What are Winter Pressures?
NHS winter pressures are more commonly known about and expected compared to summer pressures. They refer to the significant strain placed on the UK’s NHS during the winter months. These pressures are a result of various causes and factors that lead to increased demand for health and social care services which can overwhelm the system. Key causes of NHS winter pressures include:
- Seasonal Illnesses: The winter season brings a higher incidence of respiratory illnesses, such as the flu, pneumonia, and other viral infections. These illnesses can lead to complications, particularly in vulnerable populations like the elderly, children, and those with pre-existing conditions, increasing the number of hospital admissions.
- Increased Injuries: Cold and icy weather conditions lead to more accidents, such as slips, trips, and falls, particularly among the elderly. This results in a higher number of emergency hospital admissions.
- Higher Demand for Emergency Services: With the rise in seasonal illnesses and injuries, there is a surge in A&E visits. This increased demand can overwhelm emergency services, leading to longer wait times and greater pressure on healthcare staff.
- Chronic Condition Exacerbation: The cold weather can worsen chronic conditions such as asthma, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), and heart disease, leading to more frequent hospital visits and admissions.
- Staff Shortages: The winter season often coincides with higher rates of staff sickness and absences due to illness. This reduces the available workforce at a time when the demand for healthcare services is at its peak, further straining the system.
- COVID-19: In recent years, the continued presence of COVID-19 has added an extra layer of complexity, leading to additional hospitalisations and increasing the burden on the NHS during winter months.
- Social Care Pressures: Delays in discharging patients from hospitals due to insufficient social care support can create bottlenecks, leading to a lack of available hospital beds. This problem is exacerbated during the winter when more people need hospital care.
- Mental Health Issues: Winter can also see an increase in mental health issues such as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and depression, leading to more demand for mental health services due to social isolation and loneliness.
- Lack of GP surgery capacity: The limitations of GP surgeries to handle the surge in seasonal illnesses, as well as the pushback of long-term conditions from hospitals, combines to form a perfect storm of demand that can only lead towards A&E.
NHS Summer Pressures – What are they?
While winter is traditionally seen as the most challenging season, evidence in recent years has shown that summer also poses a significant strain on health and social care services.
Climate change has made heatwaves more common, leading to a rise in heat-related illnesses like dehydration, heat stroke, and deterioration of chronic conditions such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Vulnerable groups, including the elderly, children, and those with pre-existing conditions, are most at risk.
In July 2023 alone, only 40% of patients were discharged when ready, highlighting ongoing discharge delays which, as previously mentioned, worsen by the winter.
Record demand for A&E visits, emergency admissions, and ambulance callouts during summer further intensifies the pressure. Staff shortages due to annual leave cause remaining health and social care professionals to be overworked, stressed, and at higher risk of burnout, contributing to increased staff turnover, which in turn makes the management of seasonal pressures even more challenging.
NHS Seasonal Pressures – What’s the difference?
There are different causes for both summer and winter pressures, but the impacts create similar strains, pressures, and challenges across health and social care services.
Understanding these differences is crucial for effective planning and resource allocation to be better prepared in the future. The table below summarises these key differences:
|
Aspect |
Winter Pressures |
Summer Pressures |
|
Primary Health Issues |
Respiratory illnesses (flu, pneumonia), injuries from falls, exacerbation of chronic conditions like asthma and COPD |
Heat-related illnesses (dehydration, heat stroke), exacerbation of chronic conditions like cardiovascular diseases |
|
Emergency Services Demand |
High due to increased A&E visits for flu, falls, and chronic condition flare-ups |
High due to heatwaves leading to a surge in A&E visits and emergency admissions |
|
Hospital Admissions |
Increase due to flu and cold-related complications, and chronic illness management |
Increase due to heatwave-related illnesses and complications in vulnerable groups |
|
Staffing Challenges |
Higher absenteeism due to staff illnesses, increased workload |
Staffing shortages due to annual leave, leading to gaps in coverage and increased stress on remaining staff |
|
Discharge Delays |
Common due to high bed occupancy and limited social care availability |
Persistent, but exacerbated by staff shortages and high demand during peak holiday periods |
|
Vulnerable Populations |
Elderly, children, those with chronic respiratory and cardiovascular conditions |
Elderly, children, those with chronic respiratory and cardiovascular conditions |
While both winter and summer bring significant pressures to health and social care services, the nature of these challenges differs. Winter is dominated by respiratory illnesses and injuries, while summer pressures stem from heat-related conditions and staff shortages. Recognising these differences allows for more targeted approaches to managing seasonal demands, ensuring better care and resource management year-round.
