The Royal College of Physicians and leading doctors have written a letter to Theresa May complaining of serious funding issues which are impacting on the ability to care for patients successfully.
The letter states that the NHS is under more pressure now than it has ever been in its history and urgent immediate action is required to resolve the crisis. The commitment by the government to train more doctors and increase the budget from 2020 are welcomed by signatories to the letter (over 33,000 doctors across 30 specialities). However, the letter states that the time for action is immediate and it cannot wait three years.
The letter reads: – “Frontline staff and managers across health and social care are clear: investment levels are not sufficient to meet current or future patient needs. As a result, in spite of rapid advances in clinical care, services are often too paralysed by spiralling demand to transform and modernise. Promises of future investment will not address the very real challenges we face going into 2017: the time to invest is now….the quality of patient care is threatened by demands which the health service does not have the capacity or resource to meet”
The Government has not yet responded to the letter but it is understood that Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, has been asked to focus on making efficiency savings as no further NHS funding should be expected.
