Responding to joint NHS Providers and NHS Confederation report: ‘A reckoning: the continuing cost of COVID-19’
02 Sep 2021
Responding to joint NHS Providers and NHS Confederation report: ‘A reckoning: the continuing cost of COVID-19’
Professor Neil Mortensen, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England said,
“Investing in the NHS is also an investment in the economic recovery of the country. If we don’t invest in tackling lengthening waiting times for operations, then we’ll see more people unable to work, their lives effectively ‘on hold’. Funding plans made before the pandemic are no longer fit for purpose. Because of COVID, we now need protected ‘surgical hubs’ in every part of the country, to keep surgical patients, and staff separate and safe and to increase the volume of operations. If the government doesn’t act, the record waiting list we see now of 5.45 million could double, with dire economic and human consequences.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. NHS Confederation, NHS Providers (2021), A reckoning: the continuing cost of COVID-19
2. The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is a professional membership organisation and registered charity, which exists to advance patient care. We support our national and global membership, providing education, assessment, and development to nearly 30,000 surgeons, dental surgeons and members of the wider surgical and dental teams at all stages of their career; we set professional standards, facilitate research, and champion world-class surgical outcomes for patients. We want to see excellent surgical care for everyone and will achieve of vision by enabling all our members, in all their diversity, to deliver excellence in everything they do.
3. For more information, please contact the RCS England Press Office: Tel. 0207 869 6054/6052; email: pressoffice@rcseng.ac.uk. For out-of-hours media enquiries, please telephone: 0207 869 6056.