Doctors & Charities: NHS ’at breaking point’

NHS at ‘breaking point’ warn medical organisations and health charities

A group of medical organisations and health charities have written a joint letter to the Prime Minister, leader of the opposition and Deputy Prime Minister, warning that the NHS is at breaking point.

The group confirmed that even though the health care budget was maintained in these times of austerity. The NHS has not seen the historical increases in the budget which are designed to keep pace with an ageing population and a raising population. This means that the NHS services are being put under immense pressure to deliver high quality health care on a tight budget.

Saving to the NHS system have been made by making efficiency cuts. Doctors and Nurses are working harder than ever to maintain minimum patient care, they are not being rewarded with any pay increases. They feel undervalued and over worked, they cannot provide the health care they want due to pressures on the wards caused by budget restrictions.

The letter written by the concerned organisations confirms that the system is showing signs of ‘buckling under the twin crises of rising demand and flat lining budgets’. Demand on GP services and the shortage of GP’s means that patients are struggling to get a prompt appointment, equally maternity services are also showing signs of not being able to keep up with demands. In addition to these problems most A&E units are not meeting there minimum service level targets to see patients within 4 hours of attendance.

Most alarmingly, it would seem that cancer patients are facing longer waits to be referred to a specialist for cancer treatments. This is leading to minimum standard targets being missed.

They also seems to a be trend occurring that more and more NHS trusts are having financial problems in balancing their budgets, and most worrying is that several NHS trust this year alone have been placed into the government’s ‘special measures’ procedure.

The group of Doctors and charities who sent this letter also commented on social care and the damaging effect on the current cost of care is having on families who are not getting the help they need and deserve.

In conclusion that letter says that ‘NHS and … social services are at breaking point and things cannot go on like this.’ Suggesting that the NHS will fail if things aren’t changed and reformed.

Comment

Most of us would agree that the NHS provides essential health care services. Doctors and Nurses and other hospital staff work hard to provide these services. The letter written by concerned Doctors and charities confirms that even with the best intentions our NHS is under significant pressure to deliver high quality health care within a budget which clearly isn’t sufficient to deliver the services it’s supposed too.

We are seeing an increasing trend of medical malpractice leading to medical negligence both at hospital and at GP level. Could the lack of funding in the system be the cause of this trend?

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