 150,000 mostly elderly patients on trolleys.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA, said: ‘This data clearly shows what doctors working on the frontline have been saying for some time – that the “winter crisis” has truly been replaced by a year-round crisis.

‘Doctors and patients have just endured one of the worst winters on record, resulting in thousands of cancelled operations, unacceptable long waits to be seen and people who are already at their most vulnerable having to face the indignity of being treated in hospital corridors.

‘These scenes have become an alltoo-familiar annual occurrence, each year stretching further into spring and appearing again earlier the next winter. We cannot accept that this is the new normal for the NHS.’

Last week Theresa May committed to a long-term funding plan for the NHS following pressure from 100 cross-party MPs. She is expected to announce a major cash injection in July, when the health service will commemorate its 70th anniversary.

An NHS spokesman said: ‘The NHS has faced continued pressure after one of the coldest March months in 30 years. Over the decade ahead our health service is inevitably going to have to respond to the needs of our growing and ageing population, which is why now charting a ten-year plan for the NHS makes such sense.’