The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has disputed claims from the Red Cross that there is a "humanitarian crisis" in its hospitals in England.
BBC News reports that one of NHS England's specialist directors said he thought the service was not "at that point" of crisis, but admitted demand was higher than ever.
The Red Cross helps some hospitals with patient transport and provides care for patients who have returned home.
According to the report, a third of hospital trusts in England have warned that they need action to cope with patient numbers. Figures show that 42 A&E departments ordered ambulances to divert to other hospitals last week – double the number during the same period in 2015. Diversions can only happen when a department is under significant pressure, such as lacking the capacity to take more patients or having queues of ambulances outside for significantly prolonged periods, and when all existing plans to deal with a surge in patients have been unsuccessful.
The report says the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said staff were under intense pressure, while the Society for Acute Medicine warned this month could be the worst January the NHS had ever faced. Its president, Dr Mark Holland, is quoted in the report as saying that the term "humanitarian crisis" was strong, but "not a million miles away from the truth". He said: "We have been predicting that we would face a winter from hell. I think that time has arrived."
Professor Keith Willett, medical director for acute care at NHS England, said he did not think the service was at the level of a humanitarian crisis, but admitted demand was at its highest level ever and staff were under "a level of pressure we haven't seen before". According to the report, he said he would not answer whether the government was taking reforms to social care of patients returned from hospital seriously, but said that was where future investment needed to go.
The report says Trusts around the country are taking to social media to urge patients to stay away from A&E, unless it is an emergency or a life-threatening illness. The British Red Cross provided support to staff at the East Midlands Ambulance Service across Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Kettering and Northampton on 1 January. It also boosted existing services offering support at home to help alleviate pressure on hospitals.
CEO Mike Adamson said: "The British Red Cross is on the front line, responding to the humanitarian crisis in our hospital and ambulance services across the country. We have been called in to support the NHS and help get people home from hospital and free up much needed beds. We've seen people sent home without clothes; some suffer falls and are not found for days, while others are not washed because there is no carer there to help them." He said that if people did not get the care they needed "they will simply end up returning to A&E, and the cycle begins again".
The report says the Red Cross offers a "support at home" service to hospitals that need to improve the flow of people in and out of hospital. Volunteers visit trusts to see what social care needs patients have when they are discharged. They then visit them at home and help them with tasks including collecting prescriptions, doing shopping or simply offering company. It says the number of patients its volunteers see has gone up by 10% year-on-year and the range of tasks is increasing, such as making sure people eat, helping them to get dressed or assisting them in going to the toilet.
The Red Cross works in more than 100 hospitals on an ongoing basis. Services rendered to the NHS are paid for on contracts of up to five years. The Red Cross says the money goes towards the cost of the services it provides, plus a small amount towards its charitable aims. Adamson is quoted in the report as saying that his volunteers were facing an "increasingly complex and chaotic situation", where they had to do much more to help people get back on their feet at home. "Money is definitely an issue because of all those people who used to get social care support who no longer do," he said.
"The NHS is doing a fantastic job but needs to be more open to working with voluntary sector partners who can make a real difference to improve the flow of patients through the system and address some of these issues.
A spokesperson for NHS England said in the report that plans remained in place to deal with additional demands during the winter period and asked the public to "play their part" by using local pharmacies and NHS 111 for medical advice. He added that beds were not as full as this time last year.
[link url="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38538637"]BBC News report[/link]