(Press-News.org) The BMJ today calls on the next Secretary of State for Health to "secure the NHS's future as the best and fairest health service in the world."
In an open letter, Editor in chief, Dr Fiona Godlee, and colleagues say England's NHS is stretched close to breaking point - and they set down what they believe is needed to heal the NHS.
They point to current problems, such as virtually flat-line funding in real terms since 2010, the growing demands of an aging population, and extreme cuts to social care, that have "exacerbated the pressures, causing knock-on effects across the service."
As a result, waiting times for treatment are the longest for many years, while staff morale in many parts of the service is at rock bottom because of real terms pay cuts and the relentless workload, they write.
Patient safety is now also at risk, they warn, with 13 NHS trusts currently in special measures because of concerns about the quality of care being delivered - and eighty per cent of acute trusts are now in deficit.
They explain that in his five year plan, NHS England's chief executive, Simon Stevens, demands savings of £22bn over the next five years. But say this level of saving "will still require efficiency gains never before achieved by the NHS, and a further £8bn is needed from government by 2020 just to stand still."
And they point out that additional election promises - seven day working, guaranteed shorter access times, and more GPs and nurses - have been described by Mark Porter, the BMA's chairman, as "outlandish and unachievable."
Against this background, the editors ask the Secretary of State to give "an unshakable commitment" to providing a publicly funded national health service, free at the point of need and to resist the temptation to undertake further major top-down reorganisation.
They call for a focus on collaboration not competition and marketisation, for public health budgets to be ring fenced to protect vital services, and for "good transparent governance and less political interference."
Finally, they urge the government "to properly fund England's health service."
They point out that the UK spends the joint lowest of any G7 country on healthcare as a proportion of gross domestic product, and the NHS is widely acknowledged to provide the most cost effective care of any developed nation. The NHS is not unaffordable, they say, but if it is deprived of the funds it needs to meet demand effectively, it could become so.
"History will not forgive another health secretary whose actions contribute to its decline," they warn. "Let this be the five years that secure the NHS's future as the best and fairest health service in the world."
INFORMATION:
The likelihood of record-breaking warm years in England is set to substantially increase as a result of the human influence on the climate, new research suggests.
In a study published today, 1 May, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, an international team of researchers has shown that the chances of England experiencing a record-breaking warm year, such as the one seen in 2014, is at least 13 times more likely as a result of anthropogenic climate change.
This is according to climate model simulations and detailed analyses of the Central England ...
Making a series of relatively minor and realistic changes to UK diets would not only reduce UK diet-related greenhouse gas emissions [1] by nearly a fifth, but could also extend average life expectancy by eight months, according to new research led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
The findings are outlined in two papers. The first, published in Climatic Change, estimates the greenhouse gas emissions associated with current UK diets and with diets modified to meet World Health Organization (WHO) dietary recommendations, and the second, in BMJ Open (1 ...
Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a technique to allow people to cast their election vote online - even if their home computers are suspected of being infected with viruses.
Taking inspiration from the security devices issued by some banks, the security and privacy research group at Birmingham, led by Professor Mark Ryan, has developed a system that allows people to vote by employing independent hardware devices in conjunction with their PCs.
The new technique offers a fresh contribution to the debate surrounding e-voting and could be ready ...
Patients receiving care from commercial providers of out-of-hours care report poorer ratings of care when compared with not-for-profit or NHS providers, a new study has shown.
In the first study of its kind, a team led by the University of Exeter Medical School analysed results from more than 80,000 eligible patients who responded to the English General Practice Patient Survey, and who reported their experience of using an out-of-hours service in the past six months. The work, published online in the BMJ on Friday May 1, was funded by NIHR and involved collaborators at ...
New research published today in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) indicates that for each 5% increase of a person's total energy intake provided by sweet drinks including soft drinks, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes may increase by 18%. However, the study also estimates that replacing the daily consumption of one serving of a sugary drink with either water or unsweetened tea or coffee can lower the risk of developing diabetes by between 14% and 25%.
This research is based on the large EPIC-Norfolk study which included ...
Commercial providers of out of hours GP care in England are associated with poorer experience of care compared with NHS or not for profit providers, finds a study in The BMJ this week.
The researchers say further work is needed to better understand the reasons for this finding.
Out of hours GP care in England (operated between 6.30 pm and 8 am on weekdays and throughout weekends and public holidays) is currently delivered by a combination of NHS, not for profit, and commercial providers.
After concerns over variation in the quality of out of hours care, the Care Quality ...
A new study suggests that engaging in low intensity activities such as standing may not be enough to offset the health hazards of sitting for long periods of time. On the bright side, adding two minutes of walking each hour to your routine just might do the trick. These findings were published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).
Numerous studies have shown that sitting for extended periods of time each day leads to increased risk for early death, as well as heart disease, diabetes and other health conditions. Considering that 80 percent ...
Highlight
In an observational study that followed participants for an average of just under 3 years, a "trade-off" of sedentary activity with low-intensity activity was not beneficial, but a trade-off of 2 minutes/hour of sedentary activity with an equal amount of light-intensity activity was associated with 33% lower risk of dying in the general population and a 41% lower risk of dying in the individuals with chronic kidney disease.
Previous research suggests that sitting for long periods of time may increase the risk of disease and early death.
Washington, DC ...
A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers concludes that most U.S. clinical registries that collect data on patient outcomes are substandard and lack critical features necessary to render the information they collect useful for patients, physicians and policy makers.
Findings of the study, published ahead of print April 24 in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, reveal poor data monitoring and reporting that researchers say are hurting national efforts to study disease, guide patient choice of optimal treatments, formulate rational health policies and track in a meaningful ...
"The word, virus, connotes morbidity and mortality, but that bad reputation is not universally deserved," said Marilyn Roossinck, PhD, Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology and Biology at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park. "Viruses, like bacteria, can be important beneficial microbes in human health and in agriculture," she said. Her review of the current literature on beneficial viruses appeared ahead of print April 24 in the Journal of Virology, which is published by the American Society for Microbiology.
In sharp contrast to ...
