NHS in England is ‘deteriorating’
pharmafile | March 26, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Conservatives, England, Labour, NHS, coalition, election, government, liberal
Leading UK healthcare think tank The King’s Fund has published its second report on the NHS under the present government and noted that services are ‘deteriorating’.
Part two of ‘The NHS under the coalition government’ which arrives just before the general election in May, looked at how well the NHS has performed under the current political arrangement.
It assessed the performance of the health service using routinely available data and created a conventional ‘production path’ – describing the financial inputs to the NHS before detailing its outputs, such as hospital admissions, or A&E attendances.
What it found was services in the NHS in England are deteriorating in such a manner that has not been witnessed since an early 1990s low point. Waiting times for routine operations, A&E and cancer care had all started getting worse, while deficits were growing.
Whilst the findings show such drops in performance had not been seen for 20 years, the think tank has acknowledged that given the financial climate “the NHS had done as well as could be expected”.
Rob Webster who is the chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents more than 500 organisations, says: “This report is a testament to the staff and leaders in the NHS who have kept performing during the toughest of times. We welcome the King’s Fund report and agree with many of its findings.
“[It] reiterates that additional NHS funding of a minimum of £8 billion a year is required by 2020 to meet patient demand and maintain standards of care with significant efficiencies needed. Yet with just 41 days to go until the election, we still do not have agreement across the political parties on this minimum additional funding or a deal for social care which itself faces significant pressures.”
Also wading in from the British Medical Association was its council chair Dr Mark Porter, who adds that it highlights the damage done to the NHS by the Health and Social Care 2012 – which distracted attention from rising pressure on services and also cost billions to introduce.
“Staff have done as much as they can to protect and improve patient care but, as this report lays bare, after years of underfunding the cracks are beginning to show. Patients face longer waits for treatment, services are stretched close to breaking point and staff are under unsustainable pressure,” Porter says.
“With an election weeks away, politicians of all parties must stop using the NHS as a political football.”
Webster concludes: “An open public debate must happen now on NHS finances and service change. We’ve been calling for it for a long time and politicians from all parties cannot duck it anymore – the public simply won’t allow them.”
Brett Wells
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