Health and care sector latest developments

Unprecedented flu wave ahead, say NHS bosses 

The NHS is facing an unprecedented flu wave this winter with ‘no peak in sight yet’, England’s top emergency care doctor, Professor Julian Redhead, has said. 

Figures released today show an average of 1,717 patients were in a hospital bed every day last week because of flu – the highest on record for this time of year. 

Cases were 10 times higher than in the same week in 2023 (160), and more than 50 per cent higher than last year (1,098). 

However, overall, virus levels are down compared to the same week last year, with 2,943 adult and paediatric beds closed or occupied due to Covid-19, flu, Norovirus and paediatric RSV last week. Last year, this figure stood at 3,546. 

Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, said that NHS leaders are ‘doing all they can to ensure all patients are kept safe and receive the care they need’. However, he said it is ‘deeply worrying’ that the NHS will also have to mitigate the disruption of further strikes that have been described as ‘cruel and calculated’ by NHS England chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey. 

A&Es ‘under siege’ from hiccups and ingrowing toenails 

Hundreds of thousands of patients attended A&E last winter for everyday niggles such as hiccups and ingrowing nails, new NHS data has revealed. 

There were more than 200,000 A&E attendances last winter for conditions that could have been dealt with elsewhere – including 8,669 attendances for itchy skin and 96,998 for a sore throat. 

In response, the NHS has today launched a campaign raising awareness of the range of ways to access care. 

It comes as A&Es are busier than ever before heading into winter, with attendances 37,000 higher in October than in the same month last year. 

Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, encouraged patients to consider if emergency departments are the best places for them to receive care, and he highlighted some of the ways in which NHS leaders are continuing to set up viable alternatives to emergency care, for instance by providing better access to GPs, urgent treatment centres, walk-in centres, and support in the community for falls and frailty.  

‘Corridor care’ approaches 1 million cases a year 

About one million A&E patients have been placed in corridors or similar ‘temporary’ spaces over the past year, according to analysis by the Health Service Journal following Freedom of Information requests to trusts. 

Sixty-six of England’s 118 acute trusts with A&E departments responded to the requests for their record of how many times an A&E patient had been placed in a corridor or ‘temporary escalation space’. 

Responses showed that there were 523,858 instances in the 12 months to September this year. Extrapolating the data to cover the trusts that did not reply suggests the figure would be around 930,000 cases nationally. 

NHS England has vowed to start making the data public, but it has not yet done so. 

NHS must take elderly infections more seriously, says chief medical officer 

Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, has warned that the NHS must take diseases like pneumonia and flu in older people much more seriously, as he said that some doctors do not appreciate that an infection can significantly increase the risk of a stroke or heart attack. 

NHS data shows that adults over 70 are much more likely to catch and go on to become severely ill or die from an infection. 

While the health system was ‘extremely good’ at preventing illness in young people, the situation in older adults is a ‘a lot more hit and miss’, Sir Chris said. 

He added that older people were often ‘underserved’ when it came to both NHS care and medical research, adding that there should be a lower threshold for prescribing antibiotics than for younger adults. 

Health secretary orders review into mental health and ADHD diagnoses 

Health secretary Wes Streeting is launching an independent review into rising demand for mental health, ADHD and autism services in England. 

The government said it was already investing in expanding services, but there are long waits for therapy in many areas. 

The review will look at both whether there is evidence of over-diagnosis and what gaps in support exist. 

NHS figures show rates of mental health problems and ADHD have increased significantly over the past two decades and the government believes there are people being referred on to waiting lists who do not need treatment. 

Many GPs navigating AI without guidance 

A new report from the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Nuffield Trust shows that while many GPs are already using AI to cut admin pressures and streamline tasks, they are doing so without consistent national guidance, leaving them to navigate a confusing and uneven landscape of tools. 

This lack of oversight risks worsening inequalities, as AI use is higher in more affluent areas and varies across demographic groups. 

Despite clear benefits, concerns remain around safety, data privacy and reliability. The report urges urgent national standards, proper training and improved regulation so AI can be used safely, fairly and effectively across general practice. 

Police investigating ‘Islamophobic hate incident’ at hospital 

West Yorkshire Police is investigating a recent incident at St James’s Hospital in Leeds in which a copy of the Quran was ripped up and a chapter in a picture frame was smashed. 

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust CEO, Brendan Brown, has written to staff to say he had been ‘made aware of a worrying, and completely unacceptable, suspected hate incident which has taken place in the Faith Centre in Bexley Wing, St James’s.’ 

The incident comes just weeks after Wes Streeting said he was ‘shocked’ by a ‘rising tide of racism (that) has apparently become permissible again in this country (that) is now impacting on NHS staff’.  

New NHS Confederation report on neighbourhood health published 

The NHS Confederation has today published a new report, The Contractual Mechanisms to Deliver a Neighbourhood Health Service: Considerations for NHS Leaders. 

The report outlines how the contractual mechanisms for neighbourhood health can evolve, clarifying their purpose and suggesting a number of core principles to guide policy development on multi-neighbourhood provider (MNP) contracts. 

It puts forward a number of recommendations, including: 

• ensuring contracts are co-designed with a wide range of stakeholders including general practice and VCSE partners
• providing clear, long-term financial incentives for preventing worsening ill health and flexible funding models
• establishing transparent governance structures that support shared decision-making
• embedding mechanisms that balance short-term NHS pressures with long-term population health goals.    

Welsh NHS Confederation responds to annual report of chief medical officer for Wales 

The chief medical officer for Wales has published her annual report, which calls for Wales to urgently shift towards a prevention-first approach to health to address stagnating life expectancy and mounting pressures on its health services. 

Responding to the report, Darren Hughes, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, said: “While significant work (on prevention) is already underway across the NHS, local authorities and wider partners, more must be done, and organisations must be enabled to go further.” He urged ‘those seeking to form the next Welsh Government to take heed of these recommendations to inform their policies.’