Professor Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the longer it takes to restart scheduled surgical services, “the worse this situation is going to get”.
He told the Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee that “Covid-light” sites could be created, where there is a minimal risk of catching the virus for patients requiring planned surgery.
“We believe that, at the moment anyway, and for the foreseeable future, the capacity within our NHS resource alone is insufficient for us to be able to get surgery started again and maintain a sustainable resilience service as we move into this window,” he said.