Greater Manchester is already struggling with its A&Es - as the NHS warns 'this will be the toughest winter ever'

This will be the ‘toughest winter ever’ for the NHS, the health service’s chief executive and Health Secretary Wes Streeting have warned.

The verdict came in a nationwide meeting yesterday of NHS leaders ahead of the peak of winter, which has routinely seen the NHS descend into extreme pressures in recent years. The warning was shared again today (December 10) by Sir Richard Leese in an update about Greater Manchester’s NHS. The region is under high levels of scrutiny as it has been battling two years of serious struggles with its finances, mental health services and urgent and emergency care, he said.

The winter warning comes as Greater Manchester’s NHS is in enforcement undertakings, as its governing body, NHS England, ‘had reasonable grounds to suspect a potential failure’, or that the region’s NHS ‘could be at risk of failing to discharge its function’. The region’s NHS has been placed under extra scrutiny by national NHS chiefs as it stands in a more than £200m deficit, with that figure spiralling by tens of thousands of pounds a day during the last financial year.

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NHS Greater Manchester has also failed to provide sufficient ‘provision of emergency care’, meaning A&E waiting times were among the worst in the country.

Just last week, there was more alarm over the state of the region’s mental health care, as its largest provider received yet another damning inspection by health watchdogs.

Those are the major three areas that ‘need to be addressed’, said Sir Richard Leese. And A&Es will soon be coming under even more pressure, he added.

Sir Richard, the chair of NHS Greater Manchester Integrated