Darren Jones’ Post

Lord Darzi's report is out, here are my observations and comments on the document... 🔘 The NHS is facing serious challenges, with significant public dissatisfaction, high waiting times, and overstretched staff. Public satisfaction is at its lowest level since 2009. 🔘 Life expectancy in the UK has plateaued and even decreased during the pandemic. The burden of long-term health conditions and mental health issues, particularly among children and young people, has increased. 🔘 Patients face significant delays accessing GP, community, and mental health services. Over 1 million people are waiting for community services, and long waits for mental health services are normal, particularly for children. 🔘 A&E departments are under immense pressure, with significantly longer waiting times and a reported 14,000 excess deaths annually attributed to delays in emergency care. 🔘 Despite a rise in hospital staff numbers, the productivity of the NHS workforce has declined. There is a critical shortage of GPs and community care staff, especially in deprived areas. 🔘 The NHS budget is disproportionately spent on hospitals rather than community services, with rising demand for hospital services caused by underinvestment in community care. 🔘 The NHS is behind in capital investment and technology. The lack of modern diagnostic equipment, out-of-date facilities, and inadequate digital infrastructure has hampered efficiency. Potential changes? 🔘 Structural changes are needed in the way NHS funding is allocated, with a significant push toward integrated care systems that focus on prevention and community-based services. 🔘 More staff engagement, improved workforce management, and targeted recruitment in under-doctored areas are critical. 🔘 A renewed focus on capital investment in NHS facilities and equipment is needed to address the £11.6 billion backlog in maintenance and provide modern infrastructure. 🔘 Introduce new performance management frameworks that incentivize innovation, collaboration, and improved service delivery. The Private Sector.. 🔘 The NHS has increasingly relied on private insourcing and outsourcing to address long waiting lists for surgeries and other procedures. Insourcing companies have provided services at lower costs (20-30% below the national tariff). 🔘 There is a recognition that the private sector can help alleviate pressures on the NHS by handling elective procedures. Private insourcing providers have been able to mobilise quickly to reduce waiting times, but there are concerns about the long-term sustainability and equity of this approach. 🔘 Although patients in the NHS technically have the right to choose their healthcare provider, including private sector options, this is not consistently offered or communicated to them. ________________________________________________________ Rinnova is pioneering excellence in advisor-driven recruitment www.rinnova.co.uk

Let’s get this straight: private healthcare will and must work for the NHS – not the other way around 🙃 “We learned our lesson last time.” Streeting has red lines: - no contract with any private hospitals poaching NHS staff, a tall order since only the NHS trains staff; intensive care beds for difficult cases - no more cherrypicking the easy ones - any deal must be value for money, which they say “it wasn’t in Covid”. - most private hospitals are in affluent areas: they must treat those in hard-pressed places - while the NHS still has capacity to do more if it gets more money, private care would only be short term in some places There are myriad issues here, not least that locking into long hospital contracts defies Streeting’s plan to shift patients out of beds and into the community. #heathcare #healthpolicy #workforce #publicprivatepartnerships https://lnkd.in/dav2Yhrh

More than 2,000 NHS buildings in England older than NHS, figures show Lib Dems and health trusts say patient and staff safety being put at risk by poor state of ageing infrastructure ▶️ Millions of patients are being put at risk in crumbling hospitals that are unfit for purpose, MPs have said, as figures reveal more than 2,000 NHS buildings are older than the health service itself. #NHS #LiberalDemocrats’ https://lnkd.in/eG3sqz8g

