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It will be months before the NHS can fully restart services in the face of the coronavirus crisis, health charities and NHS providers warned.
In a joint presentation to the Commons Health and Social Assistance Committee, the Health Foundation, the King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust said the impact of the pandemic on already depleted health care personnel should not be underestimated.
And a separate report from NHS providers, which represents NHS organizations, warned that there are challenges in increasing care for people with non-COVID conditions while caring. COVID-19 patients
Before the outbreak, the waiting list for planned treatment was around 4.4 million, but it is expected to be much higher when the latest figures are released today.
The charity committee presentation said that pandemic it has exposed “pre-existing weaknesses”, most obviously low long-term investment in health and care services and a “precarious” social care system.
He warned that an information campaign will be needed to urge the public to overcome their fears and start using the NHS again, while preparations should also be made for a possible second COVID-19 spike along with the usual winter pressures, such as the seasonal flu.
The organizations also said that more personal protective equipment (PPE) will be needed as non-COVID services resume, more space needs to be allocated for patients and staff to distance themselves socially, and there is a need for higher levels. of evidence.
“These problems will still have to be addressed along with the accumulation of demand,” they said.
Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said: “With the virus still free, there is no easy route to getting back to the old NHS, and unfortunately that means people are waiting much longer and some services are on wait”.
“Hospitals and a whole range of services provided in the community will have to be remodeled to control infection and keep people safe, separating patients with coronavirus and testing consistently and quickly at all levels.”
“We have to be honest that this will slow things down.”
Richard Murray, executive director of the King’s Fund, said: “All aspects of the health and care system will need to be operational again to bring services back to normal.”
“In the case of social care, normality should not be the goal. The sector needs more financing and fundamental reform.”
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For NHS providers, CEO Chris Hopson echoed some of the concerns of charities.
“The NHS has worked extremely well during the first spike of the virus, but those are just the first few laps of what we know will be a marathon,” he said.
“Only now is the scale of the challenge in sight for the rest of the race.
“Trusts will do everything possible to restart services as quickly as possible.
“They will seek to solve every problem they encounter, as they have consistently done so far.”
“They will build on innovations they have developed in the past two months, such as the 6,000 patient consultations per day that are now delivered online, compared to 200 before the crisis.”
“But a key lesson from the pandemic so far is not to promise too much.
“We must recognize that the NHS cannot deliver everything that is now being asked of it. Expectations are already far ahead of reality.”
