NHS leaders in Staffordshire hope a renewed vaccination drive will help keep hospital admissions under control this winter.

University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) had to declare several critical incidents last winter as the trust was overwhelmed by the demand for services.

One of the major factors behind hospital admissions rocketing during the colder months is the seasonal increase in respiratory illnesses such as flu, Covid and RSV.

Now, bosses at Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) want as many people as possible to get vaccinated in order to limit the impact of these infections.

The vaccination campaign forms one of the key pillars of the integrated care system's winter plan, with more patients being offered jabs during appointments and before being discharged.

Senior ICB managers told health and social care scrutiny committee members at Stoke-on-Trent City Council that this year's winter plan would be dependent on all partners, including the local authority.

Phil Smith, chief delivery officer at the ICB, said: "The plan this year is fundamentally different. It places an equal emphasis on the role played by all partners, particularly around vaccinations and the value that vaccinations provide in terms of the winter response.

"So we would ask everyone, when they are working in the community, to promote vaccinations. It is an area where we know we can sometimes struggle with.

"The plan has to remain dynamic and respond to need, so we'll be paying very close attention to the UK Health Security Agency data.

"We know that nationally, respiratory-related illnesses started much earlier this year, in September. So we have to keep the plan dynamic to respond to those needs."

Vulnerable people such as the elderly and pregnant women are entitled to NHS vaccinations, with different eligibility criteria applying for different vaccines.

Hayley Allison, porfolio director for delivery improvement at the ICB, told the committee about the work to maximise uptake among these groups.

She said: "One of the key pillars for us is around the vaccination programmes. Uptake rates have really dropped in the past few years, so we have a renewed focus this year looking at how we can capture some of those patients who might be accessing services.

"We know there have been patients attending outpatient appointments at UHNM, some of whom became really poorly and admitted to hospital as a result of that.

"If we could vaccinate patients as they come in for a routine consultation, we can help to reduce the number of patients who get really sick and need acute care."

Ms Allison said it appeared this programme had been 'really successful', and vaccination data would soon be available to confirm this.

Other pillars of the winter plan include additional GP appointments and the use of round-the-clock integrated care coordination, which aims to ensure patients get to the right service, first time, which might not always be an acute hospital.

The ICB is expecting the demand for hospital beds to surge to 286 in January, with a raft of measures planned to cope with this.

These include opening more beds at the Royal Stoke and community hospitals, along with admission avoidance schemes such as 'virtual wards', where patients receive hospital-level care at home.

Even with these initiatives, the ICB is still anticipating a shortfall of six beds in January, and further work is being done to tackle this.

The committee was told that the winter plan would not rely on the use of 'temporary escalation spaces' such as corridors and the backs of parked ambulances, but these may be needed 'in extremis'.

For more information about the vaccinations being offered by the NHS, visit the NHS website here.