NHS Leaders Facing “Drastic Measures” To Make Ends Meet Health leaders in England are calling on the next government to protect local NHS organisations from having to further cut staffing levels to make ends meet at a time when the needs of their patients are so high. In a survey of NHS leaders across trusts, integrated care boards (ICBs) and primary care in England, some local NHS organisations are already cutting or freezing posts to balance their books. They fear local services are trapped in a cycle of short-termism where immediate cuts to meet financial targets are having to be prioritised over long term plans to improve and transform local services. The survey was carried out during late April and early May – a time when the NHS has been coming to terms with the “flat” revenue settlement set in the Spring Budget. The NHS has been set an annual efficiency target of 2.2%, despite many organisations starting the financial year in a worse underlying state due to industrial action and other cost pressures. As the NHS Confederation survey shows, many local NHS organisations are facing much higher efficiency targets that will impact on their staffing levels. The rate of NHS productivity growth has averaged 0.9 per cent over the past 25 years, with the NHS often delivering higher productivity improvements than the wider economy. However, the NHS leaders responding to the survey said that they need, on average, to make efficiency savings of 6% in 2024/25, with local services facing targets ranging from 1.6% all the way up to 11%. Recently, the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that real-terms spending on the NHS had risen less quickly than was pledged at the last general election five years ago. This squeeze on NHS spending is likely to be compounded by the main political parties committing this week to no further tax increases, which the IFS say will further constrain spending on public services. In response to this, some health leaders are having to take “drastic measures” to balance the books, with cuts to agency spending, freezing vacancies and cuts to clinical and managerial and administrative staff the most effected. This is to cover what is estimated to be a larger projected deficit in the financial plans of local integrated care systems (ICS) than has been seen in recent years. This could lead to further cuts to capital and other budgets. Cuts to staff come at a time when the latest data shows there are over 100,000 vacancies across the NHS in England, including nearly 9,000 medical posts. This short-term risk to freeze or cut posts could be seen to go against the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s commitment to grow the NHS’s headcount so that it can meet the needs of patients and respond to rising demand. The main political parties appear to agree that the NHS must grow its workforce, yet without appropriate levels of funding locally that are matched to the efficiency asks of the NHS, many health leaders feel as though they have no…

Concerning yet unsurprising new research shows delayed transfers of care are taking up to one in three hospital beds. Unfortunately, this is yet more evidence of the huge funding gap in social care. The government has made it clear that more care needs to be delivered out of hospitals and closer to home. This is why, at Right at Home we have taken the decision to invest heavily in clinical care, upskilling our incredible workforce to support District Nurses in delivering complex healthcare tasks in people’s own homes, enabling speedy hospital discharge, and preventing hospital admissions. So many more care professionals could have the same impact on patient outcomes if there was enough allocated funding for them to do so. Neglecting people in the community until they reach a crisis point and then pouring billions into acute hospital care is completely illogical – there needs to be a major shift in the way the entire healthcare system is funded so that homecare is prioritised in future budgeting. Failing to make this adjustment will make it impossible for the NHS to solve major problems with bed blocking and waiting lists. https://lnkd.in/eptt5mkY

The public has spoken, and the message is clear: it's time to prioritise primary and community care over hospitals. 🏥🩺 A report by the Health Foundation and Ipsos UK reveals that 60% of people believe the government should focus NHS funding on improving access to general practice and dentistry, compared to just 29% who prioritise hospitals. The call for earlier diagnosis and better management of conditions like diabetes and obesity is louder than ever. 📊 As Primary Care Dietitians, I see firsthand the impact of well-supported primary care on managing long-term conditions. Our mission aligns perfectly with the public's desire for a healthcare system that offers comprehensive and accessible services. 🌍❤️ Interestingly, around half of the public would even support raising taxes to ensure the NHS can maintain its current level of care. 💷 However, there's a significant mistrust in the government’s current policies, with only 9% confident in the direction being taken. It's crucial for the next government to heed this call and make tangible changes that reflect the public’s priorities. Let's champion a future where primary care gets the attention and money it deserves. Together, we can create a healthier nation. 🌟👩⚕️👨⚕️ Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/e6AKfyj9 #PrimaryCare #NHS #HealthcareReform #PublicHealth #Dietitians #CommunityCare #HealthcareInnovation

