Pressure on health service must come down before winter: English health chief

LONDON- There is pressure on England’s National Health Service and the numbers of COVID-19 patients in hospitals has to come down before the winter, the medical director of NHS England said on Wednesday. “We are unfortunately still seeing increased numbers of patients in our hospital beds… There is pressure on our health system, ” Stephen Powis said at a news…

LONDON (Reuters) – There is pressure on England’s National Health Service and the numbers of COVID-19 patients in hospitals has to come down before the winter, the medical director of NHS England said on Wednesday.

“We are unfortunately still seeing increased numbers of patients in our hospital beds… There is pressure on our health system,” Stephen Powis said at a news conference.

“It’s really important as we go into this winter that these numbers come down, and we get into the real heart of winter with much much lower numbers of COVID patients in hospitals.”

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by William James)