All system partners have been working together since September to develop a robust winter plan which ensures services remain safe and local people can continue to access the best possible care as quickly as possible over the winter months.
With the announcement of further industrial action by the junior doctors, taking place between 20-23 December 2023 and 3-8 January 2024, the NHS is now taking additional steps to prioritise the use of the available workforce and ensure services remain safe for our local communities.
These additional steps have been shaped by the national NHS priorities which put a specific focus on protecting patient safety, achieving financial balance, and prioritising emergency performance and capacity, while protecting urgent care, high priority elective and cancer care.
The NHS is already seeing high numbers of people needing care and support and increasing numbers needing to be hospitalised for various issues, including respiratory illnesses. The NHS expect this to increase further as we approach Christmas and into the New Year, coinciding with a reduction in medical workforce due to the junior doctor’s strike.
The NHS are putting in additional measures to help manage this increase in demand, including enhancing support for people to remain at home, increasing virtual ward beds, enhancing urgent community response, maximising home visits out of hours, and a targeted approach to those who regularly use urgent care services, including increased access to care homes with high levels of hospital admissions.
The NHS continue to urge the public to use services appropriately and want to make sure they are aware that in some circumstances they may need to wait longer than they may expect to be seen and treated by services. The key messages to the public can be found here.
The Government is providing historic funding for the NHS and is committed to investing in our health and public services properly. The NHS is being supported to tackle the elective backlog, deliver its Long-Term Plan, and ensure it has the resources needed to recover from the impact of Covid-19. Despite difficult financial circumstances, NHS investment has increased every year since 2010.
The Chancellor made several spending commitments at the Autumn Statement 2022, making available £8 billion of funding for the NHS and adult social care in England in 2024-25. As part of this, the Government is investing an additional £3.3 billion in 2023-24 and 2024-25 to support the NHS in England.
This resulted in a total NHS budget of £162.5 billion for 2024-25 in England, 45 per cent higher than 2018-19 in cash terms. This will enable rapid action to improve emergency, elective and primary care performance. This will happen alongside the introduction of reforms to support the workforce and improve performance across the health system over the longer term.
NHS Sussex continue to keep me fully briefed on any changes or additional actions that need to take place over winter.