Reducing winter pressures on the NHS

As the days get shorter and colder weather sinks in, the media has been awash with its usual smear of headlines questioning how the NHS will cope this upcoming winter. The NHS experiences winter pressures every year, as the rise in the number of people admitted to hospital leaves services at breaking point. However, despite planning for this spike in attendance, it remains ever difficult to manage the challenges that are faced and meet the growing patient demand.

This year, additional fears of a looming crisis have been raised after figures were published by Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority outlining the financial positions of the NHS for the first 3 months of the 2015–16 financial year. They reported a combined deficit of £930 million for the 151 Foundation Trusts and 90 other NHS Trusts in England, which is more than the entire full-year deficit for 2014–15 of £829 million. As part of these figures, ambulance services in England have run up a £6 million deficit (Monitor, 2015; NHS Trust Development Authority, 2015).