“Protect the NHS” sounds like the team name for an illegal Downing Street quiz, but it won’t be winning any prizes for patient safety, writes Dr Phil Hammond in The Times.
The fact is, the NHS, as was the case long before the pandemic, is woefully understaffed. Even more billions have been thrown at the system, but, as ever, so little of it finds its way to the frontline carers we all clapped for. The NHS is always fighting a losing battle.
When the government first asked us to protect the NHS, it may as well have said: “Stay at home, die alone, protect the NHS.” Thousands of people have done just that since the pandemic started, for reasons not fully understood. They may have had Covid or non-Covid diseases, or both. They didn’t ask for, or couldn’t find, help when they were seriously ill. They followed their “stay at home” orders. Many died.
"The NHS does some amazing things but the truth is it has never had the staff nor capacity — and sometimes not the culture — to provide safe, effective and timely care to all its citizens," says Hammond.
"We also have appalling levels of public health inequality. The rich live a decade longer than the poor, and the poor suffer 20 more years of chronic disease and NHS dependency. No health service can cope with such high demands, many of them avoidable."
Today, many people can’t even access care, never mind the quality of it. But we don’t need to dismantle the NHS, we need to staff it safely. We need to start with a proper, costed workforce plan for now and the future. If we put even more money into healthcare, we need to prove it’s being spent on frontline care that is proven to work.
Just as we didn’t plan properly for Covid, we have never had a proper workforce plan for the NHS to estimate what staff increases we need to cope with an ageing, anxious and increasingly isolated population chock full of chronic diseases. How did we get in this mess?
There is good evidence that safe staffing levels deliver better care, and that continuity of care and a long-standing relationship with your GP or nurse is hugely beneficial to your health. It’s much more rewarding for health professionals too. Alas, they don’t grow on trees and there’s a global shortage. There’s a limit to how many we can steal from countries who may need them more. No matter how much money we throw at the NHS in a pandemic panic, this tanker won’t be turned around quickly.
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Source: The Times, 18 December 2021
