The NHS crisis shows no signs of improving, as non-urgent operations are to be pushed back until the end of January.
Winter pressure of the NHS has meant that services have been severely stretched. The NHS needs to focus on emergency care, and has no option but to delay non-urgent care.
The winter period is always tough for the NHS, with the numbers of people with Flu related illnesses, adding to the, already huge, patient numbers.
Many people will be put at potential risk, as their surgery is delayed and must be re-arranged for another time.
One example is the Royal Cornwall Hospital Treliske whose A & E department was at “breaking point,” over xmas.
It remains on level four alert, previously known as ‘black alert’, a status it was given just before Christmas.
Milton Keynes University Hospital is telling people only to attend for emergency treatment.
However, Director of acute care Professor Keith Willett said that the delay of non-urgent operations was not a crisis. Willett said: “With the incidents of flu rising in the community and in our hospitals, and the pressures that we always see in the first few weeks of January… that it’s important we give the hospitals time and space to manage the demand that we anticipate will come through.”
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