Page 3 - TheWord#16

MURdeReR

www.thewordmedia.org.uk POLITICS AND EVENTS February 2017. 3

NHS killed by May

ew analysis links Medicine, the researchers from all targets were missed including has also faced severe cuts, with a the current A&E workforce ca-
30,000 excess deaths the London School of Hygiene & ambulance call-out times and 17% decrease in spending for old- pacity is unlikely to be sufficient
in 2015 to cuts in health Tropical Medicine, University of A&E waiting times, despite unex- er people since 2009, while the to meet the challenges that high
Nand social care Oxford and Blackburn with Dar- ceptional A&E attendances com- number of people aged 85 years levels of admissions of frail elder-
wen Borough Council, tested four pared to the same month in previ- and over has increased by 9%.” ly people and others who are vul-
Researchers exploring why possible explanations for the Jan- ous years. Staff absence rates rose nerable are likely to present this
there has been a substantial in- uary 2015 spike in mortality. and more posts remained empty “To maintain current levels of winter and in future winters.”
crease in mortality in England and as staff had not been appointed. social care would require an ex-
Wales in 2015 conclude that fail- After ruling out data errors, tra £1.1 billion, which the govern- The researchers say that there
ures in the health and social care cold weather and flu as main Professor Martin McKee, from ment has refused.” are already worrying signs of an
system linked to disinvestment causes for the spike, the research- the London School of Hygiene increase in mortality in 2016.
are likely to be the main cause. ers found that NHS performance & Tropical Medicine, said: “The Professor McKee continued: Without urgent intervention,
data revealed clear evidence of impact of cuts resulting from the “The possibility that the cuts to they say, there must be concern
There were 30,000 excess health system failures. Almost imposition of austerity on the NHS health and social care are implicat- that this trend will continue.
deaths in 2015, representing has been profound. Expenditure ed in almost 30,000 excess deaths
the post-war period. The excess Theresa May: has failed to keep pace with de- is one that needs further explora- Professor Danny Dorling, Uni-
the largest increase in deaths in
Commenting on the analysis,
mand and the situation has been
tion. Given the relentless nature
spike in January that year, were There have exacerbated by dramatic reduc- of the cuts, and potential link to versity of Oxford, added: “It may
deaths, which included a large
tions in the welfare budget of £16.7
sound obvious that more elderly
rising mortality, we ask why is the
who are most dependent on only been a billion and in social care spending.” search for a cause not being pur- people will have died earlier as a
largely in the older population
result of government cut backs,
sued with more urgency?”
health and social care. “small number population, the NHS is ever more “Simply reorganising and con- but to date the number of deaths
He added: “With an aging
has not been estimated and the
Journal of the Royal Society of of incidents” dependent on a well-functioning solidating existing urgent care government have not admitted
Reporting their analysis in the
social care system. Yet social care
systems or raising the ‘agility’ of
responsibility.”
Doctors Condemn May May in Denial
BMA chairman Dr Mark Por- hands of those who care for lots of people’. Theresa May has attacked the the health service.
ter wrote: ‘I have been horrified them, in the face of titanic pres- Red Cross’ description of a “hu- She insisted that the Gov-
to see the position which you sures across the system. She also said ‘it was clearly manitarian crisis” in the NHS as ernment had committed extra
have taken in responding to the preposterous to keep surgeries “irresponsible and overblown”. money to the NHS.
current crisis in the NHS in Eng- ‘The continual salami slic- open from 8am to 8pm, seven Her comments during Prime “We acknowledge that there
land. ing, the presentation of cuts as days a week as Mrs May has or- Minister’s Questions were criticised are pressures on the health ser-
improvements in the face of pal- dered.’ by Liberal Democrat leader Tim vice, there are always extra pres-
‘In playing down what is hap- pably deteriorating services and Dr Stokes-Lampard said it Farron who warned her she should sures on the NHS in the winter,
pening in hospitals up and down the scapegoating of those who was ‘old fashioned nonsense’ address the NHS crisis “rather than but we have the added pressures
the country – with beds at full work in the service have led to that GPs were overpaid and a picking on the Red Cross”. of the ageing population and the
capacity, daily breaches in A&E this situation, one in which pa- ‘distraction from the real prob- Jeremy Corbyn also accused growing complex needs of the
and critical operations being tients’ lives and well-being are at lem’. Mrs May of being in “denial” population,” she said.
cancelled – and in then seeking risk. Tory MP Sarah Wollaston, a over the state of the healthcare Mrs May said the Govern-
to lay the blame on general prac- former GP who heads the health system. ment was standing by the four-
tice, your Government appears ‘This should not be accept- select committee, also said: ‘To Mrs May acknowledged that hour target for A&E, which says
to be seeking deliberately to dis- able for any government.’ be suggesting that all of this there had been a “small num- 95 per cent of patients must
tract from what is really happen- problem is due to GPs not seeing ber of incidents of unaccept- be dealt with within that time
ing in the NHS. Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard, people is really stretching it, it’s able practice” in the NHS as she frame, after Health Secretary Jer-
‘Services are failing patients chairman of the Royal College of just not the case, it’s wrong to be sought to defend the Govern- emy Hunt suggested earlier in the
and their families, tying the GPs, warned that May had ‘upset scapegoating them in my view.’ ment’s handling of problems in week he may water it down.