NHS waiting times could increase still further following the health secretary’s warning that some urgent NHS appointments and elective surgeries be put off until 2022 as the government attempts to ensure every adult across the UK receives a booster jab before the end of the year.
At the weekend, the Prime Minister addressed the country and revealed that to meet the challenge caused by the spread of the Omicron variant, the target of ensuring every adult receives a Covid booster jab will be brought forward from the end of January 2022 to the end of the year.
Shedding further light on the new target, health secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament yesterday afternoon that he acknowledged meeting this target would come with “difficult trade offs”.
“We are redeploying NHS staff away from non-urgent services,” Javid (pictured) said.
“This means that for the next two weeks all primary care services will focus on urgent clinical needs and vaccines and some urgent appointments and elective surgeries may be postponed until the new year while we prioritise getting people the booster.
“These are steps that no health secretary would wish to take unless they were absolutely necessary but I’m convinced that if we don’t prioritise the booster now, the health consequences will be far more grave in the months that lie ahead.”
Earlier this month, the National Audit Office warned there was a real risk waiting lists and delays for treatment within the NHS in England will be longer in 2025 than they are today.