THE NHS is one of the main concerns for the public and it is a key reason as to why people voted for Brexit, whether it was believing that the funding could be put too the NHS or that migrants do in fact are the cause of high waiting lists. Both of those have been disproved multiple times but recent reports have highlighted the growing problems within the Health Service, from unfilled positions, wasted money and failing to honour junior doctor contracts.
With immigration a big issue to most leave voters and the government’s appeasement of the far-right, there could be even bigger issues facing the NHS.
Particularly when it comes to staffing levels, which have already dropped since the vote to leave the EU.
Permanent NHS crisis
On Wednesday, the Nhs Improvement’s quarterly performance report for the three months ending 31 December was released and it showed that there are almost 100,000 vacancies to be filled. That is equivalent to one in 11 and this coincided with an increase of almost 250,000 more people visiting A&E during the same period. NHS improvement revised its estimate of the year-end deficit to £931 million (88% worse than previously estimated) after providers reported an estimated £1.3 billion year-to-date deficit.
There is a significant issue of wasted money within the NHS and University of Bristol experts conducted a study of 120 hospital trusts and found that millions are being wasted on management consultants.
The trusts are estimated to spend around £1.2 million on consultants each year to improve efficiency and service quality, however, the research shows they often have the opposite affect as they found that consulting projects are often disruptive.
Furthermore, a junior doctor is taking an NHS trust in Derby to court over failures to honour contracts of her and 20 other contracts.
Dr Sarah Hallett says it is up to NHS trusts to make sure that junior medics get a half-hour break after every four hours they are continuously on duty. However, she claims that patients are at risk because the doctors are not getting enough rest.
