BRING BACK THE REAL NHS!
The Coronavirus pandemic has not only saddled the NHS with an unprecedented backlog of tests and operations, but the crisis is being used to force through fundamental changes in the way our health service operates, particularly through increased privatisation at all levels and the moves towards remote diagnosis. The opposition parties need to call time on these insidious policy and political changes, otherwise our NHS in 2021 will be a quite different animal than that before the lockdown.
WAITING LISTS
The challenges are enormous. The obsession to “protect the NHS” and build new Nightingale hospitals, led to a complete halt of many normal NHS functions. Cancer screening programmes were suspended, leading to about 2 million people in the UK waiting for routine tests. It is hardly surprising that there was a drop in urgent cancer referrals of 21% between June 2019 and June 2020, 40,000 less people referred for urgent cancer treatment. There was a staggering 43% drop in urgent breast cancer referrals during the same period. Cancer Research UK also point out that 6000 less people have been receiving chemotherapy as booked sessions were widely cancelled. The death toll from the delays in diagnosing and treating cancer will be huge.
The waiting lists for elective surgery are now almost unbelievable (non-urgent operations like hip and knee replacements and removing cataracts, involving mostly older people). The waiting list stood at the record level of 4 million before the lockdown, it is now estimated to stand at 8 million and could reach 10 million during the winter months. These operations may be non-urgent, but the pain and suffering caused by delays running into years should not be underestimated.
Silver Voices believes that there should be an emergency action plan, and the necessary funding, to bring waiting times down to levels lower than those at the start of the pandemic. Why are the opposition parties not making this demand and publicising their own proposals?
PRIVATISATION
The Government is taking advantage of the crisis and emergency legislation to increase, significantly, the role of private companies in the NHS, often without a tendering process. Private companies were given lucrative contracts to set up and run virus testing centres and laboratories, build Nightingale hospitals and procure personal protective equipment. The expertise of local public health bodies was bypassed in setting up a centralised ‘track and trace’ system run by private companies. Every bed in private hospitals was block-booked by the NHS in case they were needed, providing a handy cushion of support for the private sector during the lockdown. The NHS is now discussing a ‘volume-based’ deal with the private sector to provide up to 2 million procedures a year to the NHS. Why are the Nightingale hospitals not being used instead to build up public sector capacity?
This drive to privatise as the preferred policy is also evident at local community health level, at least in England. In some areas services such as health visiting and district nursing are run by the likes of Virgin Care, patient transport is privatised, eye infections are treated under contract by Specsavers and other private opticians; and mental health therapy is run by independent operators. Some may argue that the private sector can provide a better service, but our argument is that these changes are being forced through without public debate. They just happen without consultation. And once privatised it will be much easier to start charging for specific services.
VIRTUAL NHS
The final reconfiguration of our NHS which concerns us most, as representatives of older people, is the rush towards a virtual or online health service. Under cover of the lockdown there is a real danger that doctor-patient physical consultation will become a rarity in the future. The Secretary of State, Matt Hancock recently stated: “all GP consultations should be remote by default”. We receive many reports of it becoming impossible now to book an appointment with a doctor, having to explain personal details to a receptionist and then being fobbed off with a phone call, perhaps with a nurse or pharmacist. Sometimes appointments have to be made online, with no clear alternatives available. The dangers of missed diagnoses, particularly with older people who may be reluctant to go into personal symptoms on the phone or by Zoom video link, are obvious.
Our view is that, for older people at least, there should be a right to a face to face appointment with a doctor. If people want to choose alternative communication methods that is fine, but the right to an appointment should be absolute and people should not be bullied into accepting a virtual or telephone option.
The policy positions above are in line with previous consultations with members. But as we have had such a large rise in membership, about 1000 in three months, we want to check that we are still in tune with the majority of our members. Because of our increase in income we have now afforded a contract with an independent survey company, SurveyMonkey, to conduct our future polls and surveys. This means that polls will be conducted anonymously, with only the overall totals being presented to Silver Voices, and it will make it much more efficient and democratic to involve our members in the development of our campaigns and policies.
