Progress with resuming non-COVID-19 services
The arrival of coronavirus has made 2020 one of the most challenging years for the NHS and staff, at every level, have gone above and beyond to respond to COVID-19 in remarkable ways, showing extraordinary dedication, skill and compassion. The way the NHS had to change to respond to the pandemic, and speed at which it had to move to do it, was phenomenal. In the space of six weeks the NHS went from caring for zero COVID-19 patients to 19,000 COVID-19 inpatients per day.
Clinically-essential service provision has been maintained throughout the pandemic in Derbyshire, thanks to the determination and adaptability of many services and colleagues. In order to do this, services had to review provision, temporarily stopping some services and making adjustments to others – in line with the rest of the NHS. Doing this enabled the NHS in Derbyshire to release extra capacity and add resilience where it was needed the most.
In May the NHS entered the second phase of its response to COVID-19. This marked the beginning of ‘restoration and recovery’ and saw the NHS begin to release capacity to resume non-COVID-19 services where it was safe to do so while continuing work to tackle coronavirus.
Mr Arthur Stephen, Divisional Medical Director for surgery at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust and member of the Planned Care Steering Group, explains:
“Since then we have been working closely as a system to assess all patients currently on a waiting list for cancer, elective and outpatient services. Patients are being reviewed by the appropriate clinical teams and kept informed of the current situation. This work is being overseen by our capacity planning and system quality and performance groups and our overwhelming priority continues to be providing safe care for both patients and staff.
“We are endeavouring to prioritise those with the highest clinical need with a view to seeing and treating them as soon as possible. We also recognise there will now be many patients listed for more ‘routine’ procedures who have now waited extraordinary lengths of time for their treatment. Patients will be contacted to discuss their individual plans, however, if there is anyone who is awaiting contact, or whose condition has deteriorated significantly since their initial contact, then they should contact their hospital clinician or GP.”
In September the NHS entered the third phase of its response to COVID-19. Phase three is defined as the period September 2020 – March 2021 and is focused on:
1. accelerating the return to “near-normal levels of non-COVID health services”;
2. preparing for winter pressures, alongside remaining vigilant about localised ‘spikes’ of COVID-19 cases; and
3. “locking in the benefits” of changes from the earlier stages of the response to the pandemic.
Angie Smithson, Chief Executive of Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Executive Lead for the Planned Care Steering Group, adds:
“We continue to make excellent progress against the priorities for planned care services outlined in phase two and phase three with most indicators predicted to be achieved by their respective target date. There are a small number of exceptions where we have more work to do but we have a plan to deliver.
“Clearly it feels like we are at another critical point in our response to the pandemic following the warnings given on Monday 21 September by the government’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser and the announcement of new restrictions by the Prime Minister on Tuesday 22 September amid rising new infections and hospital admissions.
“As the number of cases rise we will continue to work together as a system to sustain the momentum of our restoration and recovery programmes as much as possible alongside tackling the next phase of the pandemic. We must remain very vigilant and ready to respond to any escalation as we work to contain and ultimately overcome COVID-19.”
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