Last winter In distressing scenes across the country patients waited in vain for ambulances, in hospital corridors and queued in hospital car parks. In total 23,003 excess patient deaths in England in 2022 were associated with long waits in the Emergency Department. A lack of available hospital beds was one of the key factors, so what are the plans to increase the number?
After a decade of watching hospital bed numbers decline by over 10% while hospital activity has been consistently rising, the government’s announcement of a specific target to raise bed numbers by 5000 could be seen as a desperately late u turn.
The announcement was first made by the PM back in January along with funding of £1 billion to pay for the additional capacity,”as part of the permanent bed base for next winter. (2023/24)”, and has been included in NHS England’s recent plan for winter 2023/4.
In response NHS leaders have welcomed aspects of the wider winter plan, but were clear about how the plan would fail without extra support on funding and staffing and urgent action to resolve ongoing industrial disputes.
Full story in The Lowdown, 10 August 2023