NHS faces worse winter crisis than last year, NHSI warns

The NHS will struggle more this winter than last winter because hospitals have failed to free up enough beds, the health service regulator has warned.

According to NHS Improvement (NHSI), hospitals are missing key waiting time targets because wards are so full they cannot admit new patients.

For this reason, NHSI said, winter is likely to prove ‘difficult’ for hospitals trying to cope with increase illness.

In an update on how the NHS in England performed between July and September, NHSI said hospitals did not succeed in freeing up the target of 2,000-3,000 beds by September. If achieved, this would have helped them to cope with the extra winter demand.

NHS leaders and Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, told hospitals in the spring that they needed to reduce the number of beds occupied due to ‘delayed transfers of care’ to 3.5 per cent of their total number by September. But five per cent of beds are still occupied with such cases.

A key reason for the target being missed, NHSI said, was a lack of social care, or support to help patients return home or move to another care home or setting.

NHSI and NHS England have made unprecedented efforts to help the NHS prepare for what some doctors predict will be a ‘winter of woe’ which could push key services to breaking point.

Jim Mackey, NHSI’s chief executive, said: “While we are working across the NHS to prepare for winter pressures, they may be difficult and will place the system under even greater pressures.”