Written by Kunal Sawhney, Kalkine Media
Bolstering the critical functions at the National Health Service (NHS) becomes quite important, at a time when everybody is contemplating the scope of damage due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. Hospitals, general practitioners (GPs), specialised medical care facilities and other healthcare settings have remained overburdened in the recent past due to high number of Covid cases across the United Kingdom and other natural ailments.
In a desperate move to release the pressure on the healthcare system, the government of the UK has decided to inject a multi-million pound funding to the tune of £700 million. The fresh monetary allotment is intended to improve the overall structure of the healthcare system that addresses a number of acute, as well as life-threatening diseases, along with this the hospitals will materially benefit from the proportionate share from the funding to shrink the waiting lists and the cumulative waiting period.
With the help of fresh monetary allocation, as many as 785 schemes across 187 different medical facilities will be strengthened to tackle the waiting lists and increase the capacity.
Among the major regions receiving a definitive share of funding, the Midlands will be receiving an amount equivalent to £131 million, followed by £112 million for the North East and Yorkshire, £109 million for London, £105 million for the South East, £97 million for the North West, £78 million for the East of England and £69 million for the South West, respectively.
The Department of Health and Social Care has allocated the £700 million funding in weighted proportion according to the population size of each region to divide the investment equally across the country. A proportionately equal split of the total funding across all regions will help reduce the waiting times for patients as the healthcare administration will increase the number of beds and operating theatres in various medical facilities that are experiencing huge waiting times.
A part of investment will go into reinforcing the day care surgery units, effectively preventing people staying overnight for minor surgical procedures. The NHS will empower the selected hospital trusts in ameliorating the experiences of health and social care, productively improving the conditions.
With the ever evolving course of Covid-19 pandemic, it becomes extremely important for the government to strengthen the hospitals and other schemes that were introduced previously for safeguarding the individuals from various uncommon ailments.
The government of the UK has set out clear plans to address the challenges faced by the NHS and social care in the winter season, as maximum possible resources of the NHS are aligned to tackle the ongoing repercussions of Covid-19, trying to minimise the rate of infection, as well as the rate of hospital admissions further.
The unforeseen threat and uncertainty with the rapidly emerging variants of Covid-19 virus, the healthcare administration is leaving no stone unturned to make sure that the people remain safe and healthy as winter season automatically increases the chances of contracting common flu, cold and viral infection.
Alongside the wide range of preparations being incorporated by the healthcare administration, the department has also encouraged the normal public to undertake all the necessary actions possible to bring down the risk of contracting any life-threatening infection.
The government has categorically advised the general public to complete their obligatory duties of receiving the vaccines, completing the two-dose regimen for Covid-19, jabs available for reducing the chances of flu, as well as taking an additional shot of vaccine following the invite from the NHS or the concerned vaccination centre.
With a desperate effort to provide the maximum possible protection to all the adults across England, the government has decided to inoculate all the individuals over 18 years by the end of January of 2022 as increasing the number of people secured with the booster dose can relatively improve the level of protection as compared to the people who have only received two shots.
From upgrading the outpatient spaces across the UK, MRI equipment, to installing modular operating theatres and screening technologies, the waiting lists will substantially shrink at the hospital trusts receiving a share from £700 million funding.
The fresh capital allocation to the NHS supplements the £5.4 billion investment, already declared by the government to support the healthcare system in the second half of the present calendar year, strengthening its response against the Covid-19 pandemic. Cumulatively, the government has set aside more than £34 billion of additional funding in health and social care services in 2021 so far.
Of the total £700 million funding, nearly £120 million will be reserved for supporting any revenue costs, a sum equivalent to £250 million will be spent for equipping the medical facilities with the new technology and a quantum of £330 million has been designated for upgrading various facilities at the NHS.
The implicit consequences of pandemic has unprecedentedly burdened the NHS as the healthcare system has to deploy a proportionately higher number of people to manage various activities undertaken by it, including the Test and Trace activity, genome sequencing and other testing and research processes.
In a bid to strengthen the NHS from the core, making it better equipped to handle surge in appointments, treatments and operations, the government is facilitating new and innovative practices that can help the patients to continue receiving the best possible services. As a part of funding, an additional number of permanent and modular theatres, alongside surgical hubs in various hospital trusts will be inducted, effectively driving up the number of operations that can be completed in a given day.
Preparing comprehensively for this winter season, the Downing Street administration, alongside the NHS and local government are slated to incorporate various actions that can help in levelling up the services and experience at medical care facilities. Hiring nearly 18,000 people to increase the staff count of healthcare support workers, nurses and medical support workers across the country has been one of the major objectives this season.
The NHS will also be utilising the temporary staff banks to increase the headcount to bolster the capacity across emergency and urgent care, while supporting the human capital with access to health and wellbeing support, alongside assisting the individuals with respect to their mental health. The NHS along with the local healthcare jurisdictions will continue to provide free lateral flow tests.
