The Royal College of Physicians has coordinated input from the specialist societies to inform a NHS England gap analysis exercise on the shortfall in time-dependent procedures for patients with acute and chronic conditions who still require urgent care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NHS England have published the detailed submissions (insert hyperlink or similar) which will help formulate wider plans to address the shortfall and provide a strategy for restarting urgent, elective elements of the service.
Any comments or queries on the specific detail supplied by each specialty would be best directed towards the relevant specialist society but the RCP would welcome feedback on any generic issues. Please email policy@rcplondon.ac.uk and include ‘Restarting urgent services’ in the subject line.
The RCP, along with the medical specialist societies, will remain closely involved in the ongoing NHSE exercise covering a system wide programme to recover and reboot services. It is anticipated that the devolved administrations will have similar projects in hand and the RCP is seeking clarification on the detail.
The RCP has received a number of enquiries from members on how best to support colleagues who will be responsible for ‘rebooting’ services in their localities and will work with the specialist societies to develop communications approaches to support this.