The NHS may have to deal with “one of the most difficult starts to the year” it has ever faced, a medical leader has warned. National medical director for NHS England Professor Sir Stephen Powis said flu and winter illnesses, combined with staff absences due to coronavirus, are set to add more pressure to services as it also grapples with the doctors strike. Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 We just had a really busy Christmas and New Year period. Our NHS staff have coped magnificently
00:05 with the pressures over that period, but we're now facing six days of industrial action by
00:10 junior doctors. That's the longest period of industrial action in NHS history and of
00:14 course it's at a time when the NHS is always very busy with winter pressures, viruses such
00:19 as Covid and flu. So there's no doubt it's going to be challenging.
00:23 Well going into the Christmas period we saw flu and Covid rising and I'm sure that will
00:27 continue for the first week or two of the new year. That means more activity, more people
00:33 coming to seek our services in the NHS, but it also means that more staff will be off
00:38 sick as well. And that means that we're going to see a lot of pressure over the next six
00:43 days. We've been working hard with hospitals, with local healthcare systems to ensure that
00:47 emergency services continue. The message to the public as always is for life-threatening
00:53 conditions please use A&E, dial 999, but for everything else, non-life-threatening conditions,
00:59 then 111 online, first port of call or phone 111.