Top NHS doctors have warned the health service is in a “perilous” state and would struggle if another pandemic broke out.
Rising waiting lists, overrun A&E departments and an increase in corridor care have left the NHS it in a much worse position if another pandemic were to break out, the doctors say.
Dr Ian Higgison, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, revealed he had seen no indication the NHS was prepared for another pandemic.
“Our hospitals are in a much more perilous state than they were before the last pandemic,” he said.
“From our perspective, our departments are much more overcrowded, and our hospitals are under even more pressure than they were before.”
He told The Independent the NHS was in a much more “fragile” state, adding “it doesn’t take much to bring a hospital to its knees currently”.
Sir Stephen Powis, the former NHS England medical director, told the Covid Inquiry how hospitals struggled to get adequate protective equipment, forcing people to wear makeshift gear made of bin bags.
The National Covid Memorial Wall six years on from the pandemic
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While Dr Shondipon Laha, an intensive care doctor and president of the Intensive Care Society, said the lessons from the pandemic had been lost.
“It’s not just about being ready for a pandemic. It’s being ready for a war,” he said, adding that empty critical care beds were no longer in use and called for them to be reinstated.
NHS doctors also said staff are experiencing more burnout than before Covid, with Dr Vicky Price, the president of the Society of Acute Medicine, adding that hospital doctors were “burnt to the ground already”.
One in five patients are forced to endure corridor care – when a patient is unable to be provided a hospital room and has care provided outside a formal setting – a Care Quality Commission survey revealed last year.
MENINGITIS OUTBREAK – READ MORE:
PICTURED: Masked students waiting in line outside the University of Kent sports hall to receive the menB vaccine
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It has been an ongoing problem in the NHS, with Dr Price saying a second pandemic would be a “disaster for all the patients and staff” if another Covid level condition emerged.
The warning that a second pandemic could bring the NHS “to its knees” comes as a national alert has been issued by NHS England after two students died of meningitis in Kent.
The alert issued to NHS England warned doctors to be vigilant for signs and symptoms of meningitis – though it does not mean the outbreak is expected to spread nationwide.
It said the meningitis B outbreak had been “severe with rapid deterioration”, and urged staff to take infection control measures before patients are put on antibiotics.
NHS doctors have been instructed to wear masks when dealing with suspected cases of meningitis, and potentially wear additional personal protective equipment.
NHS doctors have been instructed to wear masks when dealing with suspected cases of meningitis
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It also urged doctors to have a “high index of suspicion” if a young person has symptoms of the infection, which has now spread to a second university.
Doctors were warned to not wait for a rash to appear, but should consider meningitis in a “rapidly deteriorating” patient with sepsis, the alert said.
Students at the University of Kent have begun to receive the menB vaccine, and antibiotics have been handed out to hundreds of people who may have had contact with the disease.
A Department of Health spokesman said: “We are getting the NHS back on its feet through investment and wholescale reform. We’re making progress, with waiting lists at their lowest level for almost three years and more people getting treated within 18 weeks.
“We take pandemic preparedness extremely seriously, and the government recently took part in Exercise Pegasus, the largest simulation of a pandemic in UK history. We will shortly be publishing a renewed pandemic preparedness strategy informed by the exercise.”
