A leading health expert has said the NHS should not be asked to do anything extra this winter.
Jillian Evans, head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian said that the service remains in a “fragile state” and much needs to be done to stabilise it.
Ms Evans said that the “fluctuating” situation in the nation’s health was having an impact on what staff were able to – and she called for a return to “pandemic” measures to reduce what was expected of hospital and care staff.
She was speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sunday Show earlier today, she was asked about how the health service was fairing.
She said: “It is a fluctuating situation. I would say it is ‘steady as she goes’ this week, but definitely fragile.
“There are days where we tip into what I would call a critical situation. It takes about three or four days for things to start to settle down, it is enduring.
“The mantra of let’s just get through this next stage, it becomes harder and harder to keep saying that to keep morale and motivation up.
‘Harder and harder’
She continued: “I hear that a lot about primary care and the challenges GPs and their practices face every day despite seeing record numbers of patients.
“I know it is difficult for primary care, it is hard in hospitals too. In social care it is increasingly worrying situation for a number of years.
“It is hard. And hard to image that the NHS is 75 next year. Hard to think of all the good things we have managed to achieve in diagnostics and personalised cancer treatments.
“All of those things pale into insignificance when we are really right up against it, as we have been in the last three years.
“But really as you start to look at trends in population health this has been an accumulation of worsening health over a number of years.”
Asked if she thought that there should be more staff, and how to get them, Ms Evans said: “Funding is a huge part of it, people join the NHS and social care because people believe in it. It is an innate motivation that makes people want to come and work here.
“But pay and conditions really do matter and you hear of the pressure and that enduring pressure it makes it harder and harder for people to think an attractive place for me to come and work, and can my own health stand it.
“For a lot of health boards really their effort this year to getting through winter and keeping things going is about minimising those risks to staff and supporting them with their welfare, encouraging them to take holidays and encouraging them to get their vaccine so they can continue to come to work and not be ill enough to be off ill.
“There are things we can do right now to manage things a bit better.”
Wishlist
Asked what her wishlist would be to improve the NHS, she said there were two strands, one immediate wishlist and one longer term.
She said: “For winter, it is about give us the space to just get through this difficult time, as we did through the pandemic, and focus on the prioritised things and don’t give us extra to do.
“Long term, I think, there is a case for change. It is not just about how healthcare is delivered it is about prevention, climate change, housing, food, education all those building blocks for health.
” The future is something we should be actually planning for now, and not just dreaming of it.”
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