October 11, 2019

Is it time to admit that the NHS doesn’t just have a ‘winter problem’?

With news that NHS A&E departments have experienced the ‘worst summer on record’, the proportion of waiting times under four hours only hitting 86% on average across the country, there are real concerns as we head into the winter months.

Whilst we have previously written about how A&E doesn’t just have a ‘winter problem’, as we head into the colder part of the year, an already under-pressure emergency service could well find itself creaking at the seams.

Paul Rumley, partner in our medical negligence department, had this to say about the current situation:

“With more taxpayer money being poured into the NHS currently, the ongoing difficulties with A&E departments is worrying. What is the root cause of the problem – because if more money isn’t solving it, then perhaps we should be looking elsewhere for the problem and therefore the solution?

With the NHS now funded with well over £120bn each and every year, or over £1,700 for every person in the UK regardless of whether or not they seek treatment, is it perhaps time to take a long hard look at the structure of the NHS and whether that provides value for money and the best way of ensuring patient safety as an organisation?”

 

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