Doctors’ confidence over NHS’s ability to cope over winter plummets

A survey conducted by the British Medical Association of over 6,500 doctors in England has revealed over 70 per cent of staff are either not at all or not very confident about the abilities of services to cope throughout the coming winter.

The survey also revealed that 65 per cent of doctors are either quite or extremely anxious about the coming months and over 40 per cent say their levels of anxiety, stress and emotional distress had increased since the start of the pandemic.

Doctors also say they are highly sceptical about the effectiveness of the restrictions. Only 6 per cent say they believe the measures will have any significant impact on containing the spread of the virus and 37 per cent say they believe they will be ineffective or have no impact.

Dr Chaand Nagaul, chair of the BMA council, said “Doctors know that this winter is likely to be one of the most difficult times of their careers. They are extremely worried about the ability for the NHS to cope and their ability to care for the needs of their patients. These survey findings show the enormous scale of the challenges for the NHS in the coming months – and they reinforce the BMA’s call for a national and strategic approach to getting this virus under control.”

The survey also revealed that there continues to be a backlog of millions of patients not having received treatment during the first peak, and only round a quarter of doctors reported that they have now started to tackle the backlog, with millions still waiting to be seen.

Dr Nagpaul went on to say “Doctors are doing their best to keep patients safe, with seven in ten saying they are providing remote consultations to prevent the spread of infection in hospitals and GP practices. But with this work often taking longer and proving more tiring, it’s clear that over-work and under-capacity is taking its toll on the NHS, its workforce and its patients.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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