Wrong priorities

The consequences of the “protect the NHS” mantra that accompanied the first stages of the pandemic response are increasingly apparent. The remote consultations offered by many GP surgeries are claimed to be evidence that they remain fully open and doctors insist they are working as effectively as ever. In many cases, their patients beg to differ.

But it is on waiting lists that the real problems are starting to be felt. The NHS cancelled thousands of routine treatments and minor surgeries to focus on Covid-19. These could not even be carried out in private hospitals, either, as many were contracted to the NHS to keep beds aside for a predicted flood of coronavirus patients.

The knock-on effects of months of delays are now hitting home. Already more people are waiting longer than a year for treatment than at any time for a decade and this situation can only get worse. Furthermore, as we report today, millions of cases are to be reviewed and reprioritised in a process that will be grossly unfair to those who have been waiting for months or even years and who could end up at the back of the queue. One reason is because the condition of patients may have deteriorated due to delays during lockdown. But whose fault is that?

We keep being assured that the NHS is open for business and people should not feel they cannot use it. Yet the evidence is of a system that has concentrated so much on Covid that many other conditions are simply going untreated, even though the long-term consequences will be far greater than contracting the virus. Staff have been told patients may be angry when told they have been “reprioritised”. They have every reason to be.