West Midlands NHS bosses braced for winter pressures
A Winter Plan is being put together to try to alleviate pressure on NHS services during winter.
NHS bosses in the West Midlands are bracing themselves for the annual surge in demand and pressure on hospital beds as winter looms large.
The NHS Birmingham and Solihull and Black Country Joint ICB Cluster Board were told the 2026/27 Winter Plan is being finalised in an effort to ease pressure on services across the region.
They were told they would have a shortfall of more than 400 acute beds in hospitals if actions weren’t taken to ease the pressure.
Among the actions being taken will be focus on prevention and alternatives to hospital treatment.
One of the main focuses will be on vaccinations and bosses were told an additional £1 million has been ring-fenced to enhance the programme over winter.
Another focus will be preventing unnecessary hospital A&E admissions through services such as acute respiratory infection hubs providing extra capacity during the winter period.
Other alternatives include promoting the use of NHS 111, urgent treatment centres, frailty services, hot clinics and virtual wards.
A report to the board said work would also continue on addressing issues with ambulance handover times and staff sickness levels.
The report said: “The local Winter Plan brings together the planned response of acute, community, mental health, ambulance, NHS 111, primary care, pharmacy, local authority and social care partners across Birmingham, the Black Country and Solihull.
“It covers prevention and vaccination, admission avoidance, demand and capacity, acute and community flow, discharge, surge capacity, workforce resilience, infection prevention, communications, severe weather and System Co-ordination Centre arrangements.
“The plan is based upon significant demand and capacity modelling, incorporating ICB and individual provider models.
“This modelling highlighted that, without targeted intervention, winter pressures would result in a general and acute bed deficit of 412 beds at its peak.
“The Winter Plan sets out a range of mitigations and interventions that, at the time of writing, mitigates 335 beds, leaving a residual gap of 77 beds where further mitigation is required.”
The Winter Plan needs to be completed and submitted to NHS England by September 30.
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