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Maintaining elective performance through winter 2025/26
By next winter, the NHS is expected to have made considerable inroads into bringing down the elective waiting list and getting back to the 18-week elective target, but a challenging winter for urgent and emergency care (UEC) services could dent our progress. For example, elective beds may need to be used for emergency department escalation spaces and consultants may need to drop clinics to attend to patients in UEC settings. In this session we will look at how to ensure elective appointments do not get cancelled and how leaders across the NHS can maintain patient flow if we have a particularly challenging winter in 2025/26 combined with extreme pressure on UEC services.
