Emergency medicine: Government’s plan won’t avert crisis this winter, leader warns

Hospitals could see ambulances queuing outside emergency departments and patients lined up in beds in the corridors again this winter, despite the government’s pre-emptive plan to try to avert a crisis, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has warned.Last winter dozens of NHS trusts and ambulance services across England declared critical incidents, as the health service struggled to meet the huge demand caused by flu and covid, as well as the care backlog. The situation was exacerbated by ongoing workforce shortages and discharge delays, as social care also struggled to cope.1In July the government launched a package of measures to prepare services in England for this winter, including so called “care traffic control” centres to aid hospital discharge.2 This followed a two year recovery plan for urgent and emergency care,3 published in January 2023, that promised £1bn of investment to fund 5000 new beds (boosting capacity by…
Read Original Article: Emergency medicine: Government’s plan won’t avert crisis this winter, leader warns »