Some A&E patients could be treated in hospital car parks under alarming new emergency plans designed to combat the crisis in the NHS.
An urgent recovery plan for the National Health Service was announced in the House of Commons yesterday by Health Secretary Steve Barclay, who admitted that "the experience for some patients and staff" in emergency care had "not been acceptable" in recent weeks.
He blamed crippling waits for treatment at hospitals on a combination of flu pressures and continued hospital admissions for Covid, which he said had combined with "exceptional levels of scarlet fever activity" and an increase in strep A.
Mr Barclay said there had been a sevenfold increase in flu hospital admissions in a month.
The MP for North East Cambridgeshire outlined several proposals which would be rolled out to improve patient outcomes in the short term and into next winter.
Revealing the government would be spending £50million to install temporary units which would increase physical capacity around emergency departments, he said: "By using modular units, this capacity will be available in weeks, not months, and our £50 million investment will focus on modular support this year.
"We are giving trusts discretion on how best to use these units to decompress their emergency departments.
"It might be for spaces for short stays post A&E care, where there is no need for a patient to go to a ward for further observation, or for discharge lounges that previously have not been able to take a patients in a bed—many of those are often simply chairs—or for additional capacity alongside the emergency department at the front end of the hospital."
Mr Barclay also told the House that the NHS would begin block-booking in residential homes, which he said would allow 2,500 people to be discharged from hospitals when they are medically fit.
In Northampton, work has already started to create a temporary building at Northampton General Hospital to help deal with rising numbers of people turning up at its accident and emergency department, reports NorthantsLive
The new heated temporary building at Northampton General Hospital replaces a white tent that previously stood outside the Emergency Department, and will be used for patients waiting to be admitted.
Meanwhile, paramedics across the country will strike this Wednesday after an NHS pay summit ended with no breakthrough.
Ambulance workers will walk out in Trusts across England this Wednesday and on January 23, and nurses are due to follow on January 18-19.
Unions had met Health Secretary Steve Barclay to hold their first talks about pay for 2023/24.
At the same time, Rishi Sunak raised hopes that nurses could be offered a one-off payment this winter to end strikes over their 2022/23 pay deal.
But a source said no cash offer was made in the meeting.
