SHOCK POLL AS TOP MEDIC GIVES HIS VIEW
We have a good health system..it wouldn’t take much more to make it outstanding
CONSULTANT anaesthetist Helgi Johannsson routinely saves lives on the NHS frontline.
He also controls a £47million budget, so he has a head for figures too.
And he is adamant the £20.5billion Theresa May plans to pump into the NHS by 2023 is simply not enough.
The Iceland-born medic says: “The NHS is a really good health system. But it wouldn’t take much more to make it an outstanding one.”
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth nods agreement: “You’re right. It’s not enough. It’s only enough for the NHS to stand still.”
Jonathan has spent six months touring the NHS he will take charge of when Labour is in power.
He has shadowed staff including junior doctors in Birmingham, GPs in Corby and Staffordshire, a psychiatric nurse in Leicester, paramedics in London, hospital caterers in Nottingham and patient transport drivers in Sussex.
I have joined him at St Mary’s Hospital, in Paddington, West London, where Helgi, 46, works in the trauma theatres and is the NHS trust’s anaesthetics clinical director.
Jonathan says: “As Health Secretary I would see myself as part of the team working with the frontline to deliver the very best healthcare.
“A proper functioning NHS is about all the teams coming together.”
Helgi is one of the 139,000 foreign nationals among 1.2 million NHS staff. His parents came here 30 years ago but he does not have a British passport.
Brexit worried him but now that he knows he is eligible for settled status he’s much more, well, settled.
Last year Helgi was treating children from the Grenfell fire and victims of the London Bridge terror attack. He says: “I’m always being asked to save money – all I ask is a couple of years when I don’t have to. We’ve seen a real terms cut of ten per cent in NHS money over the last five years yet we’re seeing ten per cent more patients.
“I’m proud of the NHS but we’re not giving the customer service patients deserve and that’s not acceptable.
“Waiting times are outrageous. And it’s heartbreaking to tell patients we’re postponing their treatment.”
Jonathan produces latest figures showing waits for lung treatment have gone up 155 per cent over the last seven years, that’s 61,700 more patients.
For stomach disorders the rise is 114 per cent, rheumatology 91 per cent, cardiology 83 per cent... the list goes on.
Since Theresa May became PM the number of patients on waiting lists has topped four million for the first time in over a decade.
Labour is promising to borrow £10billion for hospital repairs.
The theatre we are in is state-of-the-art, but other parts of the hospital are merely in a state.
Helgi says: “We’re working in buildings which are not fit for purpose. It’s not easy trying to work in a hospital where the ceiling falls down or the central heating doesn’t work.”
Jonathan adds: “I’m struck how NHS staff go beyond the call of duty. But the system is taking them for granted.
“And equipment such as MRI and CT scanners are out of date. The NHS is the biggest buyer of fax machines! Can you believe that?”
The Tories make much of the £20.5billion they are to give the NHS, which represents a 3.4 per cent budget increase for the next five years. But Labour would put in five per cent.
Jonathan says: “Five per cent is what is needed to make up for years of austerity.”
And Helgi grins broadly as he says: “I’ll take that five per cent, thank you.”
Staff all go beyond call of duty but get taken for granted
JONATHAN ASHWORTH LABOUR’S HEALTH CHIEF