A foreign aid spree and an NHS in crisis
ONCE again winter has brought a predicted and predictable crisis in the NHS. There are alarming stories of patients lying for many hours on trolleys, and even dying on them. Some hospitals have simply run out of space to put the sick and injured.
In the weeks running up to Christmas some hospitals were close to turning away critically ill patients because they were running at 100 per cent capacity.
One did not have a single general or acute-care ward bed free for 27 days. Another was full for 23 days.
The effects cannot be hidden, and they are distressing for patients and their relatives and also for medical staff. Corridors and equipment rooms serve as temporary wards. Nurses are in tears because they cannot do their jobs properly in the conditions in which they find themselves.
Everyone knew this was coming. Yet it was not prevented. And it is not acceptable in a First-World health service, that such things could happen. Of course millions of us know the other side, the dedicated doctors, nurses and ancillaries, the brilliant work ceaselessly done to save lives and cure diseases.
But why should this have to be such a struggle? The British Red Cross speaks of a ‘humanitarian crisis’, and others of ‘meltdown’. This may seem exaggerated when we think of true crises such as that in Syria, where hospitals are heaps of rubble, there are no drugs and a trolley in a corridor would be a mercy.
But it is the comparative position which is the scandal. A country as rich as ours should not be in this position. Our Continental equivalents are not in the same mess.
Where to look? Spending sprees and reorganisation have not solved underlying difficulties. Centralising Accident and Emergency (as The Mail on Sunday warned) has made matters worse. Perhaps the single most soluble problem is bedblocking caused by the serious breakdown of social care which compels hospitals to surrender so much of their space to the elderly, who should really be elsewhere.
This at least is something the Prime Minister can readily tackle, not least by abandoning David Cameron’s absurd and futile target of spending 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income on foreign aid (much of which is wasted or worse) and diverting the funds to strengthen and expand social care. She could do that today.