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NHS COVID backlog 'unlikely to be cleared before next election'

Analysis of NHS data by the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates the health service will not be able to clear patient waiting backlogs cause by COVID before the next general election.

The next vote is due to take place in May 2024.

The IFS analysis outlines three scenarios which account for the targeted expansion of elective NHS services by around a third.

In the first, "plan low" scenario, it is assumed 30% of patients who missed care return to the NHS. The plan middle assumes 50%, and the plan high 80%.

All of these show an increase in people waiting, and none falling below pre-pandemic levels before May 2024.

A fourth, "pre-pandemic status quo", scenario assumes no increase in NHS capacity, but no return of patients who missed care.

This shows only an increase in waiting patients.

Source: Sky News

Covid isolation rule changes - when they'll be scrapped and can employers force you to work?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced he intends to scrap rules and regulations surrounding Covid-19 earlier than originally planned.

In an announcement to parliament, Johnson said that the new plan would see the schedule for axing years of restrictions moved forward dramatically.

Under the upcoming changes all Covid rules, including the need to self-isolate, will be struck off in England.

The move comes as the government seeks to enter a new phase of endemicity as the country gears up to 'living with Covid'.

People will be advised not to go to work if they pick up the virus, Downing Street has confirmed. However, without the force of the government-backed rules or fines system, the door is open for employers to ask staff to work even when they're unwell.

The government has likened future advice for going to work with the virus to that of other infectious diseases.

A spokesperson for the PM, when asked if people would be able to go to work with Covid, said: "So there would be guidance, that would not be what we are recommending.

"What we would simply be doing is removing the domestic regulations which relate to isolation.

"But obviously in the same way that someone with flu, we wouldn't recommend they go to work, we would never recommend anyone goes to work when they have an infectious disease."

He continued: "We've talked about how we will need to manage living with coronavirus as we emerge from this pandemic. We are entering into that phase of endemicity as I've talked about, and it's only right that we adjust according."'

Source: Mirror

Downing Street says it will never recommend anyone go to work when they are infectious

Downing Street has said it would never recommend people go to work if they have an infectious disease - after Boris Johnson suggested laws requiring people in England who test positive for COVID to self-isolate could be lifted within weeks.

Asked if the change would mean people could go to work if they had COVID, the PM's official spokesperson said: "So there would be guidance, that would not be what we are recommending.

"What we would simply be doing is removing the domestic regulations which relate to isolation.

"But obviously in the same way that someone with flu, we wouldn't recommend they go to work, we would never recommend anyone goes to work when they have an infectious disease."

He added: "We've talked about how we will need to manage living with coronavirus as we emerge from this pandemic. We are entering into that phase of endemicity as I've talked about, and it's only right that we adjust according."

Source: Sky News