NHS Winter Pressures Funding – What is it?
With winter pressures typically causing the most challenges for the health and social care sector, over the years there have been some attempts to make this more manageable. One of the ways is through funding.
Last winter it was announced that an extra £200 million would be spent on healthcare to boost NHS resilience and care to ensure patients received the care they needed. This also included a £40 million investment into social care to increase its capacity to improve discharge delays. This extra funding aimed to get patients seen and discharged quicker.
The Urgent and Emergency Care Plan is another example of funding that was introduced to boost capacity in the healthcare system. Here it was announced that £1 billion would be spent to provide 5,000 additional beds, 800 new ambulances, and 10,000 virtual wards.
It is uncertain yet what new potential funding could come this year to better support the upcoming winter pressures. But with evidence of previous funding helping manage demand across different areas, we will have to wait and see what the new labour government announces.
To stay up-to-date with potential funding opportunities, visit the UK GOV website today.
Summer and Winter pressure solutions in health and social care – What are they?
To mitigate the impact of seasonal pressures, especially winter pressures, across health and social care, there is a growing emphasis on the use of technology to streamline workflows and processes, improve outcomes, and reduce delays in care delivery.
There are many areas of technology below are just some of the ways it can help:
1. Improve future planning
2. Speed up discharge delays
3. Increases independence
4. Manages and improves mental health and wellbeing
1. Improves future planning
A key strategy for managing seasonal pressures is to commission care more effectively and efficiently. By doing so, social care commissioners and local authorities can achieve better outcomes-based commissioning through leveraging data within the system allowing for proactive preparation for increased demand both now and in the future. This, in turn, ensures that necessary resources are available without exceeding budget constraints.
Our Access PAMMs software, for example, has evolved into a powerful commissioning toolkit making it easier to support both market shaping and oversight responsibilities, meaning no one goes without the care they need or deserve.
Here our wide range of market management tools helps local authorities closely monitor activity levels to make highly accurate predictions about future demand. Middlesbrough Council, for example, found after investing in our demand modelling technology, predictions were made with 99% accuracy, making it much easier to prepare for the social care needs now and in the future.
Having access to sophisticated care commissioning software therefore gives local authorities intelligence about the local care market, to not only manage seasonal pressures more effectively but deliver their responsibilities under the Care Act.
2. Speeds up discharge delays
Investing in Virtual Wards
One of the most prominent ways to speed up discharge delays is through investing in virtual wards.
Here virtual wards are key to reducing pressures on the NHS and as a result social care services. Virtual wards are the future of healthcare, monitoring care provided away from the hospital.
Essentially providing community healthcare for those with complex needs, virtual wards are designed to support people in a more relaxed setting to help improve recovery. As a result, hospital beds are freed up, pressure on health and social care professionals is reduced, and individuals tend to feel happier within their care.
For virtual wards to be successful, technology partners are key, at The Access group we’re the only supplier that can partner with you to join up care across primary and secondary healthcare, social care and the care sector. Here co-production is vital to provide your staff with better visibility so they have the information they need from anyways to provide safer and higher-quality care.
To learn more about the benefits of virtual wards and how they work in action, download our guide today.
The importance of social care commissioning
Another way to help reduce seasonal pressures is to ensure social care commissioning is invested in strategically. Often bed blocking can occur because patients do not have a safe environment to be discharged to.
Investing in social care commissioning software therefore helps improve the commission process for local authorities to streamline processes quickly and efficiently allowing councils to respond faster to urgent care placements.
Our social care commissioning software automates compliance so you can be left 100% confident and assured that you will only ever work with fully compliant care providers. As a result, placements have been proven to be made at least 20% faster putting the individual at the heart of every decision made.
For example, Staffordshire Council and MLCSU have experienced improved transparency and visibility of packages of care since investing in Access Adam Care Commissioning. Previously Staffordshire only had a provider view of their jointly funded packages, but not all parties can see a full audit trail to identify changes needed to care plans as they happen.
By investing in social care commissioning software all commissioning processes are digitalised into one cnetralised place meaning there are no risks of records being lost or damaged, speeding up the process, reducing discharge delays, and ultimately reducing the pressure on health and social care professionals, especially during peak times.
3. Increases independence
Technology enabled care (TEC) is another example to help reduce seasonal pressures.