🚨 Major NHS Reforms Announced for Accountability & Excellence 🚨 The UK government has just unveiled a comprehensive package of NHS reforms aimed at ensuring that every patient receives the highest standard of care possible. With a zero-tolerance policy on underperformance, these changes seek to address longstanding challenges head-on, improve outcomes, and create accountability at every level. Key measures include: Tougher performance standards for hospitals and healthcare providers Increased transparency for patients on quality of care metrics Enhanced support & intervention to uplift struggling NHS trusts Health and Social Care Secretary,Wes Streeting emphasised that these steps are necessary to restore trust and improve services across the NHS. This is a bold move aimed at prioritising patient care and rebuilding the NHS with a commitment to excellence. What are your thoughts on these new standards for the NHS? Do you believe they will drive positive change? 💬 #HealthcareReform #NHS #PatientCare #Accountability #HealthcareInnovation

Our NHS needs reform…🧐 This is something that has been highlighted numerous times, over DECADES Lets face it, the political colour at the time any of us need to access Our NHS is insignificant to us Having the NHS as an accessible provision to anyone needing it, at the time they need it is not disputed There are many stories which showcase the benefit of our health system and how it’s impacted positively in people’s lives So what does changing or reforming Our NHS actually mean and how do we avoid ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’ I’m passionate about influencing education, health and social care across the ages I have a proven track record of changing systems which go on to demonstrate sustainable improvement for the people that use the services I’m willing to say the ‘unpopular’ thing for the improvement of safety, care and support across education, health and social care Taking this stance is not without personal and professional discomfort ‘Trouble makers’ are silenced in whatever way it takes to limit reputational damage for services I’ve been a lone voice at times and had my fair share of experiences which have led to attempts to discredit me or my businesses, without cause, just because I’ve seen the need for change and openly spoken about it I’ve created the model of L.O.V.E Leadership introduced in Draw A Heart Around It which I applied to Arterne Group businesses and have enjoyed experiencing the results There is ‘safety in numbers’ but what happens when the see-saw of balance tips in favour of keeping the peace, groups of people collude even when they know we need change, for fear of the individual consequences As a system… What if we really listened? What if we empowered the people delivering care and support to REALLY have a voice in shaping the future provisions? What if the people that used services gave feedback and we change the way we deliver our services? I’m not talking about predetermined ‘consultation’ where we, as systems, already know the outcome before we’ve had the discussions because it saves money or moves people in or out of positions which we THINK will work Complex systems requires collaboration and partnerships which are effective and transparent Problem solving for complex systems is not easy although some fairly simple solutions can be applied which help shape the direction we want to move in We can continue to play the roles as we SHOULD to keep the peace and ‘toe the party line’ But what if we didn’t… #drawaheartaroundit #love #leadership #arterne #changing #challenging #systems #health #socialcare #education

Extract-Long NHS delays in England leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths, inquiry finds Long delays for hospital, GP and mental health services are leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths and have ruptured “the social contract between the NHS and the people”, an inquiry has concluded. The findings of the study by Lord Ara Darzi, commissioned by Labour when it came to power, will be cited by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, who will on Thursday warn that the NHS has to “reform or die”. In his detailed analysis of NHS England’s woes and path to recovery, Darzi warns the prime minister that it will take his government longer than the five years Labour promised before the election to get treatment waiting times back on track. He has estimated privately that the task will take “four to eight years”… The 142-page report by Darzi, a cancer surgeon andhealth minister under Gordon Brown, is a damning critique of how years of neglect of the NHS by previous governments have left it “in critical condition” and no longer able to give patients the timely care they need amid an explosion in demand caused by the UK’s ageing, growing and increasingly sick population. He details how the NHS experienced three shocks during the 2010s: austerity funding under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government; Andrew Lansley’s “disastrous” reorganisation; and the arrival of Covid – the first two of which were “choices made in Westminster”. In his response, Starmer will accuse the consecutive Conservative administrations from 2010 to July 2024 of inflicting “unforgivable” damage on the NHS, including avoidable deaths due to long waits for A&E care. But he will also seek to reassure voters that the service will improve as a result of a 10-year plan to revive its fortunes, which Labour is expected to unveil early next year… https://lnkd.in/eN23GxSB