1/12 Trust leaders frustrated and disappointed to see the service they have been providing over the last few months described, and widely reported, last week as "covid only". It's untrue, unfair and potentially dangerous. My new blog here: https://nhsproviders.org/news-blogs/blogs/calling-the-nhs-a-covid-only-service-is-untrue-unfair-and-potentially-dangerous. Thread follows.

2/12 Even at the height of coronavirus, for every one COVID-19 patient in hospital, there were two non-COVID inpatients being treated for other conditions. More than three million urgent tests and checks were provided over the pandemic and 3.6 million people were treated in A&E.

3/12 NHS has continued to deliver, on average, 1,800 babies a day every day since the pandemic started. Although cancer referrals did drop, 65,000 patients started treatment for cancer during the pandemic. Yes, 14% fewer than same three months last year. But hardly covid-only.

4/12 And that’s just hospitals. Mental health trusts, were in contact with 282,000 children/young people in April – a record monthly figure. Alongside existing casework, community providers supported safe discharge of medically fit patients to create beds for COVID patients.....

5/12 Ambulance services continued to treat road traffic accident & heart attack victims, taking more than 1.7 million calls between April 1 and June 30. And, during April, the peak month of the pandemic, more than 16 million GP appointments still took place. Hardly covid only.

6/12 The NHS did have to prioritise patients on the basis of clinical need, as it always does, to cope with the first COVID-19 surge. Some treatments had to be delayed. This was disruptive and distressing for those patients and, for some, this could have a significant impact...

7/12 ...But this is completely different to describing the NHS as offering a “COVID-only service”. That's untrue. It's also unfair to hundreds of thousands of frontline NHS staff who have worked so hard to treat non covid patients over the last few months...

8/12 For the trust leaders we represent, the work of staff treating non-COVID patients is just as important as those who treated COVID patients. Dismissing that work & implying it didn’t exist, by describing the NHS as providing a 'covid only service', is just plain wrong.

9/12 Using the phrase “COVID-only service ” is also potentially dangerous. It gives the impression that when the NHS is under pressure from COVID-19 there is no point in patients presenting themselves for diagnosis or treatment because the NHS will be unable to care for them.

10/12 The latest stats showing significantly higher number of deaths in private homes compared to five year average show how vital it is that patients seek help and advice when needed. The NHS can’t do what it’s supposed to do if patients don’t come forward when they’re ill.....

11/12 That’s why the NHS has been working so hard to show that we are, and always have been, open for business for COVID & non-COVID patients alike. Arguing that the NHS has provided a “COVID-only” service over the last few months sends precisely the opposite message to patients.

12/12 We need to be accurate, proportionate and evidence based in describing the service the NHS has provided over last few months. The phrase “COVID-only service” clearly fails all three of those tests. The phrase should therefore never be used again.