CAMPAIGNERS demanded an urgent shift from private to public in the NHS today after a major investigation found that the health service is in “serious trouble.”
Led by former health minister Lord Ara Darzi, the report highlighted austerity as one of the main reasons why the NHS is in a dire state.
It noted that spending grew at only 1 per cent in real terms in the 2010s, compared to a long term average of 3.4 per cent.
A 2018 promise to increase funding back to this amount was “broken” with an increase of just 3 per cent a year later until now.
It declared the “disastrous” 2012 Health and Social Care Act to reorganise the NHS as a “calamity without international precedent.”
The Act expanded the role of private companies in delivering NHS services.
Research by public ownership campaign group We Own It found that over £10 million is being sucked out of the NHS in private profits every week.
Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at the group, said: “Combined with historically low capital investment, the extraction of private profits from the system has proven catastrophic for patients.
“Alongside the big shifts from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention the government is talking about, patients also need a big shift from private to public.”
He said that this could see up to 94 per cent of all current outsourced NHS services brought back into the NHS when their contracts end during this parliament.
Lord Darzi’s report found that the health of the nation has deteriorated over the past 15 years — with more years spent in ill health.
This was attributed to issues such as poor-quality housing, low income and insecure employment, which has led to a increased demand for health care from “a society in distress.”
It found that the public health grant, which is spent on areas such as screening services, vaccination and support for mental health, has been slashed by more than 25 per cent in real terms since 2015.
An increase in multiple long-term conditions, including in mental health, was also found, while cancer survival rates lag behind other countries and waiting lists remain long.
The independent review found that although GPs are seeing more patients than ever before, since they are decreasing in number — waiting times are rising.
It said Britain has almost 16 per cent fewer fully qualified GPs than other high-income countries, and noted that shortages are “particularly acute in deprived communities.”
BMA council chairman Professor Philip Banfield said that it was imperative that Health Secretary Wes Streeting take action swiftly.
He said: “Action that engages GPs and funds them properly as the expert gatekeepers to the rest of the healthcare system; action that involves reversing previous poor policy decisions which have led to avoidable and undesirable working conditions; action that reverses the exodus of highly skilled doctors who feel undervalued and overworked.”
The report said that A&E was in an “awful state” and acknowledged that long waits result in 14,000 deaths a year.
In 2010, 94 per cent of people attending the types of A&Es that deal with a full range of emergencies and specific conditions were seen within four hours, but by May this year, this dropped to just 60 per cent.
Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr John Puntis said: “Darzi has thrown down the gauntlet.
“Will government rise to the challenge or will it mistakenly conclude that the wrong treatment — ‘reform’ and further austerity — are just what the doctor ordered?
“If so, this would be both a tragedy for patients and a huge rebuff to Lord Darzi.”
