NHS 'better prepared than ever' for winter period

An NHS chief has defended the decision to defer non-urgent inpatient elective care until January 31, insisting the health service had entered the winter period "in a way that we've never prepared before".

Professor Keith Willett, director for acute care at NHS England, acknowledged the delay to planned operations and routine outpatient appointments until the end of the month due to severe winter pressures was "not ideal" for patients.

Asked if the decision might feel like a crisis for those affected, he said: "I fully accept that for the individual that will be really very uncomfortable, but what we know is if we don't have a plan in place and we don't do this in a structured way, what will happen, as we've had in previous winters, is lots of last-minute cancellations which is really distracting for patients, it's inconvenient, it upsets the plans they've put together with their family, particularly for elderly patients where their care needs are often quite significant."

Prof Willett told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the NHS was "better prepared" and clear recommendations were being implemented to deal with pressures.

He said: "A crisis is when you haven't got in place mitigations and you haven't got a plan to deal with it.

"We've gone into this winter in a way that we've never prepared before, so we went into the winter before Christmas having cancelled fewer elective operations than we had previously, discharges from hospital were at a lower level than they had been previously, so we were better prepared.

"We've also set up a national, regional and local structure - if you like, a winter pressures protocol - which we are invoking now and we are monitoring a whole series of things, activity in the service and the pressures.

"We are monitoring the weather alerts in anticipation of weather changes because we know that's important, and we also monitor the seasonal illnesses like flu.

"We've started to see those change, that's why the National Emergency Pressures Panel has now come out with these clear recommendations."