25 February 2021
Responding to today’s winter situation report from NHS England and Improvement, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Katherine Henderson said:
“Winter sitrep data shows the Emergency Departments are still under significant pressure despite falling rates of covid. Bed occupancy is up on the previous weeks, as are ambulance handover delays. There were three incidences of Trusts experiencing bed occupancy above 99%.
“While the country looks forward to a return to normality, we need to be clear that normality for EDs before the pandemic was anything but normal, and we cannot simply return to the status quo.
“Next week’s budget is an opportunity for the government to allocate what is needed to ensure the NHS has the capacity it needs long term.”