NHS in England at 'tipping point' - hospital bosses

NHS leaders in England say they have reached a "tipping point" and cannot maintain standards for patients on the funding they are getting.



Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said many hospital bosses wanted to "sound a warning bell" to political leaders.

It comes after latest figures showed record levels of delayed hospital discharges and patient waiting times.

The government has said it is giving NHS England the £10bn it asked for.

NHS Providers, the organisation that represents hospitals in England, says unless urgent funding is provided it will have to cut staff, bring in charges or introduce "draconian rationing" of treatment.

It highlights that 80% of England's acute hospitals are in financial deficit, compared with 5% three years ago - while missed A&E waiting time targets have risen from 10% to 90%.

Writing in The Observer Mr Hopson said: "Thanks to the dedication of staff, NHS performance rarely goes off the edge of a cliff. As the 1990s showed, instead we get a long, slow decline that is only fully visible in retrospect.

"It's therefore difficult to isolate a single point in that downward trajectory to sound a warning bell. But NHS trust bosses are now ringing that bell.

"We face a stark choice of investing the resources required to keep up with demand or watching the NHS slowly deteriorate... Something has to give."

He added that trusts would "do all they can to deliver efficiency savings and productivity improvements" but "the NHS must make some quick, clear choices on what gives, however unpalatable these choices may be".

Mr Hopson blamed cuts in social care and mental health services for causing "major problems" such as record numbers of healthy people not being discharged because of a lack of community care.

Despite being a political football, there is a lot the NHS could, and should, do to help itself.

Non emergency procedures such as breast enhancement should be stopped forthwith. - I'd also stop fertility treatment. Treating those that aren't entitled to treatment (foreign visitors without insurance) other than life or death situations should cease and when treating visitors with insurance, they should follow up the details and be sure they get paid.

Looking at how consultants use the facilities for private patients ought also come under closer scrutiny.

And best not start me on the horrendously bureaucratic hierarchy and unnecessarily plush offices of the managerial grades!