Posted 27 October 2023 - 13:16
Posted 27 October 2023 - 13:16
News
Investment in nursing vital as NHS wait list could top eight million
Health Foundation analysis prompts calls for urgent action after ‘a decade of underinvestment in the NHS and a failure to address chronic staff shortages’
Health Foundation analysis prompts calls for urgent action after ‘a decade of underinvestment in the NHS and a failure to address chronic staff shortages’
A ‘chasm’ between the number of nursing staff and patients needing treatment must be addressed, the RCN has warned amid estimates that NHS waiting lists are set to increase sharply.
The number of patients waiting for NHS treatment in England could top eight million by August 2024, regardless of whether NHS industrial action continues, according to new analysis by the Health Foundation.
The think tank called for changes in policy and investment in the health service to clear the backlog.
‘Promises to cut waiting lists are empty without investment’
RCN director for England Patricia Marquis said the analysis showed a clear need for investment in the nursing workforce in the upcoming autumn statement.
‘This deplorable neglect has left an ever-growing number of people suffering as they wait for treatment,’ she added. ‘There is a chasm between the number of patients needing treatment, and the number of nursing staff available.
‘Nurses have been crystal clear that government promises to cut waiting lists are empty without investment in the nursing workforce.’
The impact of strike action
Prime minister Rishi Sunak made tackling waiting lists a priority at the beginning of 2023, but the government has since blamed ongoing NHS strikes for making the issue more challenging.
Some 7.75 million people were waiting for NHS treatment in England as of August, the highest figure since records began in 2007.
The Health Foundation concluded that waiting lists would reach eight million even without further NHS strike action, but if strike action continued the list could be 180,000 higher. However, the analysis only includes disruption caused by the junior doctor and consultant strikes due to the direct impact on the waiting list for consultant-led care.
Industrial action by consultants and junior doctors has so far lengthened the waiting list by around 210,000 – just 3% – the analysis found.
Nurses’ strikes were reaction to ‘rapid deterioration’ in services
Health Foundation director of data analytics Charles Tallack said: ‘Ministers have been quick to blame industrial action for the lack of progress in reducing the waiting list, but the roots of this crisis lie in a decade of underinvestment in the NHS, a failure to address chronic staff shortages and the longstanding neglect of social care.’
Ms Marquis added: ‘The very reason nursing staff took action is because of the rapid deterioration we witnessed in recent years.’
The Health Foundation said the government has taken positive steps to address the underlying problems facing the NHS, including the long-term workforce plan, but improvements to productivity cannot be achieved without broader action and investment.
Government ‘giving patients more control over where they receive care’
The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) has said it is ‘taking action to shorten long waits, despite disruption from strikes’.
A DH spokesperson added: ‘We are maximising all available capacity by drawing on the independent sector, as set out by our Elective Recovery Taskforce to give patients more control over where they receive their care so they can be treated more quickly.’
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