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.
See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-of-health-areas-of-research-interest/ for more information.
This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
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
Lead research organisation: Imperial College London
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.
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
Lead research organisation: PI LIMITED
Partially relevant as it focuses on modelling pathways of health and social care post-COVID-19 impact, but does not directly address interventions to reduce compound pressures.
This project will develop a tool and help guide specifically aimed at care home and domiciliary worker support for pandemics such as Covid-19\. The tools will be made freely available to more than 9,000 existing Whzan en...
Funded by: Innovate UK
Lead research organisation: SOLCOM LIMITED
Fully relevant as it specifically focuses on developing a Covid-19 assessment tool for care homes to support pandemics and reduce pressure on the NHS.