NHS professionals: is the health service ready for winter? Take our survey
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Version 0 of 1. January 2015 was a big month for the NHS. Pressure on A&E departments across the country reached critical levels. In the week leading up to Sunday 4 January, NHS England statistics showed that emergency departments across England treated just 79.8% of patients within the four-hour target. This performance was officially the worst ever. Record numbers of patients were forced to spend between four and 12 hours on trolleys waiting to be admitted; operations were cancelled; and, in some cases, ambulances were having to queue for at least 30 minutes, unable to hand over their patients to A&E staff because the emergency department was too busy. Up to 15 hospitals declared major or significant incidents, signifying that they could not cope with the volume of patients. Have things changed? Is the NHS prepared for winter this year? Have trusts taken measures to improve services and deal with possible increased demand? In a period of financial squeeze, how are services running? And, how are health service staff faring? We want to do a health check on the state of the sector and its workforce. Please fill in our survey and tell us your thoughts about how well prepared the NHS is for winter, the impact of five years of financial squeeze, and your job. Results will be published in the Guardian in January. |