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Health leaders have questioned the government’s commitment to addressing the NHS crisis following Rishi Sunak’s new year speech.
While one of Sunak’s five promises is to reduce NHS waiting times, the British Medical Association (BMA) says the Prime Minister “refused to even admit there is a crisis”, and accused him of displaying “a baffling lack of urgency”.
Professor Philip Banfield, BMA chair of council, said Mr Sunak’s speech “lacked the detail staff needed to know that they haven’t been abandoned and that the health service will be given what it needs to survive”.
“Mr Sunak said he wants to be held accountable, and we are happy to oblige. He will be held accountable, as this crisis inevitably worsens and more staff and patients suffer as a result,” he said.
Current practice is “grossly unsafe” for patients and NHS staff
The government says there are record numbers of doctors, nurses and healthcare staff working in the NHS, with almost 4,700 more doctors and over 10,500 more nurses working in the NHS compared to October 2021.
However, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen says it is “disingenuous to insist that these services are adequately resourced, when the evidence clearly demonstrates that they are at the point of collapse”.
She said that nurses are currently forced to care for patients in corridors and other inappropriate locations, a practice that is “grossly unsafe for the patient and registered professional alike and the risk to life is severe”.
“This pressure is not constrained to Emergency Departments either. I hear that every square inch of hospital space is being used to add more patients, in escalation beds, including by closing existing services. Systemic failures include the clear and significant lack of capacity and workforce in social care, including nursing homes, in primary care and in acute inpatient care,” she added.
Government must demonstrate a “renewed sense of urgency”
The RCN, NHS Confederation and the BMA are urgently calling on the government to “show a renewed sense of urgency” and enter into pay talks in order to prevent further industrial action scheduled for later in the month.
The NHS Confederation is also urging the government to deliver on its promise of a workforce plan in order to solve the capacity issues within the health service.
“The government must also seek to fully address the 160,000 vacancies in social care which also have a direct impact on the NHS, not least compounding the delays in discharging people ready to leave hospital back into the community as quickly as possible,” said Matthew Taylor chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
“The government must now to commit to do everything within its power to address the gap between capacity and demand and to prevent the NHS from entering the next winter in this same fragile state that has sadly become the norm,” he concludes.
