NHS and the UK general election

rexit is going to happen, like it or not. Let’s focus on what needs to be addressed and improved for the benefit of the British population irrespective of Britain’s exact relationship with the European Union. One key area is the National Health Service (NHS). Operation waiting lists are lengthening, there are queues at Attendances and Emergency (A&E) admissions, hospital beds are blocked by patients who should be in social care, General Practitioners (GP) are fed up with the increasing demands on their time from imposed commitments not directly related to clinical patient care and there is a shortage of home-produced doctors resulting from both insufficient numbers of medical graduates to start with and from doctors leaving the NHS to work abroad. In the run-up to the forthcoming general election, political parties must demonstrate that they will urgently improve healthcare provisions in Britain.

They could create a mindset that leads to and facilitates overhauling the structure of the NHS in order to put clinicians back in the driving seat to lead patient care from the front. Right now they are being hamstrung by managers and bureaucrats imposing their views on how hospitals should be run.

There are constant claims that the NHS is underfunded. What really needs to happen is that the existing levels of funding must be used more efficiently and effectively. Healthcare bureaucracy must be reduced and the number of managers and other personnel not directly involved in clinical patient care must be minimised.

Restructuring the NHS, including the manner in which funds are utilised, is the way forward. The political parties in Britain must take heed of this and make commitments to urgently improve the failing NHS.