NHS roadmap revealed for return to routine operations

Health leaders have set out a series of measures to help local hospitals plan to increase routine operations and treatment.

Over the coming weeks patients who need important planned procedures – including surgery – will begin to be scheduled for that care, with specialists prioritising those with the most urgent clinical need. This is all the while keeping the necessary capacity and capability to treat future coronavirus patients.

Therefore, patients will be required to isolate themselves for 14 days and be clear of any symptoms before being admitted. It si believed that the move will affect about 700,000 patients a month.

NHS England has also said that testing will also be increasingly offered to those waiting to be admitted to provide further certainty for patients and staff that they are coronavirus-free. Those requiring urgent and emergency care will continue to be tested on arrival and streamed accordingly, with services split to make the risk of picking up the virus in hospital as low as possible.

As well as the requirements for those needing operations, as many outpatient appointments as possible will be conducted remotely, and those who do need a face to face consultation will be asked not to attend if they have coronavirus symptoms.

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “The number one priority for NHS staff over the last three months has been ensuring that all those who need urgent care, not just those with coronavirus, have been able to get it when they need it – and we have achieved that. Combined with the need to avoid unnecessary contact to reduce the spread of the virus, this has meant that it has been the right thing clinically for some non-urgent appointments and surgeries to be postponed.

“Now that we are confident that we have passed the first peak of coronavirus, it is important that we bring back those services where we can, but only where that can be done safely – the virus is still circulating and we don’t want to put our patients, the public or our staff at greater risk. So our message to any member of the public who might have been putting off seeing their GP about treatment they might need is: the NHS is open and is working to deliver safe services, so please help us help you, and come forward for care when you need it.”