26.06.17
BMA: Government wants world-class NHS with a third-class settlement
Public satisfaction rates with the NHS has plummeted, the BMA has today stated as a survey found that more people were dissatisfied with the health service than satisfied for the first time. Its outgoing chair also warned that the government wants “a world-class NHS with a third-class settlement”.
The health organisation commissioned BritainThinks to question over 1,000 adults living in England between 12-14 June to find out their views on the NHS. And the results go against recent satisfaction surveys, as 43% of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the NHS, a figure which has doubled over the past two years, when it was only 21% of people.
Almost two-thirds (62% of people) stated that they expected the NHS to get worse in the coming years, up from 39% in 2015. Seven in 10 respondents also said they thought the NHS was heading ‘in the wrong direction’.
When asked what the biggest problems facing the NHS were, lack of funding was seen as the biggest problem, followed by concern that the NHS may not be free at the point of use in the future and increasing waiting times.
And in his fifth and final speech as chair of the BMA at the organisation’s AGM in Bournemouth this weekend before he is succeeded by Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Dr Mark Porter said the survey was evidence of the government wanting “a world-class NHS with a third-class settlement”.
He sent a clear and powerful message to Theresa May, saying: “But prime minister, you ignore the NHS at your peril. You say in your manifesto that the health service ‘should meet the needs of everyone, no matter who they are or where they live’.
“And yet the scale of the challenge facing the NHS is greater than you, or indeed any politician, was prepared to acknowledge during the campaign.”
Dr Porter reiterated the BMA’s call for NHS funding to match that of health services in Europe, as he said this would give patients and doctors in the UK “a fair chance”.
Results ‘no surprise’
But John Kell, head of policy at the Patients Association, stated that the survey results were hardly surprising given the pressures facing the NHS this winter.
“After months of alarming media reports about the pressures facing the NHS, many of them well justified, it’s not surprising that there is growing worry among the public,” he said.
“It’s a particularly sad day when dissatisfaction with the NHS outweighs satisfaction,” Kell added. “We’ve been saying for some time that whether we fund the NHS adequately or not is a political choice – the government must now face up to that choice, and be candid with the public and patients about its decisions.”
Kell continued to say that the association had been calling for the 2015 spending review settlement for health and social care to be revisited, and for spending to be raised to the sorts of levels recommended by the independent Barker Commission and the Office for Budgetary Responsibility.
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