THREAD: state of the NHS
The collapse of emergency services that we saw in December/January may be over (for now), but the broader NHS is still very much struggling as the latest performance indicators show... 1/8
Firstly, % of people waiting more than 4 hours in A&E from arrival to admission remains stubbornly high at 29%. Emergency care is still very stretched (often due to bottlenecks discharging patients from hospital) 2/8
A record number of people are waiting for treatment - over 7 million or 1 in 8 of entire pop'n.
While backlog not growing, it's not shrinking either. Long waits are bad for individuals and bad for the economy as people in pain or sick can't work or work less effectively 3/8
In cancer care, the % of people waiting more than 2 months to start cancer treatment has been going up since 2018 but this increase accelerated since 2020 and is now at 40% (double where it was a few years ago). Imagine the stress of those patients waiting. 4/8
Exacerbating problems in the NHS is the fact that we are much worse than peer countries at retaining staff - both in this country and within hospitals.
5/8
Pay is certainly a factor in this and medical staff wages have dropped much more than the average wage in real terms since 2009, meaning many can earn more in the same job in other countries.
But it's not the only factor 6/8
NHS culture & burnout bigger factors. The latest NHS staff survey found that 9% reported experiencing discrimination; 19%-28% bullying from colleagues and patients; 74% said there were not enough staff at their org; 57% say they can't meet conflicting demands on their time. 7/8
We urgently need a comprehensive plan for helping the NHS recover - this needs to cover improved pay; improved working conditions and crucially, a plan for reducing demand through strong public health action & much better social care provision. 8/8
PS thank you to Bob Hawkins for the slides & to @jburnmurdoch for his thread today!
PPS NHS staff survey here
nhsstaffsurveys.com/results/nation…
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