I work in a large hospital in London and a small hospital on a Scottish island, and I agree with Wes Streeting that the NHS is “broken”, as are the majority of people in the NHS. But the proposed financial boost (Wes Streeting pledges billions to GPs to fix NHS ‘front door’, 8 July) won’t fix it – bolder solutions are needed.
It has been reported that the NHS has a additional £38 billion by 2030, but Rachel Reeves tells us that the coffers are empty. So we need to start reducing demand. Tough decisions need to be made about how to reduce expensive, worthless treatments, so that we can focus on excellent primary care. We can do this in part by rethinking end-of-life care.
People want less drugs and more care. The foundation of the NHS is primary care, and we need to better resource it and revitalise it. Expanding the workforce takes time; we need to make better use of the people we have.
We need a shift to prevention in public health, including legislation and NHS initiatives with a focus on obesity. There is no health without mental health – we urgently need to address access to mental health support, particularly for children and adolescents. These are the priorities. It is possible to fix the NHS and I hope the new government will be brave enough to do so.
Dr. Kevin Fox
Consulting physician and cardiologist