Has Healthcare Changed Faster than Politics?

The latest headline-grabbing ploys used by the increasingly tarnished New Labour party have been to tag the phrase ‘#welovetheNHS’ on twitter and point the finger at Daniel Hannan MEP.   However, these tactics trivialise the health debate into little more than playground politics.

We need to admit there are tough decisions to be made.  The next government will inherit a public sector debt of £800bn, or 56% of GDP up from 43% of GDP in 1997.  It will also have to face up to the modern day challenges of the health service.  Both supply and demand have transformed radically since the introduction of the NHS in 1948.  Margaret Thatcher in 1986 highlighted "it is the inefficiencies in the organizational structure that prevent the NHS from meeting the current level of demand."   As David Cameron pointed out, demand keeps on rising, for example:

·       Population demographics have changed.  It's a good thing that life expectancy is longer, but it brings with it the challenge to care for an increasing elderly population.

·       Advancements in medical care.  Improved medical knowledge, techniques and equipment mean more illnesses can be managed and treated; increasing patient population.

·       Globalization.  Despite some recent negative American reports, our NHS has an esteemed global reputation.  Perhaps because of this, I find that I use translators almost every day to communicate with patients.  Ten years ago, I probably used translators once a month.

With obesity, addiction and sexually transmitted infections increasing amongst the young, demand is a ticking time bomb that is set to explode.  Throwing tax payers’ money at demand is simply not enough.  Eamonn Butler stated ‘when politicians are so careless with our money it loses its value and you have to give up more of it to buy almost anything.’  NHS supply also needs to be carefully considered and here are some examples:

• This Labour government has undeniably increased money spent on the NHS.  However, the £100 billion budget remains unaccounted for on the frontline.  Instead, an eye watering £12bn  was squandered on the white elephant NHS IT system.  External management consultancy bills top £300 million and legal costs exceed £807 million annually.
• The supply of NHS hospital managers (39,900) now exceeds the number of clinical consultants (34,900).  This is not to say that hospitals do not need managing.  They do.  What hospitals don’t need is nugatory bureaucracy and tick-box targets.  In the words of Gerry Robinson ‘The NHS continues to employ ever greater number of managers with no clear evidence that it is being better managed as a result.’
• Supply of doctors and nurses has increased.  But this has not equated to more hands on deck, or more experience.  Just the opposite is true.  Frontline staff are concerned about patient safety following the introduction of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) and the savage reduction of postgraduate training.

Any government offering ‘healthcare freely available to all from cradle to grave’ must not shy away from challenges.  Two weeks ago Grant Shapps MP highlighted how over 80% of Primary Care Trusts were not offering the full three cycles of IVF treatment.  Such ethical and financial questions just never faced Health Minister Aneurin Bevan.  He described the NHS as ‘the biggest single experiment in social service the world has ever seen undertaken’, but what are the results of the experiment?

I would love to debate this issue with Lord Mandleson.  If rumours about him standing for the constituency of North West Durham are true, I relish this opportunity.  Labour cannot defend the NHS by repeating arguments made for its creation.  The world has moved on since then; the Labour party have been left in the past.