Anyone wanting to see their family doctor face-to-face for a ‘routine’ appointment will be forced to wait until the New Year so GPs can focus on delivering booster jabs.
Some elective procedures in hospitals, like hip or knee surgery, may be delayed as the NHS places emphasis on vaccines and vaccinating one million people per day.
Last night, the NHS was put on to a ‘crisis footing’ as hospitals in England were told to discharge as many patients as possible.
NHS England’s chiefs wrote to hospitals to say that patients should not be denied discharge to hospices or care homes.
Sajid Javid admitted to MPs yesterday that achieving the ‘national mission’ will come with ‘difficult trade-offs’, which were undesirable but ‘absolutely necessary’.
St Thomas’s Hospital in Westminster, England has people queuing outside the walk-in Covid-19 vaccination center.
According to the Health Secretary, GPs will still be able to treat urgent cases including patients with symptoms of cancer.
However, he stated that the primary care services would be focused on the booster rollout over the next two week.
Yesterday night, medical schools and charities warned against restricting family doctor access and putting others in severe pain during Christmas. This could leave thousands without knowing about cancers.
NHS data shows that approximately 5,000 types of cancer are detected each month after a referral from a doctor.
And experts cautioned that in future, the NHS could not simply ‘switch off’ healthcare for a month every year if annual boosters are found to be necessary.
Yesterday, NHS England also sent a letter to GPs telling them to ‘free up maximum capacity’ to support the booster effort. It said this could involve ‘pausing’ routine and non-urgent care and warned hospitals may also need to cancel operations.
It added: ‘If we don’t do this now, the wave of Omicron could be so big that cancellations and disruptions would be even greater.’
Due to the disruption caused by pandemics, the NHS wait lists reached a new record of 6million. Health bosses want to eliminate the backlog.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Javid said: ‘We are redeploying NHS staff away from non-urgent services.
The following means that for the next two week, all primary healthcare services will concentrate on vaccines and urgent care. Non-urgent and elective procedures may be delayed until the New Years, while the focus is placed on getting people the booster.
This is a step that no health secretary would want to take, unless it was absolutely essential. But I’m convinced that if we don’t prioritise the booster now, the health consequences will be far more grave in the months that lie ahead.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme that cancer patients should still be seen within two weeks, saying this target will be ‘completely unaffected’.
But he warned elective surgery will be hit, adding: ‘That might mean, for example… a knee operation or a hip operation or something… but the hospital concerned would have the right to postpone it if it meant they would get a lot more booster jabs done.’
NHS England yesterday announced a return to its highest level of emergency preparedness – a level four national incident. The NHS’s response to Omicron is now coordinated across the country and not led by any one trust.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said: ‘If you are an older person who has already been waiting for an operation for some time, the news that non-urgent surgery is being put on hold must be a hammer blow.
Lara Wahab, 34, is currently on the urgent transplant list. She needs a pancreas and a kidney. Her November operation was canceled due to insufficient ICU beds. They were overflowing with Covid patients.
‘The NHS must do everything possible to support older people who are having to wait longer as a result.’
Shaun Walsh, of Cancer Research UK, said: ‘Sajid Javid has said that cancer services will be protected, and it’s vital that Government stands by its word. NHS leaders must protect cancer services and ensure that everyone gets the diagnosis and treatment they need for the best chance of survival, because cancer won’t wait.’
Patients Association chief executive Rachel Power added: ‘Patients who are facing delays must have clear information about what is happening, when they will be treated, and how to care for themselves at home while they’re waiting.’
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, warned that meeting the Government’s target will impact the services doctors can provide.
He said: ‘Practices understand the need to prioritise the booster programme and it is important that we are provided with guidance by NHS England to help us to de-prioritise non-essential work.’