Business & Economy

NHS faces peak pressure as Covid compounded by backlog, rise in demand

London, Jul 27 (EFE).- The pressure on the United Kingdom’s universal National Health Service has returned to levels last seen during the Covid-19 peak in January, experts warned Tuesday.

A backlog in hospital care, mental health and community services in combination with a sharp rise in demand for emergency services and growing Covid-19 cases in the UK means the NHS needs to be properly funded for the second half of the year, the NHS Providers membership group said in an open letter to the government.

“All of the above needs to be delivered by a tired and overstretched workforce,” the letter said.

“And a service that, before we went into Covid-19, had a significant demand / capacity mismatch as a result of a decade of the longest and deepest funding squeeze in NHS history.

“The extra demands brought by covid-19 have significantly exacerbated this capacity / demand mismatch,” it said.

The open letter was addressed to prime minister Boris Johnson, health secretary Sajid Javid, and chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak.

“The NHS copes with what a wide group of people, including the Chief Medical and Chief Scientific Officers, believe will be one of the most difficult winters the NHS has ever faced due to a combination of flu, Covid-19, expected levels of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in children and usual winter pressures.”EFE

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