New Health Secretary Sajid Javid has warned that NHS waiting lists could rocket to 13 million in the coming months as concerns rise over the backlog faced by the health service.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph in his first interview since taking up the job two weeks ago, Mr Javid said the growing number of people waiting for non-Covid treatment on the NHS had been what shocked him the most since returning to the Cabinet following Matt Hancock’s resignation.
He told the newspaper: “What shocked me the most is when I was told that the waiting list in going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
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Under pressure: Boris Johnson wants to get back to normal, but can we? Photograph: Reuters
Sun 11 Jul 2021 04.00 EDT
With foreign holidays still in doubt and Cornwall filling up by the day, Jessica Webb has a unique perspective on “freedom day”. With her sister, Naomi, and her father, Spence, she helps run Falmouth Surf School and Watersports on Maenporth beach. Bookings for surf lessons are strong, and Jessica, 38, has started running yoga classes on paddleboards anchored in the cove to cope with excess demand.
She is also a part-time healthcare assistant in the A&E department at Cornwall’s only major hospital, in Treliske. “Even now, before the summer holidays have started, we don’t have enough staff in the hospital, people are waiting hours at A&E, the ambulances are all parked up outside,” she says. “There’s just so little capacity and so few beds – even for the people that live here all the time, let alone all the holidaymakers.
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London, July 10
UK health officials said the Delta variant of Covid-19 continues as the dominant strain of coronavirus and marked a sharp increase in the UK with 54,268 more cases logged on Friday, which marks a 32 per cent increase over the previous week.
Public Health England (PHE) said its weekly analysis shows the continued rise in infections is not followed by a similar increase in hospitalisations and deaths, which reflects a high protection offered by both doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
In a separate study, PHE also found that all the vaccines being administered are as effective at preventing symptomatic disease in the majority of people with underlying health conditions as the rest of the population.