Blogs 19 November 2025

By Your Side when Winter Hits Hardest

Every winter, healthcare teams face pressures unlike any other time of year. Hospitals, care homes, and community services experience seasonal surges, staff shortages, and increasing demands on capacity. For those working on the frontline, the season brings not just operational challenges but emotional ones too.

Did You Know…

Last winter, NHS England said that almost 600,000 beds were taken up by patients with covid-19, flu, RSV or norovirus over winter 2024/25 in what it described as a ‘quad-demic’ of viruses. (1)

Ambulance handover delays of over 30 minutes affected 32% of patients during the 2024/25 winter. A total of 386,420 hours were lost to handover delays — a 12.8% increase from the previous winter (2)

In January 2025, an average of 784 patients per day were in hospital with norovirus — 80% higher than the same period in 2024 (3)

Behind these figures are people: patients waiting longer, families concerned for their loved ones, and staff working tirelessly to provide dignified care. It is during these times that infection prevention and control practices are relied upon more than ever.

Supporting Healthcare Practices this winter

Our portfolio of products can help support Standard Infection Control Precaution (SICP) best practice, from safe management of the care environment to sharps safety to the safe disposal of waste.

Products that help support Standard Infection Control Precautions.

By aligning our solutions with the areas covered by Standard Infection Control Precautions, we’re proud to be able to support everyday practice in healthcare facilities and environments. We want to support healthcare professionals with reliable, efficient products that can be trusted to deliver this winter, because they come from Vernacare.

As winter challenges intensify, Standard Infection Control Precautions remain the unifying framework. is proud to provide resources and solutions that align with this framework, because at the end of every service is a person, and every person deserves care delivered to the highest standards.