Thousands more GP appointments will be available and extra pharmacy provision is being commissioned across Christmas and Easter periods as part of health bosses' plans to meet an expected surge in demand for NHS services across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

Additional beds will be made available at Haywood Hospital, while more resources will be made available across the Burslem site and Royal Stoke to assist frailer patients in a bid to reduce stays on wards.

But residents themselves have a part to play in helping the NHS meet demand for services, city cllrs were told on Thursday (8 October).

Those eligible for flu and Covid vaccinations were urged to get their jabs, while a campaign is encouraging patients to seek treatment for conditions that don't require a hospital or GP appointment at their local pharmacy first.

Gareth Wright, director of system improvement, co-ordination and emergency preparedness at the Integrated Care Board (ICB) covering Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and Shropshire, said: "We're not trying to tell people don't come to hospital if you need it.

"But what we are saying is there could be something better for you, getting seen more appropriately in a better setting."

Urgent and emergency care services at Royal Stoke University Hospital faced challenges during the summer, with heatwaves hampering efforts to reduce ambulance handover delays.

In August the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected urgent and emergency care services across Royal Stoke and Stafford's County Hospital and raised "immediate concerns" including corridor care, medicines management and aspects of acute medical care.

A new Urgent Treatment Centre opened at Royal Stoke last month however.

It aims to offer faster access to urgent care for adults and children while reducing avoidable pressure on the emergency department.

The ICB's plan for delivering health services over the coming winter period was presented to members of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's Adult Social Care, Health Integration and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee at their latest meeting.

It will run until the Easter bank holiday weekend at the end of March 2027, cllrs heard.

Mike Goodwin, deputy chief operating officer at University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust, which runs Royal Stoke and County Hospital, said: "The summer months have been a challenge for us at UHNM.

"The winter plan is part of our urgent and emergency care improvement plan and we are doing lots of things pre-winter to improve that.

"We have been one ward down for the past few months and that becomes available again in a few weeks' time; we have decided to move maintenance work to a later date so we can use that sooner rather than later.

"We are bringing forward the winter plan in response to the demand we are seeing."

The plan includes making an extra 46,000 primary care appointments available across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

Additional pharmacy provision is being commissioned across the Christmas, New Year and Easter periods to help patients access alternative community provision.

Mr Wright said: "We have now got a cluster of Shropshire and Staffordshire ICBs.

"We are doing our winter plan for the first time on a cluster ICB basis, while recognising the local needs of each county.

"By the end of October we will be as winter ready as we possibly can, with the onset of cold and darker nights from November onwards and up to Easter next year.

"We will aim to reduce the rising pressure we will get in November and December and navigate the Christmas period which is one of traditionally high pressure for us.

"We want to exit the winter period on a strong footing so we get off to the financial year on as good a position as we can.

"Easter is very early next year, in March, so we are going to extend our response to include that long weekend."

Header image via Jonathan Hutchins on Geograph