Hospitals Told To Cancel All Routine Operations As NHS Winter Crisis Escalates

[T_i_B]

I know that there is a lot of lurgy out there, but this is really bad.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nhs-hospitals-non-urgent_uk_5a4bcd09e4b025f99e1e0b14

Struggling hospitals have been told to cancel all routine surgery until the end of January amid fears of a winter NHS meltdown.

The National Emergency Pressures Panel, which is chaired by the NHS’s top doctor Sir Bruce Keogh, said the NHS has been under “sustained pressure” over Christmas and needs to free up doctors and nurses to deal with the sickest patients. Officials have estimated that this could lead to up to 55,000 deferred operations, such as hip replacements.

Cancer operations and time-critical procedures should go ahead as planned, NHS England said.

The delay had already been in force until mid-January, but the panel says the deferral of all ‘non-urgent’ care will now be extended to January 31. Hospitals have now been told to cancel any day-case and outpatient procedures, which would not require an overnight bed and where patients would typically walk out after being seen. It also announced that penalties for mixed sex accommodation breaches should be temporarily lifted.