NHS ‘living on borrowed time’ and only Labor can fix this – Wes Streeting

The NHS is living on “borrowed time” and will not survive if Labor cannot improve it, the Health Secretary has said.

Wes Streeting told leaders at the NHS Providers conference in Liverpool that there was a need to “restore and renew” the healthcare system.

He said: “The Prime Minister has promised the greatest overhaul of the NHS and it falls on all our shoulders to make it happen – the jewel in the crown of this government’s decade of national renewal.”

Mr Streeting told NHS leaders “we are in this together”, adding: “The NHS is already living on borrowed time and if a Labor government cannot improve the NHS it simply will not survive.”

It comes after the Health Secretary said failing hospitals will be named and shamed in the league tables and that NHS managers will be sacked if they cannot improve patient care and get finances under control.

NHS England will conduct an “unrestricted” assessment of NHS performance across England, with the results made public in league tables that will be updated regularly.

NHS trusts can expect to be ranked based on a range of indicators, such as finance, service delivery, patient access to care and leadership competence.

Health leaders hit back at the move, saying it could demoralize staff, and accused ministers of “falling for the attractive idea of ​​a magic productivity boom that will make the NHS more efficient just by shaking the magic tree harder”.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If we have underperforming senior managers, I will make no apologies for pushing those people away because people know – and this is the guilty secret of the NHS – that there are very senior managers who are paid on average, let’s not forget £145,000 a year, who are managed, remunerated in one trust and then reincarnated in another NHS trust.”

Under the government’s plans, persistently failing managers will be replaced and remediation teams sent to trusts that have large financial shortfalls or provide poor service to patients.

Meanwhile, top NHS performers will gain greater control over their spending to help modernize their buildings, equipment and technology.

The Department of Health said there is currently little incentive for trusts to run budget surpluses because NHS trusts cannot benefit from them, but that will now change, with the best performing trusts getting more of this money.

Mr Streeting has already announced that failing NHS managers will be denied pay rises if they do not improve patient care or get their finances in order.

A new remuneration framework for very senior managers will be published before April next year, with those who do well receiving financial rewards.

The deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said the scale of the challenge facing NHS leaders was “enormous” and they were “pulling out all the stops to increase productivity while taking stringent efficiency measures”.

She added: “It is vital that we take decisive action to tackle the deep-rooted causes of pressure on healthcare, including the lack of resources for public health, prevention and social care, chronic workforce shortages, financial shortages and historical underinvestment in the building blocks. and cement of the NHS, which underlie so many of the challenges we face today.

Competition tables in themselves do not lead to improvement

“Taking steps to resolve these root causes is critical before plans to introduce rankings and threats to ‘fire failing managers’ are even put on the table.”

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “The prospect of more ‘league tables’ will worry healthcare leaders as they could take away important underlying information.

“NHS staff are doing their utmost for patients in very challenging circumstances and we don’t want them to feel singled out and shamed.

“League tables in themselves do not lead to improvement.

“Foundations struggling with consistent performance issues, some of which reflect contextual issues such as underlying public health and staffing shortages, must be identified and supported to recover.”

Nuffield Trust chief executive Thea Stein said: “We know from the special measures for the quality regime that naming and shaming NHS trusts can make it harder to recruit staff, which does not help patient care at all.

It’s unclear what the new rankings will measure – a table based on general waiting times doesn’t add much if you want to know how good heart surgery is…

“It is unclear what the new rankings will measure – a table based on general waiting times does not add much if you want to know how good heart surgery is…

“Ministers have long warned the NHS against naive belief in the magic money tree.

“But they themselves risk falling for the attractive idea of ​​a magic productivity tree that will make the NHS more efficient by just shaking the magic tree harder, rather than by changing the drivers of efficiency.

“That can only lead to the NHS being forced to ask back for ‘more, more, more’, with patients ultimately paying the price.” ​