In response to the Prime Minister's statement, our President, Professor Sir Robert Lechler PMedSci, said:
"We welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement of an extra £3 billion for the NHS in England. This funding will be vital to support the NHS’s preparations for a possible resurgence of COVID-19 this winter. Continued use of the Nightingale hospitals and of capacity in private hospitals will help to cope with a winter surge in healthcare demand and to allow routine care to continue through the winter. However, hospitals and other care settings must carefully plan how they will organise their services to limit the spread of infection.
"As set out in our recent rapid review, Government must also focus its efforts on preventing another wave of infection this winter. It will be imperative to work with, inform and support the public to adhere to containment measures; to improve the monitoring of COVID-19, flu and other winter diseases to spot and respond to rising infections rapidly and effectively; and to limit the spread of flu this winter. Testing will be central to this and we welcome plans to increase testing capacity ahead of winter. We also look forward to further details of the expanded flu vaccination programme."
For further information on the Academy's work around coronavirus, please visit our dedicated information hub.