7 January 2011
The harsh winter and rising number of serious flu cases will not thwart attempts to make savings in the NHS, the head of the health service has told Public Finance.
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson said the recent outbreak of flu and freezing conditions over the Christmas period would have no impact on the health service’s ability to start making the £20bn of efficiency savings required between 2011 and 2014.
He told PF: ‘The latest financial information that we have from the NHS indicates that we will deliver absolutely our financial targets for this year. [This flu] will have no effect. We’ve planned it.’
Nicholson added that the costs of dealing with flu during the winter were not separated out from the yearly running costs of the NHS.
His comments came as interim chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies revealed there had been 11 deaths from flu in the UK in the past week, bringing the total this winter to 50.
The majority (45) of the deaths were associated with H1N1, or swine flu. The remaining five were due to flu type B.
As of yesterday ,783 patients were in critical care beds with confirmed or suspected flu. This was down from 850 earlier in the week, prompting Davies to say that the outbreak might have peaked. But she added: ‘We have not got a crystal ball so are not certain but it’s good news it is going down.’
Davies claimed the NHS was ‘coping well’ with the outbreak and there were sufficient vaccinations in the system for the groups most at risk.
Nicholson also revealed that only ‘about 20%’ of frontline health care workers had been vaccinated against flu this year. This was slightly higher than last year but a ‘disappointing figure’, he said.
The NHS boss admitted they needed to ‘think very carefully’ about boosting uptake next year but ruled out making the vaccination mandatory for staff.
