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News Lord Darzi report: NHS in a critical condition
Lord Ara Darzi has published a full and independent investigation into the state of the NHS and has concluded that the service is in a ‘critical condition’, but it ‘can be fixed’. He reported being “shocked” by what he found during the investigation - not just in the health service but in the state of the nation’s health. He commented: “We want to deliver high quality care for all but far too many people are waiting for too long and in too many clinical areas, quality of care has gone backwards.” He added: “In the last 15 years, the NHS was hit by three shocks - austerity and starvation of investment, confusion caused by top-down reorganisation, and then the pandemic which came with resilience at an all-time low. Two out of three of those shocks were choices made in Westminster. It took more than a decade for the NHS to fall into disrepair so it’s going to take time to fix it. But we in the NHS have turned things around before, and I’m confident we will do it again.” Key findings from Lord Darzi’s 142-page report
included: l Deterioration: The health of the nation has deteriorated over the past 15 years, with a substantial increase in the number of people living with multiple long-term conditions.
l Spending: Too great a share of the NHS budget is being spent in hospitals, too little in the community, and productivity is too low.
l Waiting times: Waiting lists have swelled and waiting times have surged, with A&E queues more than doubling from an average of just under 40 people on a typical evening in April 2009 to over 100 in April 2024. 1 in 10 patients are now waiting for 12 hours or more.
l Cancer care: The UK has appreciably higher cancer mortality rates than other countries, with no progress whatsoever made in diagnosing cancer at stage one and two between 2013 and 2021.
l Lasting damage: The Health and Social Care Act
the costs on the NHS, it will drive economic growth,” the Prime Minister commented. Amanda Pritchard, NHS England Chief Executive,
of 2012 did lasting damage to the management capacity and capability of the NHS. It took 10 years to return to a sensible structure, and the effects continue to be felt to this day.
l Productivity: Too many resources have been being poured into hospitals where productivity had substantially fallen, while too little has been spent in the community.
Responding to the report during a speech at the King’s Fund, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the state of the NHS was “unforgiveable” and “people have every right to be angry”. “The NHS may be broken, but it’s not beaten,” he asserted, emphasising that what is needed is “major surgery, not sticking plasters”. “It’s not just the state of our National Health
Service in crisis - it’s also the state of our national health. There are 2.8 million people economically inactive due to long term sickness, and more than half of those on the current waiting lists for inpatient treatment are working age adults. Getting people back to health and work will not only reduce
said: “As this report sets out, staff are the beating heart of the NHS with a shared passion and determination for making the NHS better for patients - but it is also clear they are facing unprecedented challenges. Our staff are treating record numbers of patients every day despite ageing equipment and crumbling buildings, a surge in multiple long-term illnesses, and managing the long-lasting effects of the pandemic. While teams are working hard to get services back on track, it is clear waiting times across many services are unacceptable and we need to address the underlying issues outlined in Lord Darzi’s report so we can deliver the care we all want for patients. As Lord Darzi rightly points out, many of the solutions can be found in parts of the NHS today. That is why we are fully committed to working with government to create a 10-year plan for healthcare to ensure the NHS recovers from COVID, strengthens its foundations and continues to reform, so it is fit for future generations.” Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s
Fund said: “This is an authoritative and sobering articulation of what patients have been telling us for some time – services are stretched to breaking point and people are losing faith that support will be there when they need it. The report is more than a gloomy assessment of how long it will take to recover services, it is a mandate for government to take bold, decisive action. The biggest improvements to health and care in our country will come from prioritising services outside of hospital. “That means greater investment in the primary and community services that support people before they end up needing hospital treatment.” View the full report at:
https://www.gov.
uk/government/publications/independent- investigation-of-the-nhs-in-england
UK hospital care lags behind other high income countries
A report published by the Health Foundation has found that the UK’s performance on hospital- based care is consistently languishing near the bottom in a public survey of 10 high income countries. The analysis of the 2023 Commonwealth Fund
survey highlights key areas where the UK performs poorly, particularly on long waits for specialist care, lack of access to out-of-hours care and affordability for treatments like dental care. Over 21,000 people from across 10 developed countries took part in the survey last year, including
over 3,000 from the UK. Participants were asked a series of questions related to their experience of healthcare, including access to hospital care and general practice, affordability and care coordination. For hospital care, the UK had among the longest waiting times compared to the other countries in the survey, with 11% of people waiting a year or more for a specialist appointment and 19% waiting a year or more for non-emergency surgery. Only Canada is comparable. The report also highlights that waiting times for a specialist appointment have risen more rapidly
in the UK than in other countries. In 2023, 61% of people in the UK reported waiting more than 4 weeks for a specialist appointment, up from 14% in 2013. On general practice, the UK is one of the better performing countries for people reporting same or next day appointments (42%); however, the report highlights a number of areas where the UK performs less well. Only 16% of people in the UK reported it was ‘very’ or ‘somewhat easy’ to get medical care in the evenings and weekends without going to A&E. View the report at:
https://tinyurl.com/bdhvpy42
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