NHS to begin process of resuming normal work

[pocketem]

NHS England announces it will restart non-covid urgent work, aiming to return to pre-COVID levels of activity within 6 weeks. Particularly prioritized are cardiac PCI and stroke thrombolectomy, and cancer services should be fully operational. Some elective surgery and procedures will restart as operating theatres are converted back from makeshift ICUs. GPs and outpatient clinic providers are being encouraged to continue using digital/video consultations first line as part of a long term change in practice given the success over the past month, with face to face consultations only offered if there is a clinical need for hands on examination or diagnostics.

www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/04/second-phase-of-nhs-response-to-covid-19-letter-to-chief-execs-29-april-2020.pdf

Good. People shouldnt be dying. Maybe recovering c patients can transfer to Nightingale hospitals which would free up services and beds. Private hospitals could also take on some routine work.

Good am seriously concerned at the lack of treatment for anything other than covid. This is very serious for a lot of people

Yep my dad has cancer. His most recent scan was cancelled. Got a phone call this morning for a scan tonight.

Music to my ears. I'm in a non Covid related role and there is tons of work we could be getting on with. The need for additional hospital beds has been way lower than anticipated, so seems like time for services that had been scaled back to start ramping up again

Good. I ended up in hospital this weekend. I need further tests - endoscopy, another more detailed similar test, and probably surgery. None currently available. It was a case of "you can stay here and we will feed you morphine, or go home and feed yourself painkillers and come back if you can't manage"

Well I had hand surgery today and then a hand therapy appointment straight after. They would normally have delayed hand therapy until a week after but due to Covid-19 are wanting patients in less often!
This was at St Thomas' in London where they treated Boris

It’s great news. I received the Simon Stevens letter this morning.

GPs and outpatient clinic providers are being encouraged to continue using digital/video consultations first line as part of a long term change in practice given the success over the past month, with face to face consultations only offered if there is a clinical need for hands on examination or diagnostics

Saw a copy of the letter - but didn't think I could share..... glad you have! The GP's changing their consultation process is a big change. I hope they now apologise for throwing their toys out of the pram when the private on-line GP's came along, and had a fit of pique saying they were unsafe and unsatifactory. I chose not to go with an on-line GP as my GP would have removed me from their list. I wonder what will happen to the on-line only GP's now. Perhaps they will go out of business?

Don't think it was a fit of pique. It was not a level playing field. Babylon etc took all the young fit tech-savvy patients who barely had any medical needs, leaving the old with multiple comorbidities and heavy medical demand to traditional GPs. They get paid per patient. Babylon ended up raking it in while the traditional London GPs lost income from the young patients that normally subsidised the old.
Plus the GMC and NHSE have relaxed many of the rules and regulations for traditional GPs that blocked them from using video consultations