DON'T LET NHS DIE ON ITS 70TH BIRTHDAY
Fears of catastrophe as Tory cuts cause cancelled ops, no beds and long waits in A&E
THE NHS is in danger of collapse on its 70th anniversary next year, experts have warned.
A Care Quality Commission report highlights dwindling bed numbers and calls for a service “fit for the 21st century”.
MAJOR ailments blighting the NHS include a rise in long waits at A&E, more ops being cancelled, and fewer available beds in hospitals and care homes, a damning report says.
It is feared the “crumbling” health service is at risk of keeling over as early as next year – its 70th birthday.
Today’s report by watchdog the Care Quality Commission concludes the system is “straining at the seams” amid staff shortages and the dwindling bed numbers.
The CQC estimates one in eight older people go without essential care.
It has called for an NHS “fit for the 21st century”.
The report adds the crisis in social care has led to contracts being handed back to local authorities by private firms that say funding is insufficient to provide safe care.
Campaigners blame devastating Tory cuts for the staffing crisis that resulted in NHS doctor and dentist vacancies rising by 40% in the past two years.
Doctors and nurses have been hailed for their efforts amid the problems.
Almost 29,000 inspections showed the quality of care has been “maintained” since last year. Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, the body for organisations that provide and commission NHS services, said: “It would be a tragedy if the NHS’s 70th birthday was remembered as the year England’s care system collapsed.
“Today’s report reveals real concerns that mental health and social care services are not sustainable... Once again with Herculean effort, leaders and those on the front line have delivered safe services to millions but the pressures are taking their toll.
“There are fewer nursing home beds, and home care contracts are being handed back because there isn’t enough money to pay for the care that is needed.
1 in 8
Proportion of older people who are going without essential care
40%
Increase in vacancies for doctors and dentists in the past two years
Hollowedout NHS has been run ragged and lives are at risk GMB UNION ON THE MASSIVE PROBLEMS
It is time the Government... woke up to this challenge and accepted that if social care goes down, we all go down.”
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, of the British Medical Association, said: “Failures in the social care system are having a considerable knock-on effect on an already stretched and underfunded NHS. We are just one bad winter away from another crisis in our health system.”
Vacancies in the NHS have shot up in the past two years. The number of adverts on NHS Jobs went from 26,406 to 30,613 – a 16% rise– but the amount of vacancies is thought to be much greater because a single ad can be used to fill more than one position.
Despite huge increases in demand for mental health services the number of psychiatric nurses has fallen 12% in seven years.
NHS staff have seen mounting workloads and pitiful wage rises due to the Government’s 1% public sector pay cap. Sir David Behan, CQC chief executive, said: “The fact the quality of care has been maintained in the toughest climate most can remember is testament to the efforts of frontline staff, managers and leaders.” Experts warn that the NHS, launched in 1948 by the Labour Party, faces the worst crisis in its history. Rehana Azam, of the GMB union, said: “The NHS is crumbling because funding hasn’t kept pace with demand. “The pay cap and unmanageable workloads are driving nurses and other professionals out of the health service and they can’t be replaced. “GMB’s members are performing miracles but their workloads have spiralled and NHS real pay is down £2,000 on average compared to 2010. “NHS staff love their jobs but the goodwill won’t last for ever. Our hollowed-out NHS has been run ragged and patients’ lives are at risk, especially in the run-up to winter. “It’s time for Theresa May to cough up and give our health and care services the funding they so desperately need.”
In seven years, the number of GPs fell from 69 per 100,000 patients to 62.
The CQC’s worrying State of Care report said: “Without enough GPs to meet growing demand there is increased pressure to manage patients’ expectations about access to a consultation with a GP.”
The CQC found 55% of NHS acute hospital core services were rated good in 2017, up from 51% last year.
Around 68% of mental health services were classed as good, up from 61%.
It was 78% for adult social care (a rise from 71%) and 89% of GP practices (up from 83%). Health minister Philip Dunne said: “Today the CQC has again recognised the vast majority of patients are getting good care.
“With record funding and more doctors and nurses, the NHS was recently judged the best healthcare system in the world, despite the pressures from increasing demand. We are determined to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world and are investing in more staff and in services including £2billion extra for social care.”
But Labour says Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is ignoring the alarm bells.
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “The NHS is running at full stretch with hospitals full to unsafe levels, and ongoing problems in staffing and recruitment which Tory ministers have failed to grasp.”
Shocks in the past year include a toddler with suspected meningitis left lying on hospital chairs due to a lack of beds. Mum Rose Newman waited for five hours in A&E with son Jack as staff battled with the volume of patients. The increasing number surviving lifethreatening emergencies is a major reason for the rise in A&E admissions and costs hospital services around £1billion per year, research suggests.
WHAT an unhappy 70th birthday the NHS faces next year as savage Tory austerity kills our most precious public service.
With spending per head due to fall in real terms, the fear is health care will only get worse – Quality Care Commission inspections are finding the NHS is already collapsing in England, where it’s run by the Conservatives.
We applaud the Herculean efforts of underpaid, heroic NHS staff but without adequate resources they fight a losing battle.
Behind every grim statistic on the elderly denied adequate treatment, painful waits at A&E, delayed operations and fewer hospital beds is a human suffering because of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and PM Theresa May.
The hurt and damage isn’t inevitable. The Tories always find money for pet projects or, in the case of £1billion bunged to Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists, pet MPs to sustain Mrs May in No10.
Everybody who loves the NHS must protest to protect what we adore.