The role that all parts of the health system, from community and primary care through to hospital-based and social care, play in delivering better outcomes for people, and how the system can work effectively together to plan for and respond to compound pressures including infections with pandemic potential.
Background
Compound pressures on the health and care system include additional health care needs in winter, during extreme heat events and during epidemics or pandemics. These interact with other pressures including increases in the cost of living, disease levels post-COVID and the operational pressures that the NHS and social care face. The UK’s ageing population and NHS workforce pressures mean that demand will continue to increase.
On average over 32,000 excess deaths occur every winter in England and Wales with approximately 40% of excess winter deaths attributable to cardiovascular diseases and around 33% to respiratory diseases, including respiratory syncytial virus and influenza which peak in winter. Excess heat events are projected to increase with climate change, with negative health impacts particularly for elderly and vulnerable people, while the health, social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were huge.
Research is needed to identify those most at risk and to develop and evaluate interventions to prevent them from becoming unwell and intervening early if they do. For example, 26% of acute hospital admissions would be potentially avoidable if medical interventions were provided prior to admission (PDF, 344KB). Research is also needed on how best all parts of the health and care system can better prepare for and respond to these pressures, including pandemic preparedness. This research could improve public and patient outcomes, reduce costs to the NHS and social care, improve services and support economic growth.
Next steps
See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-of-health-areas-of-research-interest/ for more information.
Source
This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
Topics
Related UKRI funded projects
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Understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on the provision of NHS health care and patient outcomes
We will provide a detailed description of the extent to which non-COVID-19 NHS activity has been affected by COVID-19, who is most affected, and how patient outcomes have changed. COVID-19 has led to enormous changes i...
Funded by: COVID
Why might this be relevant?
Partially relevant as it focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on NHS care and patient outcomes, but does not specifically address interventions to reduce compound pressures.
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Using data to improve public health: COVID-19 secondment
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed large pressures on the NHS. Initially faced with an uncertain future, the NHS responded through cancelling all non-emergency care to make space to treat patients with COVID-19. While the ...
Funded by: COVID
Why might this be relevant?
Partially addresses the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare disruption, but does not cover all aspects of the question.
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Modelling the pathways of Health and Social Care following on from the impact from COVID19
As we hear on the news every day, it is already the case that COVID19 is impacting everyone's lives and the underlying statistics are pointing towards the elderly population being more vulnerable and at risk. Wolverhampt...
Funded by: Innovate UK
Why might this be relevant?
Partially addresses the impact of COVID-19 on health and social care pathways, but does not cover all aspects of the question.