NHS ‘close to breaking point’
pharmafile | April 30, 2015 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | BMJ, Godlee, Kings Fund, NHS, king's fund
England’s NHS is ‘stretched close to breaking point’ and the next five years are likely to be the most challenging and decisive it has ever faced, an open letter from the BMJ has said.
The letter is from BMJ editor in chief Fiona Godlee and her colleagues, and is addressed to the health secretary of whichever party wins the election. It states that “extreme cuts to social care have exacerbated the pressures, causing knock-on effects across the service” and that this pressure is ‘unsustainable’, putting patient safety at risk.
“Waiting times for treatment are the longest for many years. Staff morale in many parts of the service is at rock bottom because of real terms pay cuts and the relentless workload. Many GPs are retiring early, and new recruits are thin on the ground.
“The NHS’s finances have now have been cut to the bone. Efficiency savings during the last parliament came, in reality, largely from pay restraint and cutting the prices paid to providers. All the main political parties have acknowledged that these are tactical ‘solutions’ that will destabilise the health service if they are continued.”
They are not alone in these observations. In March leading healthcare think tank the King’s Fund said in its second ‘NHS under the coalition government’ report that the health service is ‘deteriorating’ in a manner that has not been witnessed since the early 1990s. However it acknowledged that given the financial climate it “had done as well as could be expected”.
The think tank had earlier said that the organisational changes to the health service under the coalition have been ‘distracting and damaging’. This is echoed by the BMJ, who asks the new health secretary to “resist the temptation to undertake further major top-down reorganisation”.
They add: “Instead those working in the NHS need breathing space and additional training and resources so they can create and evaluate new ways of delivering care in full partnership with patients.”
The BMJ’s letter also asks that the new government gives an ‘unshakeable commitment’ to providing a national health service, focusses on collaboration not competition and marketisation, and ensures good transparent governance and less political interference.
It ends by urging the next health secretary to properly fund the NHS and “restore a strong voice and protected funding for public health”.
George Underwood
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