‘Ridiculous waste’ to blame for NHS woes

Health Service can be transformed without an extra penny, says its most senior doctor

THE NHS is guilty of a “ridiculous waste of resources” – and could improve without spending a penny more, according to its most senior doctor.

Prof Keith Willett, the medical director for acute care, urges medics to stop “fuming” when the system “grinds to a halt” and instead do more to prevent beds being blocked by patients who should be discharged.

He says too many surgeons are stopped from operating because of bed blocking, with patients unable to be discharged due to lack of help at home.

Writing for The Daily Telegraph, the senior surgeon says that too often the system has stopped functioning even before the first patient arrives for surgery. “To have highly skilled surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses sitting around waiting is clearly a ridiculous waste of resources,” he writes.

But he urges surgeons to stop “bemoaning” the problem and do more to help solve it, with better planning to identify what help their own patients would need in order to be discharged.

The system can be transformed without extra resources, he says.

Prof Willett’s comments come on the second day of a series by The Telegraph exploring the state of the health service and its role in modern Britain as the NHS approaches its 70th birthday.

Theresa May is expected to mark the anniversary by announcing extra fund- ing. The Prime Minister is understood to back the Health Secretary’s view that the public are willing to accept tax rises to pay for the NHS, if they can see the money used wisely.

But today Prof Willett suggests radical changes could be made without extra funding. “The best problem solving happens when senior clinicians and managers come together, because we start to understand the reasons for blockages and where they could – with some leadership, common-sense thinking and a rearrangement of resources – be solved,” he says.

The NHS leader says 4 per cent of admitted patients ended up in hospital for more than three weeks, taking up a fifth of available beds on any given day.

Prof Willett sympathises with the frustration of NHS surgeons, often left kicking their heels when operations are cancelled for lack of beds. But he urges them to use their “thwarted energy” to help prevent the problem. “As surgeons, we must set aside time to understand the problem, look at where and why our patients are getting stuck and the possible solutions,” he writes.

He adds that surgeons are wrong to think their job is done once the patient is out of surgery. He says they should work with community teams ahead of surgery, to ensure the right help is in place for a swift discharge.

“Failure to recognise those needs will in future bring us more blocked beds, dormitories full of our elders and empty theatres,” he says.

Often the needs of such patients after surgery are predictable long before they were admitted, the surgeon

says. Simple steps – such as arranging a feeding tube so an elderly patient can return to a care home, or booking in after-care, could mean a much shorter stay in hospital, he says.

Prof Willett says the needs of patients has changed “beyond recognition” since the NHS was created in 1948, yet the hospital system “has remained largely the same”.

Yesterday, Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, said the “biggest risk” facing the country was a future funding boost spent without a “dramatic transformation of modern healthcare” meeting the needs of an ageing population. He called for major changes, with technology at their heart.

Prof Derek Alderson, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons said: “Because we underfund social and community care, patients are all too commonly left stranded on hospital wards instead of receiving treatment and support near or in their home.”