Quote Originally Posted by surge View Post
The summer is meant to be the quiet period for the NHS so I would presume it doesn't take much for far greater pressure than normal being felt.

The SAGE minutes I posted earlier said they knew about the surge, they wanted it now instead of autumn and winter and there needs to be strong, clear communication about what people can do to protect themselves and others (and what businesses can do to protect their staff/consumers) to lessen the impact otherwise we could end up with another extreme peak. The question needed being whether different government's and different ministers are all communicating that well enough?

Another thread mentioned Tory pledge for extra 50,000 nurses a day (originally this meant somehow dissuading 19,000 expected to leave from leaving) after years of underinvesting in the service so will be interesting to see if more than 19,000 leave due to exhaustion, whether higher number than expected stay-on because this has reaffirmed how valuable the NHS is or whether more than 31,000 are attracted to the position because they've been inspired.
The point is that they were aware of the potential pressures that we are witnessing but it is much better to have it now in the summer that try to supress it and get it in the winter when hospitals are harder worked anyway.
And I read somewhere yesterday that the numbers appear to be peeking already. I hope so.