Doctors appeal for more funding to halt threat of year-round NHS ‘crisis’
Community care is key to NHS
EXTRA FUNDING is needed to avoid a year-round “crisis” in the NHS, leading doctors have warned, as new analysis showed patients endured the worst winter on record.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said all key performance markers showed a health system “that is struggling to cope with demand”, with targets consistently missed and A&E attendances, waiting times, trolley waits and bed occupancy levels all increasing.
The body said doctors had told them how they were “dreading” arriving at work and seeing patients “lining the corridors awaiting treatment”.
Others spoke of admin staff being used to help in a clinical capacity and rota gaps.
From December 2017 to February this year, there were 7.9m attendances at all A&Es, a rise of 3.9 per cent on the previous winter, the BMA said.
Performance against the fourhour wait target continued to deteriorate, falling from 87.2 per cent in 2016/17 to 85 per cent this winter.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said the figures showed “just how critical” the crisis in the NHS had become.
The BMA figures show more trolley waits of four or more hours recorded between December and March of this winter than in the same months of 2010/11,
2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 combined.
A BMA survey showed more than four out of five doctors felt their place of work was under-resourced and more than half said their workload was higher than previous winters.
The Yorkshire Post has previously reported that A&E waiting figures for some regional trusts fell even lower over winter – down to just 68.9 per cent hitting target at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in January, down from 79 per cent in December.
“Congestion and delays are having a profound impact on patients’ experience of the NHS and means front-line staff are left working under the most challenging of conditions,” Dr Nagpaul said.
“Even after cancelling tens of thousands of operations beds remained full, which shows that you can’t continuously plug gaps by penny-pinching and poaching from elsewhere in an overstretched service.
“Our health spending lags behind that of other similar European countries so the Government must urgently increase spending to address systemic pressures, and review its long-term strategy for the health service. As the NHS enters a state of year-round crisis the time for action by Government is now.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the Government was committed to a long-term plan with a sustainable multi-year settlement for the NHS to help it manage growing patient demand.
The BMA report comes as it is claimed that promises to prioritise NHS community services have fallen flat. NHS Providers said the expansion of community services to help people to stay well in their own homes has failed to materialise.
THERESA MAY has promised to introduce a long-term funding plan for the National Health Service to mark its 70th anniversary. She believes this is essential if it is to plan for the future effectively. Yet, while Ministers will use part of the Brexit dividend, and also changes to the tax system, to raise funds, major political surgery is necessary if this money is to be spent wisely.
This is self-evident with the publication of two major reports today which are required reading for Mrs May and those from rival political parties who are committed to working together to help the NHS to meet the public’s expectations, which are very different to those of 1948. As the British Medical Association releases a raft of data purporting to show that patients have just endured the worst winter on record when it comes to key performance indicators like waiting times, trolley waits and hospital bed occupancy rates. NHS Providers – the body which represents health trusts – also says promises to transform community care have not materialised.
This is a familiar and fundamental failing. If more people, particularly the elderly, are treated for less serious injuries and ailments at home or their local health centre, and are only admitted to hospital as a last resort, overstretched A&E units will be able to devote more time to genuine medical emergencies. It also requires individuals being more responsible for their health – and not heading to casualty with the slightest sniffle or scratch.
This is why any longterm funding plan will amount to little more than a short-term sticking plaster solution unless there’s genuine integration between hospitals, community health provision and social care. To achieve this, political leaders need to devise a new structure for the delivery of health policy, and only then work out the funding implications, if they’re serious about reform.