The crisis in the NHS is now very much in the news following the publishing of Lord Darzi’s review into the NHS.
In July national figures for bed occupancy were on average at 92%, worse in North West London, at 93.2% and in our local Trust at 94.6%. The safe level is 85%. The primary reason for these high figures, as we know, is the unforgivable lack of adequate community and social care to support discharge, which has a knock on effect on A&E waits etc.
Pressure on our GPs has reached crisis point after years of underfunding so they are taking ‘collective action’ to try and protect their patients and the viability of their practices.
Only the kind of investment which took place over the previous Labour Government can begin to address the problems. Yet more re-organisations and use of the parasitic private sector will make things worse – but that’s exactly what lobbyists are aiming for.
The signs are not good, but thankfully the new Government has at least quickly settled the Junior Doctors dispute. Let’s hope they will also give some justice to other staff especially our hard working GPs.
GPs ARE TAKING ‘COLLECTIVE ACTION’ AND WE SHOULD SUPPORT THEM:
Years of underfunding and diminishing GP numbers has taken its toll on GP practices. Patient satisfaction has plummeted and GPs believe that the quality of care they provide has declined. General Practice is the foundation of the NHS and it’s now at a crisis point. Our GPs are saying enough is enough and taking ‘collective action’ – it’s technically not industrial action as they are not employed by the NHS, like nurses or hospital doctors.
So how did things get so bad?
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- There are now 1,700 fewer full-time equivalent GPs in England then in 2016, while patient numbers have risen by over 6 million.
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- GPs workload has become more complex and keeps increasing as extra work is passed down from other parts of the NHS.
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- An additional pot of funding for GP practices staff did not allow surgeries to employ extra GPs, leaving thousands of locum and newly qualified GPs without jobs.
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- Below inflation funding rises have cut GP budgets in real terms and the 6% rise offered by the new Government still leaves funding below its value in 2018-19. The core funding for each patient per year is now just £107.57 – just 30p a day.
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- General Practice gets just 8.4% of NHS funding for handling up to 90% of direct patient contact with the NHS – pretty astonishing – it is no wonder that GPs have had enough!
What action are GPs taking:
Under the banner of ‘Protect your Patients, Protect your GP Practice’ the doctors union, the BMA, has listed 10 actions that GPs may choose to take.
These include; no longer doing unfunded work to plug local service gaps; not using time-consuming online or other referral forms; not allowing themselves to be used to ration care or medicines or participating in pilot schemes aimed at changing General Practice without proper agreement.
Some GPs are also limiting patient consultations to the recommended safe limit of 25 per day, instead of the current 40–50 per day, but aiming to see almost everyone face-to-face. They are sending other patients who need to be seen to Urgent Care settings instead.
They plan to continue their collective action until they get a new general practice contract that is right for patients and fair for GPs
WE SHOULD SUPPORT THEM.
More information on the BMA website here
A LIVELY AND SUPPORTIVE STREET STALL IN ACTON:
At the end of last month Ealing Save Our NHS took our colourful Stall to the Acton Market place and as usual had a great response. Lots of people queued up to sign our postcards to MPs, calling for emergency funding and an end to privatisation. It’s great to hear about peoples experiences of the NHS and GPs and some of the problems – as well as hearing about fantastic treatment, some of it life saving.
We have a new leaflet, which you can read here
Our next Stall is on Saturday 12th October from 11.30 – 1.00pm in Ealing Broadway outside Marks & Spencers – please come and join us if you can.
DARZI REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS MANY OF THE PROBLEMS FACING THE NHS:
Last month Lord Darzi published his independent investigation of the NHS, commissioned by Wes Streeting, Health & Social Care Secretary.
Darzi identifies the NHS re-organisation as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 – ‘a calamity without international precedent’ and the years of austerity, as the cause of the current state of the NHS and its lack of capacity to deliver surgeries and tests, resulting in over 7 million people currently being on NHS waiting lists.
