“Fewer beds are a sign of success - not a sign of failure.”
Now that the 3rd quarter deficit figures are in & there is no immediate threat of resignation, lets look at this again, shall we?
In her interview with the Mirror Patricia Hewitt said:
“More money will be going into nurses in all fields to transform the quality of life and care for people in their home or closer to home”. Untrue according to the govt’s own statistics & according to the Royal College of Nursing who have been predicting unemployment among nurses.
“That will mean fewer emergency admissions, so you need fewer beds”. Possibly correct at the end of a programme of reform, not at the beginning. There is a lot of catching up to do given the number of patients whose health needs have been poorly met so far.
“Fewer beds are a sign of success - not a sign of failure”. Not in this context, they are not. This excuse was used for every single PFI build & is also partly responsible for the burgeoning Hospital Acquired Infection problem.
“This is not about cutting services or downgrading, it is about improving things, it will save lives. If we put more of the money into community nurses, we can transform lives, particularly for elderly people.” The problem is that community nursing services have been under the axe for so long, they are not newsworthy anymore. Unfilled posts, staff not being replaced when on maternity leave, overwork etc. are a common thread across most PCT’s. There simply isn’t the money going into community services.
At the time, this claim was met with ridicule.
I mean, headlines like these are simply no good.
Liam Halligan at the Telegraph trails his interview with Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme which is due for broadcast tomorrow.
I hope he & Channel 4 forgive me, but hey, we are atleast talking about him, which is good!
“It was the best year from the patients’ point of view. More people were treated, faster than ever before and more lives were saved than ever before,” she said.
“Of course it has been a difficult year for staff, as we have had to sort out the large over-spend. But it is now clear we are absolutely back on track to get the NHS into financial balance by the end of the year.”
I tell the Health Secretary about the new survey conducted for the Dispatches programme on Channel 4, which I am presenting that shows almost half the NHS hospitals in England are now delaying operations to meet an end-of-year financial target.
In many of the hospitals surveyed, treatments are being postponed for more than 20 weeks, despite staff and equipment being available. In some, the imposed delays are approaching 28 weeks - the Government’s much-vaunted maximum wait that ministers so often crow about.
“Yes, I accept that in some places, for a temporary period, while we get the finances sorted out, minimum waits may be necessary,” she said. “But we have to get the NHS back into balance. The system must live within its means.”
With the tensions between us increasing, I put it to the Secretary of State that she is desperately trying to rein in the deficit, in an unrealistic time-frame, to save her own political skin. For the first time, she loses her cool, and the interview comes alive.
“That is an absolute insult to thousands of NHS staff across the country,” she retorts, her eyes wide with anger. “That is an insult to NHS staff across the country who have worked their socks off this year to make difficult decisions.”
I point out that I am addressing her and not anyone from the NHS, and that many friends working in the health service have asked me to put exactly this point to her.
“You are simply reflecting a cynical media view. Let’s deal with the reality. It is a frustrating situation but the NHS has to live within its means - so, in some places, for a temporary period, minimum waits will be necessary.”
I pull out a letter from one regional PCT, dated last month, ordering local doctors to observe a three-month “suspension” of referrals for many conditions, including wisdom teeth, joint injections and varicose veins. I tell her that doctors who have received such letters have told me that they are deeply offended that their scope for referral is being limited in this bureaucratic way. In the words of one such GP: “Morale among my colleagues is at its lowest ebb for the 25 years I’ve worked in the NHS.”
“Look, after 60 years of NHS waiting lists, we’ve got them to their lowest level ever,” replies Ms Hewitt, still staring at the PCT letter in my hand. “The health service has been transformed. Now, of course there are problems, but you must acknowledge that we have lowered waiting times overall.”
It is a pity that Liam Halligan’s researchers did not cast their net a little wider, there is a lot more that could have been put to the Health Secretary. I for one will be watching on Monday night.
Of course, Patricia Hewitt has a bit part in the latest political embarrassment of the day, the comments by Margaret Beckett.
“No disrespect to Patricia [Hewitt] , but DTI is always a bit of a handful.
RB: I think she’s a bit out of her depth there actually.
MB: Yeah. That’s what a lot of other people say to me.”
Could easily have been said today about her health portfolio.
References:
A detailed but sanitised look at the cause of the deficits.