The strike action and social care crisis are leaving thousands more people stuck in hospital beds with nowhere to go, while other patients are struggling to access care, wiping out a boost in funding and NHS staffing done, it is reported.
A damning internal review into NHS efficiency carried out last year reportedly found that, despite a £20 billion increase in funding since 2018 and 15% more doctors and nurses on the NHS payroll, the healthcare provided only slightly more routine treatments than before. was before Covid.
NHS chief financial officer Julian Kelly said productivity was “still lower than before the pandemic”, with staff struggling to discharge patients and unable to cope with the delays to procedures and appointments that were being experienced caused by striking NHS staff, the Times reported.
About a third of this decline in productivity was due to metrics that do not reflect improvements, such as an increase in the number of patients sent home on the same day, the paper said. Yet hospitals were still 11% less productive than before Covid, the study found, and the number of people in hospital for more than three weeks had risen 15% on pre-Covid levels.
The increase in staffing levels masks the true picture of what has happened to hospital staffing levels. As the number of inexperienced junior staff has increased, older, more knowledgeable nurses and doctors have left the NHS.
Last July, the Guardian revealed a growing exodus of highly experienced NHS doctors and surgeons to foreign healthcare systems, including Ireland, Australia and the United Arab Emirates, where they can double their salaries and enjoy better working conditions.
NHS leaders suspect this has worsened productivity and are reportedly planning a training and management ‘blitz’ to help improve the situation. They also promise a host of other improvements, including modernizing computer systems.
In March, a damning report by MPs found the government had brought adult social care in England “to its knees” with years of uneven funding and a “woefully inadequate plan” to fill thousands of staff vacancies.
A report from the General Medical Council last year warned that a growing number of doctors are planning to leave the profession this year due to burnout and dissatisfaction.
Layla McCay of the NHS Confederation said: “Healthcare leaders recognize that they have an important role to play in making the most of the resources they are given,” adding that “the NHS clearly needs to make further progress.” However, she said improving productivity “will forever remain a challenge if the government does not wake up to the extent of the population’s health problems.”