What?
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has earmarked a further £5.9 billion in public spending specifically for the NHS; to cut waiting lists for appointments and surgeries, and reduce the backlog in elective work, e.g. hip replacements, hernia repairs. This is in addition to a further £12 billion a year (£36 billion split across the next three years) that had already been earmarked for the health service back in September.
Why?
It will come as no surprise, dear reader, that following the events of the previous 18 months, there might be a little bit of catch-up do for the NHS. Of course COVID-19 has cancelled hundreds of thousands of appointments, surgeries and procedures. But this has only added to the backlog that has been building in the UK for many years prior.
In short:
- Waiting lists for appointments to start treatment are at a record high, and have been increasing for a number of years.
- People are not having diagnostics (scans, biopsies, etc.) performed quickly enough; for example, this means the NHS is missing key cancer targets in terms of time to diagnosis or treatment.
- There is a huge backlog of elective surgery to complete. Many people who are waiting for procedures (like shoulder replacements, hernia repairs and routine gallbladder removal surgery) have now been on the waiting list for over 1-2 years. We really apologise for that. It is not good enough. It is not just a government issue.
Doctors do not help by (largely) running the NHS Monday-Friday. Hospitals are like the Marie Celeste on a Friday afternoon, as everyone hits the car park at 4pm. Also many people work part-time, taking Friday off. Operating theatres are not used properly on Friday pms, weekends and bank holidays. They could be. GPs also do not work properly at weekends. MyHSN feels the NHS should be a 7 day service. More of that another day.
How?
The NHS is a huge beast that consumes a large proportion of the UK overall budget. Even £5.9 billion may seem like a drop in the ocean, especially when you consider the government borrowed £320 billion last year alone in response to the pandemic.
The key interventions include the following:
- More imaging. Expect CT scanners and MRI machines in car parks, and new ‘imaging hubs’ if plans go ahead. Long waits for scans are a major part of why new diagnoses are being made so late at present.
- More surgery. ‘Surgical hubs’ are ‘one-stop shops’ to pack together elective (planned) operations that don’t necessarily need long hospital stays. This will hopefully:
- Reduces pressure on beds by turning off the tap of new patients in A&E, and reducing the number of long stay patients who use the beds needed for people after operations.
- Reduces infection risk, especially COVID-19, by requiring stringent testing.
- Reduce procedure time, for example by having a conveyer belt of knee replacement patients all day. They will be operated on by the same team, using the same room set-up. It takes time to change the operating room between a total knee replacement and ACL (anterior cruciate ligament, i.e. different knee operation) surgery.
- More of, well, everything … to support the above, we need new buildings, new infrastructure and more technology; this will all be factored into this funding increase.
And how will it affect you?
You are likely going to get your cataract surgery (or other ops), quicker. It is also more likely you will see a hospital consultant sooner.
The elephant in the room however, who is going to staff these new buildings and services?
The Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, has admitted there is still a shortage of doctors, nurses and other allied health professionals; like the radiographers who perform the scans, and the physiotherapists that get you back on your feet. MyHSN welcomes the raft of spending to cut down the waiting lists, but cannot help worrying that unless there’s a large recruitment drive in the NHS, all the extra spending money may be for nothing. Brexit is not helping recruitment either …
… on a wholly unrelated note, have you seen the new NHS advert on TV at the moment?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0R6bLlzDAQ
Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below.
As always, best wishes from myHSN.
