Hospital bosses are ‘extremely concerned’ as the backlog of patients awaiting treatment soars
At least 24 NHS trusts in England have declared a ‘critical incident’ due to pressures caused by the Omicron variant, as rising Covid cases create a staffing shortage and hamper efforts to clear a patient backlog of 5.8 million.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Thursday that a balance was being sought between public restrictions and avoiding a situation where hospitals are “overrun” by the new wave of Covid cases. A critical incident is declared when an NHS trust reaches a point at which priority services might be under threat.
The “very real” pressure the health service is under is caused by an increase in hospitalizations at the same time as a spike in staff having to self-isolate after testing positive for coronavirus, or coming into contact with a Covid-positive person.
Shapps argued that it’s “not entirely unusual” for hospitals to “go critical” during the winter, but he said the system is under overwhelming pressure this time for multiple reasons.
The concerns about provisions of priority services come as it is revealed that the backlog of patients waiting for planned treatments in England has reached 5.8 million, and both 999 calls and A&E waiting times have hit record highs.
In a new report, the cross-party Health and Social Care Committee in the House of Commons said the NHS is facing an “unquantifiable” challenge as it tries to clear the backlog and cope with the pandemic. The report details the “catastrophic impact” on patients waiting for care and warns staff could quit if they don’t see a “light at the end of the tunnel.”
In a call to the government on Wednesday, the NHS Confederation, which represents the whole healthcare system, warned that English patients face a worsening quality of care unless the government takes immediate action to address staffing issues.
Speaking to the Guardian, NHS Confederation Chief Executive Matthew Taylor claimed hospital bosses are “extremely concerned” about the growing problem of the ratio of staff to patients, forcing hospitals to allocate clinical tasks in a way that is “not normally” best practice.
PORTLAND, USA, Jan 05 (IPS) – The ageing of human populations is an inescapable demographic future. That evolving and universal future is increasingly challenging governments and the public, who are by and large ill prepared for that certain future.
KIGALI, Rwanda, Jan 05 (IPS) – When Kamikazi * from Gisagara, a district in Southern Rwanda, was forced to quit her job due to COVID-19 last year, she desperately sought other employment.
With Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his German counterpart huddle before next week’s meetings with Russian officials aimed at defusing the crisis.
Pyongyang says it test-fired a hypersonic missile in its first major launch of the year
North Korea said it successfully launched a hypersonic munition in a recent test, claiming the projectile struck a target hundreds of miles away after Washington denounced the move as “destabilizing.”
The missile “precisely hit a set target” some 700 kilometers (435 miles) off North Korea’s east coast during the test launch, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday, adding that leader Kim Jong-un did not attend the firing.
South Korea’s military first reported on the launch early on Wednesday, the first of its kind since last October, and Seoul has since urged the North to “sincerely respond to our efforts to make peace and cooperation through dialogue.” Just hours after the test, South Korean President Moon Jae-in was present for a groundbreaking event for a rail line through the border town of Goseong – part of efforts to re-connect transit between the two neighbors.
The US State Department condemned the missile test as a “violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions” and a “threat to the DPRK’s neighbors and the international community.” Washington’s Indo-Pacific Command, however, earlier acknowledged that “this event does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel or territory, or to our allies,” though still slammed the launch for having “destabilizing impact” in the region.
Pyongyang first claimed to possess a hypersonic weapon – the Hwasong-8 missile – following another test last September, however military officials in Seoul said the munition appeared to be in an early stage of development at the time. Though the North has refrained from long-range missile and nuclear weapons testing since 2017, its short- and medium-range munitions tests have frequently come under fire by the US, which maintains a presence of some 30,000 soldiers in South Korea.
