Appeared on BBC news this evening. We managed the surge in March and April by cancelling routine surgery, however, with around 4.5 million people waiting, we need to try to get as much operating done as possible.

Infection rates are going up in most of the country, and many hospitals are approaching the point where we need to stop elective surgery to cope with the emergency work.

Just because we can doesn’t mean we should - we need to be careful, and sensible who we meet over Christmas, and many people I know are choosing to have a very toned-down Christmas.

Please be careful, particularly around friends and relatives who are high risk. The virus will not be taking a break over Christmas.