Coronavirus: NHS England to move to highest alert level from midnight after rise in ICU patients

NHS England is going to move to its highest alert level from midnight tonight.

The health service’s chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens, said the move to level four was in response to a “serious situation ahead” amid a rise in coronavirus patients needing intensive care.

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There are “22 hospitals’ worth” of COVID-19 patients in hospitals in England, he said.

Four incident levels are used across the NHS, with level four meaning NHS England will take over coordination of the health service’s response to the pandemic, in collaboration with local commissioners.

The general public will not see any difference if they use the NHS, but it means the overarching NHS England body has had to take over to ensure all services are supported appropriately.

Last time level four was needed was at the start of the pandemic, before it was moved down to level three in July.

Sir Simon said there had been a “very substantial” increase in “desperately sick patients in hospitals” in October.

“In many parts of the country we’re now seeing more coronavirus inpatients in hospital and in intensive care than we saw in the first peak in April,” he said.

The NHS wants to “minimise” coronavirus “spiralling out of control” so other services are not disrupted, he added.

“The facts are clear, we are once again facing a serious situation. This is not a situation that anybody wanted to find themselves in, the worst pandemic in a century, but the fact is that the NHS is here.

“The public can help us help you so our fantastic staff – our nurses, our doctors, our paramedics – can get on with looking after you and your family there when you need it.”

The NHS England boss also said he believed the UK should “hopefully” get one or more COVID-19 vaccines in the first part of next year.

“In anticipation of that we’re also gearing the NHS up to be ready to make a start on administering COVID vaccines before Christmas, if they become available,” he said.

“We reached an agreement with GPs to ensure they will be doing that, and we’ll be writing to GP practices this week to get them geared up to start by Christmas if the vaccine becomes available.”

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Sir Simon said he supported the government’s four week lockdown, due to start on Thursday, and said it would mean the health service should be able to avoid postponing routine operations.

The government is expected to comfortably win a Commons vote on the restrictions as Labour are backing them – despite a number of Tory rebels saying they will vote against the measures.

Analysis: Raised alert level shows we are back to where we were at the start of the outbreak

By Ashish Joshi, health correspondent

It was announced right at the end of a press conference, almost a throwaway line to sign off.

But it was one of the only new, significant developments we learned today, the eve of the second national lockdown.

Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of the NHS, told an audience of specialist medical correspondents the health service was moving to the highest level of emergency preparedness, level four.

To most people that in itself will not mean anything. Everyone knows we are in the grip of a deadly pandemic.

But it means we are back to where we were at the start of the outbreak at least in terms of the health service’s response to the crisis.

The NHS was moved up to level four of the Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response framework in January as the outbreak first began to spread across Britain.

It was lowered at the end of July as the number of infections fell away sharply.

But now as projections predict England will exceed the worst-case scenario for infections and deaths unless the crisis is brought under control, it is seen as necessary to take over national control.

It brings all control under a central command and trusts will lose the autonomy to make local decisions.

NHS England’s national incident coordination centre will be back in control. It sets out “the arrangements are in place to enable an effective and appropriate response in the event of of a health-related incident”.

Part of its remit is to monitor the national picture, to see what hospitals are coming under the most pressure and coordinate the action that needs to be taken. That will also help to manage any spare capacity.

Sir Simon Stevens rarely gives media interviews and I have not seen him lead a press conference flanked by senior NHS figures before. It did not happen during the first wave. It further underlines just how serious this emergency is becoming.

(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: NHS England to move to highest alert level from midnight after rise in ICU patients