How NHS struggles are impacting patients
It’s almost daily that you hear about the state of the NHS and the struggle ongoing between the government, NHS staff and the public.
There are many factors at play here and it’s difficult to get a balanced view from all sides, particularly with the variety of sources reporting on it. But what can’t be denied is the real impact felt by patients and the public in need of healthcare.
In this article, we discuss the issues facing the NHS and the consequences being absorbed by patients.
Why is the NHS struggling?
The state of the NHS has been debated for several years. Many argue that the service has been suffering from staff shortages, a lack of strategic planning and chronic underinvestment. This has led to NHS staff taking strike action over their working conditions and pay – which is a powerful reminder that healthcare staff are suffering too. Fingers have been pointed at current and previous governments for these shortcomings.
The pandemic undoubtedly had and continues to have enormous impacts on the NHS, with a whole new wave of healthcare needs being pushed to the front of an already long queue. Scheduled checkups, treatments and procedures were postponed, costing lives and delaying people’s access to the healthcare they need, which is still happening today 3 years on from the outbreak.
Parallel industries such as social care are also involved in the discussion because they play a role in relieving hospitals of patients that can be treated or cared for elsewhere, but these are facing similar challenges. As such, a lack of critical care beds is said to be one of the main issues that’s causing significant delays in waiting times and patients getting the help they require. But how is all this impacting patients?
How are patients impacted?
It’s indisputable that patients are suffering from the wider struggles of the NHS. One of the most important signals of this is waiting times for healthcare services. Waiting times for A&E were as high as 12 hours at some points last year and this has been blamed for as many as 23,000 excess patient deaths. Of course, this isn’t necessarily the fault of the healthcare staff but systemic capacity issues that prevented people from getting the healthcare they required in adequate time. People are also expecting to wait longer for appointments, referrals and consultancies.
Patients may be at risk of suffering from quality of care issues because of the pressures mounting on NHS staff. Healthcare professionals suffering from exhaustion or inadequate working conditions aren’t able to provide the standard of care that most people expect. This increases the risk of medical negligence claims and cases against the NHS which can pile even more pressure on the resources of the service. More than anything, people just want the peace of mind that their health problems are being taken care of.