In the context of winter pressures, TEC can be instrumental in reducing unnecessary hospital visits. Wearable technology and sensors can provide better fall detection and organise immediate care as soon as it happens, especially falls caused by icy conditions. Leaving individuals, particularly more vulnerable individuals, confident they can remain living independently and knowing support will be there when needed.
Similarly, during summer pressures, TEC can help manage the influx of heat-related illnesses. Monitoring hydration levels are a key indicator for health, when alerting care providers with low hydration levels a better proactive approach to care can be delivered to reduce the number of emergency admissions during hot weather for illnesses caused by dehydration such as fainting, dizziness and falls.
At Access Technology Enabled Care (TEC) we go one step further by combining both traditional reactive alarm functionality and digital monitoring to transform care deliveries into better proactive and preventative care models allowing individuals to increase their independence, delay future care needs, as well as provide reassurance to loved ones and the wider care circle.
We know that health risks can differ depending on the seasons, that’s why we enable individuals to set up smart alerts where our Home Hub understands the daily behaviour of an individual in just 14 days. That way alerts can be sent to caregivers and loved ones about changes in behaviour before something more critical happens.
Not only can this prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, but having TEC installed in the home can also speed up discharge delays so individuals can continue recovering in the comfort of their own homes knowing support will be there when needed.
Contact us today to see first-hand how TEC can transform how you manage both summer and winter pressures, to improve outcomes, reduce pressures, and ultimately improve quality of life.
4. Manage and Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing
As discussed previously, mental health issues can significantly increase across the winter, particularly for more vulnerable populations who may not be as mobile.
This can significantly increase individuals' GP attendance and A&E visits with the reason for their visit being more social than clinical.
Currently, 1 in 5 GP appointments are for social reasons. This makes it harder for GPs, nurses, and other health professionals to be able to manage their workloads effectively, especially in the winter when more vulnerable populations experience loneliness and social isolation.
Investing in digital social prescribing software offers a more holistic solution that enables Social Prescribing Link Workers to be added to the multi-disciplinary team to help manage the social issues across health and social care, helping reduce both GP and A & E attendance to allow healthcare professionals to spend more time with patients for clinical reasons.
Whilst social prescribing on its own won’t address all the seasonal pressures, it provides an opportunity to better manage the rising mental health issues across the country.
At Access Elemental Social Prescribing, we know and understand the rise of mental health issues across different times of the year, especially in the winter with the increased likeliness of loneliness, social isolation, and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). We work hard to raise awareness and support our customers to create safe and assured referral pathways so individuals feel a sense of belonging and get support on what matters to them.
Due to this work ethic and approach, we have helped multiple social prescribing services see massive reductions in GP attendance and A & E attendance as well as massive improvements in wellbeing scores.
Action Together for example saw a 65% reduction in GP attendance and 94% of people who used the social prescribing service noticed an improvement in their health and wellbeing.
Investing in technology helps manage seasonal pressures in a variety of ways. Whilst not one software will help overcome all the pressures, at The Access Group we believe that having a range of support helps better manage the pressures and demands your community deals with throughout the year.
That’s why we offer many tools and solutions to better support everyone across the care continuum to manage demand both now and in the future.
Seasonal Pressures – What are the next steps?
This article has addressed the winter and summer pressures health and social care professionals experience every year.
Whilst winter pressures are the most prevalent, this article has addressed it is also important to be aware of the seasonal pressures heatwaves can give. With peaks of A & E visits and emergency admissions being at similar levels both last winter and summer.
This article explained that effectively managing seasonal pressures in health and social care requires a nuanced understanding of both winter and summer challenges. By adopting technology-driven solutions and strategic planning, such as improved care commissioning and investing in virtual wards, local authorities can better handle the peak demands throughout the year.
Embracing digital tools not only enhances operational efficiency but also ensures that resources are optimally allocated, reducing discharge delays and improving patient outcomes.
At The Access Group, we are committed to helping your local authority collaborate seamlessly across primary, secondary, and social care sectors to tackle these seasonal pressures.
Whether that’s to speed up discharge delays with virtual wards and social care commissioning, improve mental health and reduce social isolation with social prescribing or increase independence and prevent admissions with technology enabled care, we offer a suite of tools across the care continuum to better support health and social care professionals, the individual, and their loved ones overcome winter and summer pressures.
Contact us today to explore how our innovative solutions can enhance your ability to provide proactive, high-quality care throughout the year. With our support, you can effectively manage changing demands and resource needs without overworking staff or exceeding budgets, ensuring that every individual receives the care they need.
