HEALTH chiefs are urging the public to play their part in helping to avoid a potentially crippling winter crisis for the NHS.

Bosses at the three clinical commissioning groups in Bradford district have vowed to use “all available resources” as part of “robust plans” to get through the challenging winter months.

But they have warned that to successfully pull off the plan, the public must use health services appropriately.

The action plan which has been drawn up includes GPs working at Bradford Royal Infirmary’s A&E department to see non-emergency patients; increasing the number of paramedics with additional specialist skills to help patients at home; putting more urgent care resources into supporting out-of-hours referrals to GPs from NHS 111, and extending the availability of GP appointments on evenings, weekends and bank holidays.

A spokesman for Bradford City, Bradford Districts and Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven CCGs, said: “We have robust and detailed plans in place to cover the winter period that have been developed in partnership with providers across the health and social care system.

“We will use all available resources to ensure high quality patient care is provided throughout the winter months but our plans will only be successful if people use services wisely.

“Plans are in place across Bradford Districts and Craven that span the whole healthcare system, to ensure that patients receive high quality care in the right place at the right time, first time.

“A system-wide approach is incredibly important when looking to successfully manage demand at accident and emergency (A&E) and our plans cover all care, from community to urgent and emergency, to ensure those who don’t need to go to A&E receive appropriate care in another setting.

“Winter is always a challenging time for health and social care but we have detailed plans and robust systems in place to manage demand.

“A&E is for serious accidents and emergencies only and we will be working hard with the local community to ensure people are aware of, and choose, the most appropriate service for their healthcare needs.”

Attendance figures for the A&E at BRI in August stood at 10,879 of which 88.3 per cent of patients were seen in four hours or less.

The CCG spokesman said the introduction of extended hours for people to see a GP or another primary care practitioner was being phased in.

"Currently this service is provided to 40 per cent of people living in Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven each day until 8.30pm, and from 6.30pm to 9.30pm to 25 per cent of people living in Bradford," he said.

"This service will be made available to half of the population by April 2018 and to everyone by March 2019."

Councillor Vanda Greenwood, chairman of Bradford Council’s health scrutiny committee, said: “Hospitals are doing all they can under the circumstances and they put plans in place to maintain good standards of care during winter when demand for services is high.

“But there’s no doubt that these are challenging circumstances as the Government’s austerity programme continues to affect public services without any clear end in sight and with the concern that the Government is preoccupied by Brexit.

“In particular we need Government to deliver a national plan to address the social care funding crisis and to look at health and social care in a joined up way to benefit patients now and in the future.”

This week, the NHS Confederation’s chief executive Niall Dickson warned that last-minute extra funding would not necessarily make a difference.

“In many ways the winter crisis is actually now an all-year-round crisis with hospitals and emergency departments struggling to meet demand and with bed occupancy at unsustainable and unsafe levels,” he said.

“Although additional money is always welcome, in terms of the next few months there is a limit to how much additional resources can make a difference. In many cases trusts are simply not able to recruit the staff they need.

“Last year we were fortunate with the weather and the absence of a major virus - this year we may not be so lucky.”

Mr Dickson said that every part of the NHS was “gearing up” to deal with the challenge, adding: “We need to recognise just how dependent each part of the system is on other services - struggling or non-existent social care, shortages of community nurses and hard-pressed GPs and mental health services will all have an impact on each other and on the emergency department.”

Glenn Turp, regional director for RCN Yorkshire and the Humber region, said: “Yet again we’re expecting the winter to be a very busy and difficult time for the NHS across England and Yorkshire and the Humber.

"Unfortunately, as our population grows and ages, the pressures are year round, meaning that when there is a spike in serious illness needing hospital admission, there is no extra capacity that can be used.

“Plans are being put in place across the NHS to prepare for winter. However, following the experience of previous years, NHS staff would question whether they will be adequate given the very high rate of demand on services all year round.

"We know that many people remain in a hospital bed when they are medically fit for discharge, but chronic underfunding in social and community services mean people stay in hospital longer than necessary, and staff are at breaking point throughout the system.

“The Government must ensure that the NHS has the right number of nurses and medics, beds and other resources in hospitals and the community to avoid last year’s crisis being repeated”.