7 November 2024

The NHS typically experiences a surge in in emergency admissions each winter with demand for A&E services increasing by about 5-10% each year.  The winter months see a higher incidence of respiratory illnesses, including flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia, leading to increased hospitalisations. NHS hospital admissions for respiratory conditions can jump by 40-60% in winter compared to summer.

At CNWL, we begin our winter planning with partner organisations during the summer, leveraging insights from past experiences to forecast pressure points and develop strategies to care for our community. 

Our unplanned care teams often increase capacity throughout the winter period to support more patients, and include:

  • Urgent Community Response – this multidisciplinary team provides timely support to patients in their homes, allowing them to avoid hospital admissions, with a response time of two hours.
  • Discharge to Assess – this is a model where patients are discharged from the hospital as soon as they no longer need acute care, with their ongoing health and social care assessments conducted in their own home to support timely recovery and reduced hospital stays.
  • Frailty Pathway - this specialised approach supports older adults and individuals with frailty through tailored assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation that promotes independence and minimizes hospital admissions, with care delivered in community settings or at home whenever possible.
  • Rehabilitation - community-based rehabilitation programs for patients recovering from illness or surgery, focusing on physical therapy and occupational therapy to regain strength and independence.
  • Reablement - short-term, goal-focused program that helps individuals regain their independence and daily living skills after an illness or hospitalization through personalized support and rehabilitation services.

We are working with partners to ensure we have a robust and comprehensive offer across all of our services, with sufficient capacity to care for as many people in the community.  Our communications across boroughs, alongside our Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and other key health and social care stakeholders, will focus on supporting older adults, individuals with long-term conditions, pregnant women, under-fives, school-aged children, asylum seekers, the homeless, and care home residents.

A particular focus will be enhancing our rehabilitation and reablement offers to support more hospital discharges and our frailty pathway so that we can work with patients at risk of falling, and those that do fall, to care for them in their own homes. 

Please see the below links for more information about where to get care over the winter period:

https://www.nwlondonicb.nhs.uk/your-health-services/Winter

https://nclhealthandcare.org.uk/local-health/stay-well-this-winter/

Find out more: Concerned your child is unwell

Find out more: New Baby what's normal and what's not

Find out more: Minor Illness in Children

Helping your unwell child - A team of experts at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have developed a resource pack to help you care for your sick child. It will help you identify when an illness is minor and when it is serious.

Click here to download the booklet.