I don’t really pay great interest in politics, well I didn’t until I was paying almost £1.40 for a litre of petrol at which point I realised that I actually only pay any attention to politics when it directly affects me, and my wallet! In reality politics affects me all the time, and because of this I decided to stand up and be counted, so I wrote to my MP.
The Government has been pushing hard that there is going to be reform of the NHS. The white paper in July 2010 called ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ was based on ‘three mutually-reinforcing’ parts.
- First. Putting patients at the heart of the NHS: transforming the relationship between citizen and service through the principle of no decision about me without me.
- Second. Focusing on improving outcomes: orientating the NHS towards focusing on what matters most to patients – high quality care, not narrow processes.
- Third. Empowering local organisations and professionals, with a principle of assumed liberty rather than earned autonomy, and making NHS services more directly accountable to patients and communities.
We have seen the plan to create GP commissioning groups, who will decide where their resources shall be spent, and pressure to minimise spending in the NHS.
The idea of Liberating the NHS is a massive project, there are layers and tangents from within it I could never hope to fully understand.
The NHS is asked to make cuts in spending, constantly. Every month, every quarter, every financial year I have to state how I am making cost savings for my department. The reality on the ground is that something has to give.
How much of a compromise are we willing to make?
Here in lies the choice:
- We can get the work done quickly and cheaply – but at the risk of not always being able to do it to the standard we would hope for.
- We can do it cheaply and more thoroughly but it would take longer to do.
- We could maybe invest into it and get it done well and in the time frame.
In the NHS we have time frames to meet – 18 weeks, 13 weeks, 6 weeks etc. We have resources on the ground (albeit usually quite minimal) – staff, equipment etc. And we are constantly reducing our financial resources. Due to this we are effectively made to choose option a.
In the last decade there has been heavy pressure by individuals, teams, departments, hospitals, trusts, PCTs, SHAs, professional bodies to ensure that we standardise care across the NHS. Should I have a test done in two different hospitals, that test should be done to the same standard, the results should be measureable and repeatable without error. This is something we are really starting to achieve.
Liberation of the NHS means a number of different things to different people, possibly because we are not as informed as perhaps we should be. Maybe we have a blinkered view, but to me these changes suggest that the NHS will become just one firm of many to choose from. We will have to compete for our business and the way of hooking the deal would be to make sure we can offer to do the job quicker and cheaper.
I am proud of the NHS. You can not compare it with the privately run hospitals in other countries. Sure, if you live until you are 100 and never need a hospital admission then paying private insurance your whole life would be a bit of a blow, but plenty of people have private medical insurance and it serves them just fine. However, what the NHS offers is something for everyone. From any financial background and from anywhere in the country you can have good medical treatment when you need it. And, it may not be as high tech and swanky as it could be but I tell you this - I would rather be seen by a team of NHS employees than anyone else. We may be overworked and underpaid – but ultimately no-one is working in the NHS for the big bucks. We all do it because we believe in it.
But, what would happen if that belief goes?
I do agree that there needs to be some change in the NHS. We have to start looking at it more like a business but this should mean investment in our hospitals and in our staff. There needs to be some insight from the people on the ground. So I wrote to my MP, I stated my concerns and aspirations for the NHS.
After the Royal College of Nursing passed a 99% vote of no confidence in the Secretary of State for Public Health Andrew Lansley’s reform plans, it has been said that over the next six weeks the Prime Minister and Mr Lansley will carry out ‘listening exercises’ and have promised to take onboard concerns. Now, more than ever is the time to stand up and be counted.
Until last week I did I didn’t know my MPs name, maybe it is time you find out the name of yours.
