NHS launches ‘war rooms’ to try and ease pressure on hospitals as winter is expected to be difficult

The NHS has launched dozens of “war rooms” across England to try and manage pressure on hospitals as it is expected to be a difficult winter.

These “war rooms” will use data to identify waiting time, A&E performance along with ambulance response times which will allow NHS staff to divert ambulances from hospitals which are full and send them to those who have more space.

This will then allow patients to be seen more quickly and there will also be a better turn around time for ambulances to then attend further calls

Sky News reported that Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said, “These locally delivered control centres are just one part of our wide-ranging preparations for winter but will play a vital role in the sharing and use of vital information to drive smarter decision-making by local NHS teams.

“From Maidstone to Lincoln, less than six weeks after we issued our national guidance, we have teams across England working around the clock monitoring and responding to information and insights from frontline services to help spread resources and make the best possible decisions for both staff and patients.

“With recent data hitting home the significant pressure staff are facing – with 10 times the flu cases in hospital than we saw going into winter last year and thousands of beds taken up by patients medically fit for discharge – it has never been more important for the NHS to introduce these important and innovative planning measures ahead of what is likely to be one of our most challenging winters yet.”

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers added, “Urgent action is also still needed to tackle workforce shortages, staff exhaustion and burnout, and the inability to free up capacity by discharging medically fit patients in a safe and timely way.”