Is The NHS Facing a ‘Quad-Demic’?
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2024
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, NHS England medical director Prof Sir Stephen Powis has said a sharp rise in flu cases “are adding to our 'quad-demic' worries”.
What is a quad-demic and how worried is the NHS? Adam is joined by BBC health editor Hugh Pym and Nick Hulme, the Chief Executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, to discuss the rise in hospital flu cases as well as problems caused by Covid, RSV and Norovirus, and how hospitals will cope with the strain. Plus, Keir Starmer has doubled down on his housebuilding targets, promising “builders not blockers” for the planning system. Alex explains the jigsaw puzzle of planning regulations, local government and politics.
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Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Miranda Slade with Nancy Geddes. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.9 | Hello there. I've been firing up all my old armchair epidemiological skills from the COVID era, because one of the big news stories today is about what the NHS have called the quademic, which is four conditions that are in danger of, well, they're not quite saying swamping the NHS, |
| 0:22.5 | but it has been called a tsunami. And the four conditions are COVID, influenza, |
| 0:28.4 | RSV, which is that other winter respiratory virus and norovirus. And the combination of those |
| 0:34.1 | four things at the scale they're at now is posing real challenges for the |
| 0:38.3 | NHS right now. So that is what we'll focus on on this episode of Newscast. Newscast from the BBC. |
| 0:45.7 | I like landscape. I don't think I'm being rude. Japping, unemployed people who are overweight. That is not |
| 0:50.9 | the agenda. It's the fun police working overtime. The star is born, |
| 0:55.0 | Elon. So hurt that a miracle let this happen. Frankly, I think we need a British Trump. |
| 0:59.8 | Take me down to Downing Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. |
| 1:04.3 | Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio. And shortly we'll cross over to Westminster to |
| 1:08.2 | catch up with Alex Versaise because one of the other big news stories today is the government's fairly big reforms to the planning system in England, with the idea being that they could get more houses built by leaning a bit on local councils in England. |
| 1:22.7 | But first of all, let's talk about the NHS and the so-called quodemic, which is those four viruses, |
| 1:29.8 | which are putting real pressure on hospitals and have been the subject of some quite serious |
| 1:35.4 | warnings from NHS bosses today. So the person who's going to help us understand it is right |
| 1:39.5 | here in the studio and it's BBC Health Editor Hugh Pym. Hi, Hugh. Hi, Adam. And also joining us down the line is Nick Hume, |
| 1:45.9 | who's chief executive officer of the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust. |
| 1:51.2 | Hello, Nick. |
| 1:52.1 | Good evening, hello. |
| 1:53.3 | So, Hugh, do you want to just explain to us what this phenomenon of the quodemic is? |
| 1:57.7 | Yeah, well, it was described as a quodemic in the figures last week, and it's no, in addition, being called a tidal wave of flu. But the four viruses for the quodemic are flu, COVID, RSV and norovirus. And flu's the real worry at the moment. The latest figures today, we get these winter sit reps every Thursday |
| 2:17.5 | with updated figures and we get the monthly statistics on the general performance of A&E. |
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