Ensure clinicians are supported this winter amid a pressured environment, NHS England has urged.
In a letter to ICBs, NHS England’s leadership, including national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis, called on healthcare leaders to ensure clinicians working across the NHS are supported and that channels remain open for raising and acting on concerns.
The letter said: ‘The past few winters have been difficult, and we expect this one to be similarly challenging. We understand that delivering care in a pressured environment can mean working in different ways and at times departing from established procedures to provide the best care possible for patients and people receiving care.
‘This can be challenging, but it is vital that we have a whole system approach to risk across all urgent and emergency care (UEC) pathways to provide the best outcomes for our patients as well as maintaining elective activity where capacity allows.’
It added: ‘It is the responsibility of all providers commissioned by the NHS and healthcare leaders to ensure that all clinicians working in their organisations are supported, and that channels for raising and acting on concerns remain open and accessible to all staff.
‘Your professional code and duty of candour are there to support you to speak up where necessary, in the best interests of the public and people receiving care.’
The letter also called on leaders to look after their own health and wellbeing during the period.
‘Asking for help from others when you need it is good professional practice, so we ask that you seek support from your organisation if you need it as well as supporting one another,’ it said.
It said to encourage eligible staff to come forward for their flu and Covid vaccinations.
It comes as earlier this month it was revealed that the NHS is going into winter under more pressure than ever, with warnings of a ‘quad-demic’ of Covid, flu, RSV and norovirus.
Weekly figures, published 5 December, found that there was an average of 1,099 people in hospital with flu every day in the last week of November, compared to 243 in the same week last year, an increase of 350%. This is the highest figure for at least three years, NHS England added.
There was also an 86% increase in the number of norovirus cases in hospital over the same period.
An alert from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on 12 December warned that ‘vaccine take-up rates lag behind levels needed to protect the NHS’; while levels of norovirus are at the ‘highest in a decade for the time of year’.
