New ambulances, elective hubs, virtual wards and care transfer hubs are amongst the innovative measures already in place to ensure patients in the North West receive the best possible NHS care this winter.

Preparations for winter are already well underway in the region following the publication earlier this year of the NHS Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan, a blueprint drawn up to help recover urgent and emergency care services, reduce waiting times and improve patient experience.

Following that plan, services have been put in place across the region that will boost capacity and resilience and build on improvements in ambulance response times and A&E performance.

NHS England North West Regional Medical Director for Primary Care, Dr Paula Cowan, said: “Preparations are well under way in the North West as we head into a winter that many expect to be one of the most challenging in NHS history.

“We are seeing sustained pressure in emergency, primary and community care, with overall higher demand than pre-pandemic, plus the impact of industrial action and the toll that has taken on our hard-working dedicated staff in those already busy services.

“Despite all that, we’ve made great progress in the North West already with the introduction of additional multidisciplinary roles in general practice, care transfer hubs, virtual wards and surgical elective hubs, along with the tremendous boost to the North West Ambulance Service of new vehicles they can use to serve our patients this winter.

“I want to personally thank all of our clinical and allied health care professional staff across the North West. We are deeply proud of the incredible efforts of NHS staff in the region.

“They are already working incredibly hard and continue to go the extra mile to prepare and ensure our patients receive the best possible care this winter.”

Across the North West there are regularly 2,234 people in a hospital bed who no longer need the care a hospital provides. This figure has reached 2,400 at times and during winter last year was consistently above 2,200.

Every hospital in the region is now covered by a care transfer hub to enable staff to find the best and quickest discharge options for patients, working with teams from across the NHS, social care, housing and voluntary services.

Early results from Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s care transfer hub showed the number of people in beds waiting to go home reduced from 250 to 102 a day, freeing up nearly 150 more beds at its Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals.

NHS teams are also helping more people to receive the care they need in the place they call home, rather than in hospital. Going into winter, the region has 1,300 virtual ward ‘beds’ that will care for patients with frailty, acute respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure and several paediatric conditions.

The introduction of state-of-the-art elective surgical hubs, giving patients faster access to some of the more common surgical procedures such as cataract surgeries and hip replacements, has helped reduce the backlog of patients waiting for treatment ahead of winter. There are 19 hubs in the region, which are helping to reduce demand on emergency departments.

The Trafford Elective Hub at Trafford General Hospital has completed 3,700 elective operations for patients from across Greater Manchester since April this year. Likewise, the second phase of the multi-million-pound Cheshire and Merseyside Surgical Centre at Clatterbridge Hospital has now opened, with 3,000 elective patients having been treated in phase one in its first year.

North West Ambulance Service is also well on its way in ensuring it continues to deliver a high-quality service despite additional winter demands.

By Christmas, 75 new paramedics and 32 emergency medical technicians will have joined NWAS, with more due to be in post by March 2024. There will also be 72 new recruits for the Patient Transport Service and 250 new call handlers for the 999 and NHS 111 contact centres.

The service is also increasing the number of clinicians working in its 999 contact centres. There will also be an additional 32 emergency ambulances responding to patients by February, bringing the total operating across the region to 553.

“There is a considerable amount of work ongoing to prepare the NHS for winter, which are always our busiest months,” said Dr Cowan.

“The commitment and dedication from people working across the NHS is humbling, with everyone driven to ensuring we are giving patients the best possible experience during a period we know will be busy, but a period when people often need us more than ever.

“As ever, the public can help play their part this winter by getting their flu and COVID-19 vaccinations when eligible, signing up to the NHS App, using services like NHS 111 online to get urgent advice on the best NHS service for their clinical needs, and by calling 999 in life-threatening emergencies.”