Britain’s national pride, the public health care system NHS, is creaking at the joints. The list of problems is long, and the situation is worsened by several simultaneous crises.
The labor shortage, the consequences of leaving the EU and the corona pandemic, public financial savings, political turmoil and the rise in the cost of living have contributed to the deepening problems.
Published by the Social and Health Committee of the Parliament in July report (you switch to another service) according to the NHS, created after the Second World War, is now in the worst crisis in its history.
Many doctors and nurses stop working, and it is not easy to find new employees. According to the committee’s report, the shortage of workers in healthcare and social work has become so bad that it is already endangering the safety of both patients and workers.
A researcher analyzing the state of health care Billy Palmer The Nuffield Trust think tank says many staff are leaving or considering leaving the NHS because the pressures at work are too great.
– They often say that there are not enough staff to do the job well. And those who try to work do not feel valued, Palmer says in an interview with news agency Reuters.
One of those considering leaving her job is a nurse in the south of England Chukwudubem Ifeajuna. He says that he is passionate about work and taking care of patients and colleagues.
– I have had thoughts of leaving, but each time I have stopped for a moment and stated that I cannot leave patients. I cannot leave my colleagues to suffer alone, Ifeajuna tells Reuters.
So far, the sense of duty has won.
Blaming fingers point at conservative governments
The situation is made even worse by the fact that the conservative governments that followed have not been able to draw up a plan to solve the situation, nor have they reached any of their goals. Considerable savings have also been made for various public services.
One example of government policy failures is the promise of 6,000 new general practitioners. Instead of an increase, more than 700 general practitioners decided to stop working. Another example is the midwives, who should hire about 2,000 more, but lost more than 500 in one year.
The most recent Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has just promised to give the NHS €130m more money and cut red tape. Many critics of the conservatives fear that in the aftermath of leaving the EU and as part of, for example, new trade agreements with the United States, the government would accelerate the privatization of health services.
The public health care system is divided into four parts, ie England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own NHS system. Health care problems are reported in all regions, and already in September of last year, the Scottish Minister of Health Humza Yousaf said The NHS being in the biggest crisis of its existence (you move to another service).
in Northern Ireland news headlines (you switch to another service) tell, among other things, about broken health services.
England’s NHS hospitals alone are now short of 12,000 doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives.
By the beginning of the next decade, it is estimated that 475,000 employees will be needed for public healthcare and 490,000 for social services.
In September, a dubious record was made in England when in hospital patient queues (you switch to another service) was more than seven million people for the first time. The goal of admission to treatment in less than 18 weeks has not been achieved since 2016.
The number of people receiving urgent cancer treatment within the target time has also decreased year by year, and now only 60 percent of cancer patients receive treatment in less than two months.
The situation for cancer patients is also complicated by the fact that during the corona period, the diagnosis of many cancers was delayed, because examinations were reduced or they were not carried out at all. As a result, treatments were delayed.
In The Lancet Oncology magazine (you switch to another service) according to a published study, breast cancer deaths in England have increased by up to ten percent and bowel cancer deaths by up to 16 percent compared to the time before the corona pandemic.
First waiting for an ambulance, then getting out of the ambulance
Congestion can be seen even at the doors of hospitals, where ambulances often queue for long periods of time to let patients off. In October (you switch to another service) In England, almost every fifth patient brought by ambulance had to wait more than an hour to be transferred from the car to the hospital. The average patient handover time was 42 minutes in October, compared to 23 minutes just two years ago.
Even before getting on the ambulance, patients have had to wait, as response times have been extended by minutes even in the most urgent cases. In October, patients classified in the second category in terms of urgency, on the other hand, waited for an ambulance for more than an hour, while the target time is 18 minutes.
of The Guardian (you will switch to another service) according to some doctors have instructed patients to call an Uber instead of an ambulance or to ask relatives for a ride if they need to get to the hospital quickly, for example due to breathing problems.
After finally getting inside the hospital, patients may have to wait for hours at the emergency clinic. A wait of more than four hours is not uncommon. And when the decision to admit to hospital has been made, there is often a wait of up to 12 hours to get a bed.
This, in turn, is due to the inadequacy of follow-up care and support services, which has led to people waiting to be discharged lying down in hospitals.
Brexit drove away European doctors and nurses
Britain’s separation from the European Union has a think tank An analysis by the Nuffield Trust (you will switch to another service) had an effect on the entry of European doctors into the service of the NHS. Pediatricians, anesthesiologists, doctors treating heart and lung diseases and psychiatrists were involved in the analysis.
The Guardian newspaper (you will switch to another service) published estimate has examined the number of European arrivals before Brexit and the situation after. Based on this, the number of doctors coming from the EU and EFTA countries, i.e. Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, is almost 4,300 less than it would have been without Brexit.
The proportion of doctors from EU and EFTA countries is particularly significant in the previously mentioned specialties.
– [Vuoden 2016] After the referendum campaign, higher costs, increased bureaucracy and uncertainty about visas caused by Brexit have been the biggest obstacles in recruiting and keeping EU and EFTA doctors at work, a Nuffield Trust researcher lists the problems Martha McCarey in the Guardian.
Health care publication BMC Health Services Research (you switch to another service) already in March of last year published an analysis based on answers collected from doctors, based on which many European doctors already working in Britain feel that they are not welcome in the country.
With Brexit, they feel alienated and are unsure of their chances of continuing to work in Britain.
NHS Wales reports (switching to another service), that both the recruitment of foreign doctors and the retention of already employed doctors have become more difficult after leaving the EU. Doctors trained in Britain also go abroad, for example to Australia and Canada.
Watch the video: This is how Britain’s exit from the EU progressed:
The effects of leaving the EU on the number of nurses have been even greater than on doctors. Based on the figures of the Nursing and Midwifery Council reported by The Guardian, up to 58,000 European nurses have stopped coming to Britain because of the EU exit.
The missing Europeans are increasingly being replaced by Indian and Filipino workers.
Although hopes for freer movement of European labor have grown in Britain, change is not in the offing right away. Even a change of power would not seem to bring change to the line.
The leader of the Labor Party, which is currently in opposition Keir Starmer swore at the weekend that free movement would not return, even if his party took over the government.
– Dismantling the Brexit agreement would lead to years of new disputes and disputes, when we should look to the future, Starmer said In The Mail on Sunday (you will switch to another service).
“Some nurses go to work in supermarkets”
The health care crisis is leading to unprecedented industrial action as nurses walk out of their jobs in December. This is the first time in the more than one hundred year history of the Royal College of Nursing, the nurses’ union.
A maximum of 100,000 workers in England will participate in the industrial action. In addition, the Unison trade union, which represents care workers, has voted for industrial action in Northern Ireland.
The nurses are demanding drastic salary increases, improvements to working conditions and a solution to the chronic shortage of workers. The demand for money is justified by the effects of inflation, which has picked up speed, and by correcting the salaries of caregivers, which have long since lagged behind the salary development.
Unison has already reported (you are switching to another service) of a strike involving ambulance workers in several areas of England before the Christmas holidays, and a strike notice is expected from the GMB union, which represents workers in the same sector.
In addition, some doctors are also considering industrial action.
Chukwudubem Ifeajuna, a nurse participating in the two-day nurses’ labor strike, says that the low wages of nurses are visible in his family’s everyday life. He has had to reduce many things from his children, which he can no longer afford due to the high cost of living.
– This is really, really difficult for everyone. Not only for me, but also for my colleagues. Some nurses go to work in supermarkets because the pay is better there.
You can discuss the topic until Friday at 23:00.