MPs have written to Wes Streeting, the health secretary, asking for his action plan to help the 14 hospitals declaring critical incidents under winter pressure.
The health and social care committee wrote to Streeting on Friday asking him to spell out “what specific immediate additional support, including financial support” would be provided to trusts declaring critical incidents.
It also asked if the trusts would be given support after the crisis period had passed where they had diverted other staff and services from elective to acute provision.
The committee, led by the Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, said it wanted an urgent update on the state of support for the hospitals, with 14 currently in a critical status due to “exceptionally high” demand on A&E and patients being admitted to wards. The winter crisis this year appears to have been driven by flu cases, as well as RSV and Covid.
Moran said: “It is very worrying to hear of the strain that A&E departments across the country are under and of NHS trusts having to declare critical incidents because of the high number of people attending with winter illnesses and the spike in flu cases.
“As a committee, we have written to the health secretary today to ask what the department is doing to support health services to cope with the exceptionally high demand they are facing.”
The autumn budget allocated an extra £25.7bn over this year and next to be spent on the NHS – the biggest uplift since 2010, excluding Covid. It included funding to reduce waiting times by supporting the NHS to deliver an extra 40,000 appointments a week, with £1.5bn to fund new surgical hubs.
However, the extra funding has not so far been able to see off the annual winter crisis that has this year led to 14 hospitals declaring crisis status. Figures this week showed 71% of people waited less than four hours in A&E when the target is 95%.
Sarah Arnold, the senior policy lead at the King’s Fund, said: “With depressing predictability, health services are in the depths of the annual NHS winter crisis. There are already reports of patients waiting more than two days to be seen in A&E and long ambulance handover delays, and critical incidents have been declared at hospitals up and down the country. The consequence is that patients are being cared for in unsuitable conditions, such as trolley beds in hospital corridors.
“Extreme pressures in A&E are the bellwether for a healthcare system that is under intense strain. Throughout the year, NHS services are run worryingly close to full capacity, and spikes in demand for care when cold weather, flu or other seasonal pressures hit can be catastrophic.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Despite acting to protect patients during the colder months, including vaccinating more people than last winter, hospitals are feeling the strain.
“But annual winter pressures should not lead to an annual winter crisis. We are committed to improving urgent and emergency care so we don’t see a repeat of the appalling waits patients have faced for ambulances and hospital care.
“We have taken decisive action, including ending the junior doctors’ strikes, so that this year, staff are on the frontline, not the picket lines. We will reform our health and social care system through the almost £26bn allocated at the budget by the chancellor.”
