In a healthcare report recently published by Imperial College London, Dame Ruth Carnall suggests that the coalition’s first health secretary Andrew Lansley put patients at risk by scrapping a review of health care in London.
SME’s in the form of local, family doctors have also been angered by government proposals lead by a former Labour health minister Lord Darzi who wishes for a cast expansion of polyclinics, otherwise known as super surgeries, which would draw custom away from the local GPs.
Hospital-bound
Lansley slowed plans down to shut down A&E departments and maternity units which would have moved care out of hospitals. Dame Carnall has stated that this has had dire consequences for patients: “The fact that some people continue to have their cancer diagnosed in A&E because of inadequate primary care and diagnostics.
“People are still admitted as complex emergences to hospitals with insufficient consultant cover, acutely ill patients admitted at nights and weekend are still more likely to die in hospitals without 24/7 consultant cover, some maternity units cannot offer the level of care needed for obstetric emergencies.
“I could cite many more examples and I do not pretend that we could have solved all these problems but measurable progress was being made on all these fronts – progress that was slowed for a time.”
Patients who have suffered at the hands of medical negligence in these circumstances are still encouraged to seek compensation. First4lawyers medical hub gives patients who’ve been wronged by the system a chance to start their claim process by getting more valuable information.
Deficit problems
It’s not just the patients and the health secretary who are annoyed and affected by this revelation however; NHS London has argued back about the complaints made against the service and are now pointing the blame towards the halted reforms.
The £5bn deficit in London’s health budget targeted NHS London for reforms, including the aforementioned super surgeries. These proposals did not only anger small business owners however as those working with the major hospitals were unhappy with the suggestion that the capital has a higher number of hospital beds than the rest of the nation.
Value for money
NHS London has said the current management of the hospital services is “not making best use of taxpayers’ money”, which places consumers, business owners and those working within the hospital in a difficult position.
Andrew Lansley’s decision to intervene has already sparked the resignation of NHS London chair Sir Richard Sykes, who stated in a letter to Lansley that it made “no sense” for him to continue his high-authority decision as “our visions of healthcare delivery bear so little in common.”
Within this letter Sykes also suggested other board members were considering their position within the company.
Labour’s shadow health minister Jamie Reed MP has said: “Such represented figures do not make these claims lightly. Ministers refused to listen to doctors and abandoned life-saving reform to NHS services. The government should be ashamed that it damaged patient care in London.”
