JEREMY CORBYN’S latest twist on our coveted public health service is to allege that it is a basic human right.
But what price an NHS free to all at the point of delivery if it is unresponsive to accelerating spiralling demands?
We witness:
• The knock-on effect of disruptive summertime doctors’ strikes putting pressure on A&E departments in the winter
• GPs operating office hours at their surgeries instead of matching opening times to patient needs
• Hospital nurses demanding an end to their agreed pay cap because unfilled vacancies causes them extra work
• Funding gaps in meeting the social care needs of an increasingly elderly population
• A shortfall in mental health provision for children and adolescents
• Guaranteed cancer referral times becoming postcode lotteries.
The underlying problem is a failure to quickly identify, and adequately relieve, pressure points within the system.
Throwing money at the service, even by ring-fencing increases in National Insurance contributions, is not the answer. Extra funding takes a long time to feed into the system and is ineffective unless it is targeted.
A couple of quick wins would be to adopt the European model of “self-help” diversion to pharmacies, by introducing charges for both GP appointments and prescription drugs.
And jettisoning the monolithic NHS 111 telephone screening system, which seldom does anything other than refer patients to A&E.
And these are just two simple solutions... there are many more.
Allan Charlesworth, Old Earswick, York
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