Mapping the wider impact of COVID-19

The deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said:

"We know that the impact of coronavirus in terms of sickness and deaths, and therefore on health and care services, is growing.

"But the true extent of that increase is hard to gauge.

"The death registration data published by the Office for National Statistics will – over time – help to build a more complete picture, particularly in terms of mortality outside hospitals.

"The nature of this data means that overall perspective is some way off, but it serves as a valuable reminder that in many parts of the country NHS community services are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19.

"It is important to recognise the huge contribution that NHS staff working outside – as well as within – hospitals are making in responding to coronavirus. We owe frontline staff in community, mental health and ambulance services a huge debt of gratitude."

NHS mounting super human effort to transform services for patients with COVID-19

The chief executive of NHS Providers Chris Hopson said:

"The establishment of the brand new Nightingale Hospital at the Excel centre in London in a week is indicative of the extraordinary efforts that trusts and staff across the NHS have gone to in order to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

"Not only have acute, community, mental health and ambulance trusts established new shift patterns, created COVID-19 wards, massively scaled up critical care capacity and set up community facilities, clinicians have also designed and adopted new clinical pathways.

"We have heard how staff from across surgical and medical teams have completed urgent training and refresher courses and moved across from their usual roles to care for patients with COVID-19.

"Trusts have also quickly set up staff testing facilities to ensure they can get people back on the frontline as quickly as possible.

"The whole of the NHS has really shown a super human effort to provide care for the most unwell patients with COVID-19, whilst also treating and looking after seriously ill patients with other conditions.

"This is something the whole country can take pride in and support the NHS by staying home and saving lives."