The NHS in a Mess – WHY?

It is dominating the headlines – the winter crisis in the NHS. Long waits for ambulances, huge pressures on the Emergency Departments, people dying in hospital corridors, difficulties getting in to see a GP, Nurses and Paramedics going on strike, low staff morale, a growing sense of anger in the public. Why is this happening? What’s going on? Can we really blame this on Covid-19 and Flu?

 

It’s a lot more complex than that! Our NHS is complex living system, not a machine. You can’t just tinker with a part of it and hope everything will be fixed.

 

I think there are (at least) 15 significant reasons as to why the NHS feels like it is creaking at the seams. And they all need serious attention, if we’re going to get out of this mess, live our best lives and restore it to the best health and care system in the world. Here they are:

 

  1. We have not created health and wellbeing in and with our communities. We have to positively create health. When we don’t, we find ourselves responding to crises. The shocking quality of housing in our most disadvantaged communities is just one example. We need to partner with our communities through genuine participation to build this together.
  2. We have not prevented ill health. Huge cuts to public health budgets since 2010 have led to a demise in prevention services and we have not learned well enough from places like Wigan, where innovative, community-based solutions have been found, despite austerity.
  3. We have not improved population health and not tackled inequality and inequity in our society with any sense of urgency. Yet, this is now affecting all of us due to the overwhelm on our public services. Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s work has proven this again and again.
  4. We have not valued people who work in the health and care sector, especially those who are paid poorly, for the incredibly hard work they do. It’s no wonder they are striking or leaving altogether.
  5. We are living longer than we were when the NHS was incepted, (though life expectancy for women is falling in our least affluent communities) but we have not invested in social care.
  6. We have not built the right infrastructure, with significantly less hospital beds and less doctors per head of population than most other similar countries.
  7. We have not championed the vital role that GPs and Primary Care services play in caring for the health needs of our local communities. We have not developed integrated community teams to the extent that is needed. The Fuller Report will help to change this, if the necessary investments follow.
  8. We have not integrated health policy with other key areas of public policy. For example, greater strategic thinking between the departments of health and education would lead to far better mental health outcomes for our children and young people.
  9. We simply have not invested enough money in our health system, as exposed in a £40 billion gap compared to most EU countries, every year for the last 10 years – that is 20% less per person!
  10. We have not developed fair funding formulae, which worsens inequalities and worsens overall health outcomes. We’re simply not putting the resources into the places that need them most.
  11. We have not recruited enough doctors or nurses and have failed to develop appropriate workforce plans in time for the situation we now find ourselves in.
  12. We have not cared for the wellbeing of NHS and social care staff, leading to high levels of burnout and low morale.
  13. We have not utilised the advantages of sharing patient records across the NHS in safe and timely ways. As a result, there remains much wasted time and effort and poorly joined-up care.
  14. We have not stopped perverse behaviours in the NHS by continuing to allow payment by results, rather than encouraging true, integrated system working. ICBs need much more upfront permission to do this.
  15. We have not planned adequately for winter again! We could have predicted this mess months and even years ago….but action is too little, too late….and the cost to human lives, as we are witnessing, is too great. And yes – of course, Flu and Covid-19 are playing a significant part…..

 

It’s not that difficult. It just requires compassionate, strategic, visionary, joined-up, collaborative leadership! Thankfully, across many levels of the NHS and Local Government there is plenty of this. Simply turn the negatives around. In the end it’s a question of values and who and what we value.

 

 

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While Children Go Hungry…….

Marcus Rashford gettyimages-1257626131

I love Marcus Rashford! His statement on child hunger is brilliant, but I don’t entirely agree with him. In his impassioned plea for us to take child hunger seriously (which I could not agree with more), especially through the school holidays, he says: “this is not politics, this is humanity.” The reality is that EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL. Politics is about how we see the world and how we live together. Economics is about how we share and manage the resources between us. Child hunger and child poverty IS a political and economic issue! We can’t hide away from this. We can call for political unity over the issue, we can appeal to the deep compassion of the human heart – but we cannot try and de-politicise the issue, however hard we try. Nor can we remain silent, in case it looks like we’re playing party politics. I am not associated with any political party. None the less this is a deeply political issue – political with both a small p and a very big one!

 

Listening to the debate in the House of Commons about whether or not children should be given meals, provided by the state, during the school break, there seemed to be four main objections to the idea proffered by some of the Conservative MPs.

 

  1. Rather than give children meals, thereby nationalising them, we should be actively promoting parents to take more responsibility, rather than being absent and encourage them to provide for their children properly. We need to deal with the causes of the causes.
  2. If the state were to intervene, it only encourages dependency and laziness by parents who can’t  be bothered to provide for their children properly
  3. The state is already giving out quite enough help already, thank you very much, via Universal Credit.
  4. We’ve all got to play our part in helping out. We’ve had ‘eat out to help out’ for the rich, now we need ‘eat nowt to help out’ for the poor…..(slight tongue in cheek point, perhaps….)

