NHS doing everything to avoid winter crisis, says Atkins

The NHS is doing “everything” it can to avoid a winter crisis in the health service, the health secretary has said.

There are signs the NHS could face extra pressure this winter, with record waiting lists and warnings about fewer extra beds..

Speaking to the BBC, Victoria Atkins said avoiding a crisis was her “number one priority this winter”.

Planning for winter “started much earlier than usual”, creating an extra 5,000 beds, she said.

Speaking on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Atkins said: “The NHS has been working very hard to prepare for this winter.”

The waiting list for planned NHS treatment in England rose to a record high of 7.77 million in September.

Ms Atkins said the government’s target to cut NHS waiting lists – one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top priorities – was in danger of failing, unless doctors dropped plans to take industrial action over the coming months.

She added strikes by doctors and nurses had led to “1.1 million appointments having to be rescheduled”.

Research by the Health Foundation think tank suggested industrial action by consultants and junior doctors had lengthened the waiting list by around 210,000, which is 3% of the list.

It comes as consultant doctors in NHS England are considering a deal that could potentially resolve the bitter pay dispute.

“I would very much ask consultants to look at this settlement because actually it is a very modern contract, which I hope they will find acceptable,” Ms Atkins says.

“We have an enormous amount of goodwill at the moment from the BMA [British Medical Association] and from others, and I’m keen to encourage that,” she added.

Her predecessor Stephen Barclay previously described the doctor’s union as taking a “militant” stance.