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Surgeons cannot continue working ‘in hospitals that are falling down’, RCS President warns
Speaking at the Future Surgery event in London, Tim Mitchell, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, warned the Government it will ‘fail to make a sufficient dent in reducing waiting times without investment in crumbling NHS infrastructure and new technology’. The warning came as speculation mounts that
the Treasury will change borrowing rules to allow the Government to increase capital investment in the NHS. Tim Mitchell told a gathering of UK healthcare and technology professionals at the two-day conference at ExCeL London that without money for investment in technology and surgical capacity in the new government’s first Budget, the NHS ‘will not see a meaningful step change’ in the numbers of patients on hospital waiting lists. He said: “If the government is serious about meeting the 18-week target, it’s got to get serious about investment in capital spend – even if that means difficult decisions about where that money is coming from. Ultimately, it’s for the good of patients, and the good of the economy. We cannot continue working in hospitals that are falling down and with IT systems that are falling over.” Although the last decade had seen a growth in
surgeons and other NHS staff, the RCS President said many healthcare buildings were ‘still deteriorating, with little extra capacity’. “It’s no wonder,” he added, “ that the number of operations per surgeon hasn’t been going up, because we don’t have the extra space and investment in technology,
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and flooded corridors caused by its ageing estate mean hundreds of patients have their operations cancelled, increasing short-term costs and frustration for patients because the hospital needs long term investment.” He also discussed NHS England and NICE
we need to carry out more operations more efficiently.”
Charting ‘the remarkable innovation and
development surgery has witnessed over the last five years, despite the huge challenges facing the NHS’, he said: “The Prime Minister has warned there can be ‘No extra funding without reform’. Ahead of the forthcoming Budget, I say: ‘There cannot be meaningful reform without extra funding. Especially in our estates and technology.’” Highlighting the challenges NHS hospitals face
due to lack of capital investment, Tim Mitchell cited ageing infrastructure at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust in London: “St Helier Hospital in London already invests millions each year to maintain its buildings, many of which pre-date the NHS, and this year alone they will spend nearly £2 million to upgrade their theatres,” he explained. “Despite this, broken lifts
proposals for a new model to evaluate medical devices – similar to the way new medicines are reviewed – which he said would both help NHS patients in England access ‘the most innovative and cutting-edge’ medical technologies faster, and ensure the NHS is using the most clinically and cost-effective products. He urged the new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, to ‘back NICE and NHS England, and crack on with setting it up’. On a positive front, he celebrated ‘examples
of innovations pioneered by surgeons in the NHS’, including how: l Robots are getting smaller, and more patients are undergoing surgical robotics intervention for a much wider range of ailments, with University Hospital Southampton now trialling the use of robots in paediatric kidney surgery.
l In Ear, Nose and Throat surgery, robots are being used to resect cancers in the pharynx and larynx, and even in thyroid surgery.
l Genomics is helping ‘treat the previously untreatable’, with baby, Opal, from Oxfordshire born deaf, but now able to hear thanks to ‘a game-changing gene therapy’ used by surgeons at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
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