 

Let’s just examine these from both a population health and social justice perspective:

 

  1. Well….I don’t know of very many parents who don’t want to ‘take responsibility’ for their children’s wellbeing. In fact there is hugely weaponised stigma and societal shame (wrongly) applied to those who can’t. There is a massive difference between not wanting to and not being able to. I don’t disagree that we need to get to the causes of the causes of poverty and child hunger – absolutely right! But this will take a generational, focused, gargantuan and sustained effort and will involve us turning the tide on: Adverse Childhood Experiences, an unbalanced and unequal education system, spiritual and psychological degradation, ingrained and systemic racism, white privilege and abusive patriarchy, county lines, unaffordable land and housing (both to buy or rent), poorly paid work, a broken justice system (over 300000 children have at least one parent in prison) etc. We should definitely work on all of this! And as we do it will enable people to be able to take more responsibility and make more positive choices – I’m all for that. Unfortunately at present, the reality is that there are far fewer real choices available for people living in our most economically deprived communities. This is not about either/or – it’s about both/and. So, in the mean time, whilst we’re working on the causes of the causes, perhaps we could also guarantee that we don’t perpetuate the cycle further and ensure children are fed?
  2. The idea that by the state stepping in it encourages dependency, fecklessness and laziness is actually ridiculous. State intervention to provide for the hungry would actually show that we have a society and a government who care deeply for people who are struggling and having a hard time. It is one of the great debates about the role of the state, but the sad reality is that charity alone, simply won’t cut it. We need a state (be that city, regional or national – preferably all), that acts as a safety net for those who are finding life the hardest. Rashford puts it best: “……since March, 32% of families have suffered a drop in income. Nearly 1 million have fallen off the payroll. This is not dependency, this a cry for help. There are no jobs!! 250% increase in food poverty and rising. Nobody said this was simple…” Until we fix the causes of the causes, we are going to need to ensure we have appropriate interventions to the difficult realities so many in our communities face. Perhaps this might include children being fed through the holidays?
  3. Despite the ‘positive changes’ to the benefits system, with more people in work, we had rising poverty levels even before the pandemic, with more children in poverty, (worsening over the last ten years) and now we have massive job insecurity, higher
    Rise in use of Food Banks – Trussell Trust

    unemployment and we’re heading into a recession. At such a time, to imply those benefits are enough, when we know that the use of foodbanks (which are supposed to be a temporary measure) is rising, is somewhat short-sighted. I have heard so many testimonies of families who are on the ropes. Holiday food vouchers are a life line. However good you might think your benefit system is, when families are telling you they are having to choose between fuel and food as we head into winter, perhaps we might want to think about how we ensure children are fed? After all, nutrition is one of the key building blocks of a healthy and well child.

  4. It is simply inhumane to ask the poor to fit the bill of the ill thought through spending of public money over the previous several months. There have been some VAST pay outs (which will indebt the very children the government are refusing to feed) to many companies, with clauses protecting them should they not deliver on their contracts, (which is lucky for them, because they have failed, badly)….and yet we can’t find the money to ensure that children are fed. One might wonder whose side the government is on.

 

I make no secret of the fact that I am personally deeply motivated by the politics of Jesus. There are two really clear things that he had to say on the issue.

 

  1. “I have come to preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4v18-19) – and he backs this up by stating that He will restore ‘Jubilee’ – this is a radical economic redistribution of money and resources, to the poor, to combat greed and bring things back onto a level playing field.
  2. “Let the children come to me, for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven” (Luke 18v16) – Not only are we to care for children, because they are important – we’re supposed to become more like them (Matthew 18v3)!

 

In other words, if the politics of Jesus are to be taken seriously (and it seems that many conservative voters and MPs profess a ‘Christian’ faith), let it be noted that according to the Christian faith, the poor, the hungry and children really matter to God! And yes – there is space for the church, other faith organisations, charities, communities and local leaders to step into the gap and ensure children are fed, despite the government’s response – but there is also a ‘prophetic mandate’ to challenge injustice and hold leaders to account. The truth is that the need is great – 1 million children across the UK will be hungry over October half-term – they don’t want this to be ‘relooked at for Christmas‘ – they want their bellies fed now. The national government’s arguments fall flat. While children go hungry, they find themselves defending their senseless ideologies and punishing the defenceless. They urgently need to change their minds!

 

 

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Wisdom From My Nanna

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The Morecambe Bay Approach to Population Health – The Double Pentagon

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Health and Society

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