NHS needs better funding deal!

My article in today’s Cornish Guardian looks at the crisis in the National Health Service. It is as follows:

Last winter, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine publicised its concerns that “emergency care in the NHS” was at “crisis point.” At the same time, the Chief Executive of the British Red Cross claimed that the NHS was facing a “humanitarian crisis.”

Twelve months on, the situation has worsened. One headline figure being quoting in many newspapers is that a total of 55,000 “non-urgent” operations are likely to be postponed to help the NHS cope with increasing demands and winter pressures, which presently include an upsurge in sickness linked to the flu virus.

Much has been made of the fact that the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister have publicly apologised to those patients who have had their operations cancelled but, it is notable, they failed to address the depth of problems facing the National Health Service.

Interviewed on the BBC at the weekend, Theresa May continued to claim that hospitals were better prepared than ever before, and winter pressures have to be dealt with each and every year.

Sadly, there was no acknowledgement that there is a significant “mismatch between demand for services and funding.”

An independent charity, known as the “The King’s Fund,” recently detailed how the demand for health care is rising. It has reported: “The population is increasing; more people are living longer, often with multiple long-term conditions; and technological advances mean that new treatments are available. As a result, health services are treating more people than ever before.”

It is accurate to state that the health budget will increase by an average of 1.1 per cent a year between 2009/10 and 2020/21, but the cost of treatments are rising and hospital admissions have been going up, year on year, by nearly 4%.

It is therefore not surprising that “The King’s Fund” and other organisations have declared that the NHS is “enduring the most prolonged funding squeeze in its history.”

Likewise, the British Medical Association has stated that: “Each winter the pressure on the NHS worsens, and politicians are not taking the long-term view needed to ensure the NHS can keep up with rising demand.”

In this context of underfunding from central government, reforms are being promoted which local campaigners, especially here in Cornwall, are right to be worried about.

The Sustainability and Transformation Plan for the local NHS does not solve, but reinforces, historic financial problems; the possible centralisation of radiotherapy provision from Cornwall into Devon would make it harder and harder for Cornish families to access vital health services; and there have even been claims that some community hospitals could be downgraded.

A massive change in approach is needed at Westminster and, in the first instance, that means increased funding for health and social care.