London’s NHS in crisis

A report launched today (Thursday 26 March) reveals that London NHS’s crisis has moved into intensive care.

London’s NHS – into the unknown outlines a further unravelling of services as the NHS becomes more fragmented and financially squeezed.

Roy Lilley is the chair of the inquiries that formed the basis for the reports. “We would like to report that the picture had improved over the last 12 months – however, the situation has moved from serious to being in intensive care.”

The report is a follow-up to London’s NHS at the crossroads which was released in March of last year. Both reports were funded by Unite.

“This second report brings a detailed, but disturbing, analysis of how the Health and Social Care Act has caused havoc to NHS services in London,” said Unite regional secretary for London Peter Kavanaugh.

Almost all of London’s 19 acute hospital trusts are deep ‘in the red’ and braced for an end of year deficit of almost £270m.

Most of the planned ‘savings’ centre on unproven plans to reduce numbers of patients treated as emergencies, as waiting list patients or as outpatients – all of which would drain vital funding from hospital budgets and put services and whole hospitals at risk.

To make matters worse, the plans to reduce access to hospital care are not matched by equivalent investment in services outside hospital – community health services, district nurses, or GPs.

The funding gap between resources and demand for social care, provided by local boroughs in London, is growing rapidly. Councils warned that the gap by 2017/18 in London alone could be more ÂŁ900 million.

“Some clear strategic thinking is desperately needed before the service implodes under the mounting pressures,” added Kavanaugh.

Some recommendations the report makes include an immediate reversal of the worst aspects of the health and social care act, which has wasted ÂŁ3bn of NHS funding.

More investment in ambulance services, which are losing 26 paramedics-a-week and struggling to fill 400 vacancies and the closing down of Healthwatch England with patients interests being represented by new bodies similar to the former community health councils.