‘Patients belittled as access to NHS worsens’
BMA warns ministers are wilfully ignoring concerns
PATIENTS ARE being “belittled and bewildered” as access to NHS care is worsening, leading doctors have warned.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said the Government wants a world-class NHS but was only offering it a “third-class” financial settlement.
It said that the health service is at “breaking point” and concerns are being “wilfully ignored” by Ministers.
The NHS is “running on fumes”, the BMA said, as it called on ministers to increase health spending to rise to match that of other leading EU economies.
A new BMA poll, issued ahead of its annual representative meeting today, found that more people were dissatisfied with the NHS than satisfied with services.
Addressing the conference, BMA chairman of council Dr Mark Porter will say: “We have a government trying to keep the health service running on nothing but fumes.
“A health service at breaking point. Run by ministers who wilfully ignore the pleas of the profession and the impact on patients. After years of under-investment, with a growing, ageing population, and despite the extraordinary dedication of its staff, it is failing too many people, too often.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. It is the result of an explicit political choice. We don’t have to spend less of our GDP than the other leading European economies on health.”
Dr Porter will add: “Passing the buck is not a solution. Blaming staff is not a solution. Giving the NHS the resources that patients have told us they need – that’s a solution.” The latest news comes after
revealed earlier this year the scale of change faced by the region’s healthcare providers. The NHS is estimated to need to save £2bn in Yorkshire by 2021 as part of plans to close accident and emergency departments and wider reorganisation proposals, known as sustainability and transformation plans (STPs).
Dr Richard Vautrey, Leeds GP and deputy chair of the British Medical Association, told The
Yorkshire Post yesterday: “There are many areas in Yorkshire that are really struggling financially.
“We have seen this particularly in North Yorkshire and in other areas too where clinical commissioning groups or local hospitals are in serious debt and are struggling to balance their books.
“This means services are being cut back in some areas and being retained in others, which leads to a postcode variation in care. This is completely unacceptable. We should have a National Health Service, but we have got a fragmented health service.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “This does a disservice to the achievements of NHS staff – the highest cancer survival rates ever, mental health care expanding at the fastest rate in Western Europe, and 17 million people getting evening and weekend GP appointments, which is why genuinely independent research shows public satisfaction is now the highest for all but three of the last 20 years.”
Passing the buck is not a solution. Blaming staff is not a solution. The BMA’s chairman of council Dr Mark Porter.
ANOTHER DAY, another bleak diagnosis for the future of the NHS. In what is becoming an all-toofamiliar refrain, the health service is once again said to be at “breaking point” due to a lack of funding.
The figures presented by the British Medical Association today tell a stark story; one in which hundreds of doctors say it is becoming more difficult for patients to access NHS care, while patients themselves are increasingly dissatisfied with services.
The BMA claims the Government is providing a “third-class” financial settlement to the NHS while demanding it operates at a world-class standard. Whatever the truth of this statement, the pressures on the NHS are becoming increasingly apparent in Yorkshire. A lack of specialist staff has led to proposals to stop some overnight and weekend operations for children at Barnsley and Rotherham hospitals, while in North Yorkshire it is reported bosses have been told to “think the unthinkable” in coming up with radical plans to save £40m.
There is growing worry about the future of the NHS, with three in five of those polled by the BMA saying they expect the health service to get worse. Dr Mark Porter, BMA chairman of council, suggests ministers need to increase health spending so that it matches that of other leading EU economies. This would apparently result in an extra £15bn investment for the English NHS over the next five years.
The Government may claim the BMA overstates its case when it says the NHS is “running on fumes” but it is clear there are growing legitimate concerns about its future from both professionals and patients.