RCSEd President statement on the announcement of NHS England six-week action plan on resuming non-coronavirus services
« View all News items
Reacting the announcement of a six-week action plan and priority areas for the NHS in England as it seeks to resume a range of non-coronavirus services, Professor Michael Griffin OBE, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh said:
"We are delighted that NHS England are advising hospitals to “release and redeploy” capacity back from being ready for covid-19 patients for use in other priority areas of care such as cancer care.
Further, we are assured by the need to identify ring-fenced diagnostic and surgical capacity for cancer to enable cancer surgery hubs to be fully operational
However, this must not be interpreted as a return to normality. As the plan makes clear, the NHS needs to be prepared for a possibly rebound in emergency admissions and we are acutely aware of the increasing backlog of the range of elective surgery that needs to be carried out whilst Covid 19 remains dangerously prevalent.
“Therefore we need to ensure that PPE, testing and other safeguards are in place and available in sufficient quantities to minimise the risk to patients and staff of cross Covid infection.
“Testing in particular will be crucial, and we are currently our front line Fellows and Members to better understand the reality of testing on the ground in terms of both that offered and take up rates.”
You can read the full details of the NHS England announcement here.