However what he fails to identify is the other key impact of the 2012 Act , which has had a disastrous impact on the NHS , namely privatisation.
So what does Darzi say is the solution?
Darzi points to the decade of restorative funding in the 2000s as evidence of a well-run health service, when patient satisfaction was high, for both GPs and the NHS . The targets for A&E and hospital treatment were well met by 2010.
Although the remit given to him by Streeting prevented him from making funding recommendations, he is absolutely clear in his findings on the damage of underfunding since 2010:
‘The 2010s were the most austere decade since the NHS was founded, with spending growing at around 1 per cent in real terms. (Since then) the NHS has been starved of capital and the capital budget was repeatedly raided to plug holes in day-to-day spending.’
How has the Government responded:
When Secretary of State Wes Streeting, announced the Darzi Review was being held, he said that it would aim at ‘diagnosing the problem’ so the Government could ‘write the prescription’.
Sadly’ so far the ‘prescription’ doesn’t sound very promising, with no new money in the short term to alleviate any of the problems as we head in to Winter, an over-reliance on the private sector to treat more patients and bring down waiting lists, and yet even more reforms.
As ‘Keep our NHS Public’ say in their response to Darzi –‘ Will the Government rise to the challenge, or mistakenly conclude that the wrong treatments – ‘reform’ and further austerity – are just what the doctor ordered? …this would be a rebuff to Lord Darzi and – more importantly – a huge tragedy for patients, staff and the NHS.”
More on the Darzi Report from Keep Our NHS Public here
What Lord Darzi review missed, from anti privatisation campaign ‘We Own It’ here
JOIN US TO DISCUSS THE DARZI REPORT ON TUESDAY 15TH OCTOBER:
You are very welcome to join our discussion on Darzi at our next online Meeting. We have an excellent guest speaker, Dr Coral Jones from ‘Doctors in Unite’. She is a campaigning GP and member of Hackney Keep Our NHS Public. Coral will be giving us some more insight on the implications of the Darzi Report, Labour’s response and where next for campaigners. There will be plenty of time for questions and comments.
7.30pm on Tuesday 15th October on Zoom. Link here
Meeting ID: 876 2793 0568
Passcode: 403395
UPDATE ON GP SAME DAY ACCESS:
Earlier this year we reported on plans by NW London NHS bosses (ICB) to remove same day emergency care from GP practices and replace it with ‘Same Day Access Hubs’ covering a group of surgeries and staffed mainly by non–doctors, such as Physician Associates. The plans caused outrage among GPs, campaigners and other residents and the plans were temporarily put on hold.
Over 14,000 residents signed the petition strongly opposing the move away from GPs crucial role in diagnosis and making decisions on treatment.
Whilst the NW London NHS bosses (ICB) have not formally withdrawn the idea of Hubs, they have admitted that improving access is ‘multi-faceted’ and that ‘one size does not fit all’.
They are now embarking on an engagement exercise, to be led by Primary Care Networks, which are local groups of GP practices. This engagement exercise mainly involves sending patients a survey and one or two face to face events.
The ‘engagement’ was supposed to take place between September and the end of October, but it seems a number of GP practices have not even seen the survey and were unaware they were expected to send it out – and they control patient lists, not the PCNs.
We look forward to hearing the outcome of this exercise and whether it actually provides a coherent picture of access needs and best practice, which we doubt.
COME TO THE SOS-NHS NATIONAL CONFERENCE:
SOS NHS is an alliance of over 50 groups including many of the NHS unions such as the BMA, Unison and Royal College of Midwives, national NHS campaigns such as; Keep Our NHS Public, We Own It and Just Treatment and many more.
The organisers say – ‘There is a deep crisis in the NHS. Hospitals are crumbling, waiting lists are millions strong, and more services are being outsourced with NHS staff overworked and underpaid’.
‘Join us at Hamilton House on November 2, along with key activists, trade unionists and politicians to examine the state of the NHS and how we might go about saving it’.
You can book tickets here
