This isn’t the start of an NHS crisis – it’s far worse | Jan Filochowski

The shortfalls are chronic, widespread and growing. I’ve turned failing health trusts around – I can see the service needs a modern-day Marshall plan

Saying the NHS was already in crisis, as I – and a few other Jeremiahs – did two years ago, meant going out on a limb. Today, hardly anyone says anything else, not least because virtually all our dire predictions have become realities. Even public officials responsible for running and inspecting the NHS, who couldn’t be seen for dust then (the heads of NHS England, NHS Improvement and the Care Quality Commission), are going public on the gravity of the situation and begging the chancellor to do something in this week’s budget.

Indeed, how could anyone say things are OK when, in response to an increase in the past seven years of at most 15% in A&E attendances and admissions, waits in A&E have gone up by 350% and waits for admission by 550%? Increasing waiting times are the canary in the mine.

Related: The NHS is still standing. But underfunding will soon bring it down | Polly Toynbee

Continue reading... November 21, 2017 at 09:15PM