Patients beg for common sense to return to ‘broken’ NHS as waiting lists top 7.7

Millions of frustrated patients want common sense returned to the “broken” NHS.

Fed-up with long waits and waste users have begged to be heard after an SOS was issued to help reform overrun services.

Simple ideas which put prudence and sound judgment ahead of box-ticking and chaos include opening and operating all services seven-days-a-week, A&E waits to be displayed in real-time, a ban on charging for any hospital car parking, paying to see a doctor and fines for missed appointments, and a guarantee doctors, nurses and paramedics have their training paid for as long as they stay with the health service for a decade.

They have been suggested as part of a consultation launched by Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting who said: “Anyone who works in or uses the NHS can see it is broken.”

Karol Sikora, the world renowned oncologist, said: “I’ve spent almost 50-years in medicine [and] I can honestly say, in the developed world, I cannot name a more dysfunctional and ineffective way of delivering healthcare than the NHS – it simply does not work. Until the hard questions are asked, the health service will limp on. Sticking plaster after sticking plaster, all leaving the fundamental issues untouched.”

Long-suffering patients and their families, held at the mercy of two years of crippling strikes that saw 1.5 million appointments and operations cancelled, have made their feelings clear. Public satisfaction with the NHS now stands at a record low of 29 per cent, according to the British Social Attitudes Survey, with more than two-thirds giving long waits for GP and hospital appointments as the reason. Millions continue to complain at the time it takes to secure a GP appointment.

The cry for help is the first time the public has been given a say on major reform in the 76-year history of the NHS.

They will help shape a 10 Year Health Plan, published in the spring, which will see healthcare shift from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

On the official “ideas for change website” where suggestions can be posted, one patient said: “We get fined in this country for speeding, parking incorrectly, not paying for public transport and a host of other things.

“Not showing up to NHS appointments stretches the system and directly affects other people’s health. A fining system should definitely be in place. It’s great to offer a free service, but abuse shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Another added: “People fall ill at weekends but if it is serious they can usually only get help at A&E which adds to delays and the GP surgery telephone queue on Monday morning. Both surgeries and patients would benefit from the load being spread over the entire week.”

And another said: “As such a high proportion of English patients do not pay for their prescriptions it is ludicrous to be handing out free aspirin, laxatives, and other medicines. This must be a huge financial burden to the nation.”

The NHS, founded in 1948 to provide healthcare from cradle to grave, free at the point of use for everyone, is Europe’s biggest employer but more than 100,000 key posts including doctors, nurses, paediatricians, lab technicians and cleaners remain unfilled.

On Wednesday, it is set to be one of the few winners in Labour’s first Budget for 14-years, as the Government faces a test to deliver on a manifesto commitment to deliver at least 2 million more appointments a year.

But ministers have been clear that cash alone will not be enough to tackle a catalogue of problems crippling the NHS and “investment must go hand in hand with fundamental reform”.

At surgeries across Britain, most patient’s experience the NHS, millions are being failed and care compromised by crumbling surgeries and obsolete computer systems, the Royal College of GPs said.

Doctors already struggling to cope with record demand say the appalling state of infrastructure – both physical and virtual – is “inadequate for providing care in 2024”.

One third said their work PC or laptop software is not fit for purpose, while more than a third claimed their practice building is inadequate for providing care for patients.

The RCGP, which represents more than 54,000 family doctors, said: “These issues in physical and digital infrastructure are contributing to the unrelenting pressures facing general practice: GPs and their teams delivered over 27.6 million appointments last month – over 4 million more than in August 2019 – despite having fewer fully qualified full-time GPs than five years ago. The number of patients per fully qualified GP is now a staggering 2,280.”

Sir David Haslam, former chairman of the drug-rationing body Nice, said: “The present consultation on the future of the NHS is more than welcome, but a critical question is not being considered. The Government’s stated hopes that the NHS shifts its focus from analogue to digital, from hospital to community and from sickness to prevention have all been aspirations for at least 20-years. But they haven’t happened. Why not? What were the blocks? If we don’t understand why previous plans have failed, history is surely doomed to repeat itself.”

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Anyone who works in or uses the NHS can see it is broken. But while the NHS is broken, it’s not beaten. Together, we can fix it.

“In order to save the things we love about the NHS, we need to change it. Our 10 Year Health Plan will transform the NHS to make it fit for the future, and it will have patients’ and staff’s fingerprints all over it.”