Stretched local health services may struggle to cope with even higher levels of demand during winter, health bosses have warned.
NHS services in Kirklees are now stretched all year round making them particularly vulnerable from December to March when demand typically increases, health chiefs for the borough warned.
Respiratory problems, particularly among older people, as well as slips and falls put increased pressure on health services during the winter months.
But in a report presented to a Kirklees Council health panel, health leaders said that NHS services were now running at capacity throughout the year.
Previously, NHS services had experienced a lull in demand during summer.
But this summer the services ran at winter levels, health bosses admitted.
READ MORE:NHS winter crisis: your A&E experiences
The report, written by of Greater Huddersfield and North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), which control Kirklees’ NHS budget, said: “Currently the whole health and social care system is running ‘hot’ with the usual expected easing of pressures during summer no longer being experienced.
“Additional, acute sector surge beds and services have remained open all year rather than, as originally designed, for winter only.
“There is national and local concern that any extra demand into the system will cause issues during winter for a system struggling to manage what has now become ‘business as usual’.”
Panel member Professor Peter Bradshaw, who is a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, expressed concern that local health priorities may be distorted as NHS providers struggle to meet their targets.
Under NHS guidelines, patients presenting at A&E must be seen within four hours, while 18 weeks is the maximum period a patient should wait for treatment following a referral.
Prof Bradshaw asked: “Does it distort clinical priorities when you do what you need to in order to keep lists down?”
But North Kirklees CCG chief officer Chris Dowse said NHS services in Kirklees would be better prepared to meet the high all-year demand.
Ms Dowse said: “We’ve tried to move our organisations and systems into place to deal with that and on this patch we have gone some way to dealing with it.
“We are shifting the way our service is arranged and organised so we can cope much better in the future.”
