New activity data for December 2020 and January 2021 lay bare the continued disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NHS care.

The new data indicates that the shutdown of most non-COVID-19 services in the first wave, combined with drastic changes in patient behaviour, mean the NHS is now facing a large backlog of non-COVID-19 care, storing up greater problems for the future.

The NHS in England is to be reformed so health and care services can work more closely together, the government says.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the planned restructure will mean a focus "on the health of the population, not just the health of patients".

Excess deaths were higher than deaths involving covid-19 in the week leading up to Christmas, the first time this has occurred during the second wave of the pandemic, show the latest provisional figures. Experts said that this may reflect the pressure on care pathways for patients with non-covid conditions.

An ambitious programme encompassing social care and health inequalities is needed

The NHS in England faces unprecedented challenges in 2021. It will require an equally unprecedented, and long term, response from the government to do two things—first to deal with the backlog of both physical and mental healthcare that the pandemic has caused, and second to create a system of health and care that tackles both the health inequalities and the other weaknesses that covid-19 has exposed.

The number of patients in England waiting over a year for routine hospital care is now 100 times higher than before the pandemic, figures show.

Nearly 163,000 out of the 4.4 million on the waiting list at the end of October had waited over 12 months for operations such as hip replacements.

Tackling the ‘digital divide’ is crucial to reduce health inequalities, a three-year project trialling digital technology with disadvantaged communities has found.

Before the emergence of the novel coronavirus and the subsequent pandemic, the health and care system had a poor track record in adopting digital technologies at scale. However, in response to the pandemic the health care system rapidly implemented new tools, many technology-based, to allow health care to be delivered when physical contact is not possible.

Digital technology is transforming how patients and health professionals interact. As a result, NHS England is supporting primary care to move towards a digital first approach, where patients can easily access the advice, support and treatment they need using digital and online tools.

It has become received wisdom that the NHS struggles to adopt digital innovation, with many government reports and research papers highlighting barriers to the spread of technology. Yet during the Covid-19 pandemic, many NHS providers have moved services online at astonishing pace.

This paper, commissioned by the Academic Health Science Network, looks at four digital innovations in health services from the UK and the Nordic countries.

Because of COVID-19 most GP practices have had to dramatically change how they provide care for their patients. Under NHS guidance, remote consultation (via telephone, online message or video) has been rapidly introduced to replace face-to-face consultation.

Exclusive research shows drop in connectivity is impacting rural and urban areas with populations already underserved by the medical system or racked with poverty