The Government will target areas with the ‘highest numbers of people off work sick’ for a new initiative to get hospitals running like a ‘Formula 1 pit stop’.
Speaking today at the Labour Party conference, health secretary Wes Streeting announced plans for ‘crack teams of top clinicians’ to go into hospitals and roll our reforms in operating theatres.
The new ways of working have been developed by surgeons and can deliver ‘up to four times more operations than normal’, according to Labour.
This model is based on operating theatres at Guys and St Thomas’ in London which Labour said ‘run like a Formula 1 pit stop to cut time between procedures’.
Mr Streeting said the initial focus on 20 hospital trusts in areas with the ‘biggest rates of economic inactivity’ is based on the Government’s commitment to ‘moving the dial’ on its ‘growth mission’.
During his speech today, the health secretary also promised to maintain the NHS as a service which is free at the point of use, claiming that the ‘crisis’ left by the Conservatives means that ‘seven in 10 people now expect charges for NHS care to be introduced’.
‘I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: over my dead body. We will always defend our NHS as a public service free at the point of use, so that whenever you fall ill, you never have to worry about the bill,’ he told the conference.
Mr Streeting also said the Government has ‘hit the ground running’ since the election, pointing to his decision to expand the ARRS to include GPs with £82m of extra funding.
He said: ‘We inherited the farce of newly qualified GPs facing unemployment. Patients can’t get a GP appointment while GPs couldn’t get a job. We cut red tape, found the funding, and we’ll have 1,000 more GPs treating patients.’
However, GPs have expressed concern that the finalised details for this scheme are yet to be published with only a week until the October start date.
As well as the focus on areas of high ‘economic activity’, the health secretary also indicated today that Government initiatives will be targeted at ‘disadvantaged areas’.
He argued that patient ‘choice’ should not ‘just be the preserve of the wealthy’, and that ‘power should be in ‘in the hands of the many’.
‘So starting in the most disadvantaged areas, we will ensure patients’ right to choose where they are treated, and we will build up local health services so it’s a genuine choice,’ Mr Streeting added.
Earlier this month, ahead of Darzi review’s publication, the health secretary set out three ‘strategic shifts’ for the NHS’ which included moving care from ‘hospital to community’.
Lord Ara Darzi’s review set out that increased general practice funding should be a ‘fundamental strategic shift’ for the Government.
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Sounds like they will be rushing theatre staff, and unlikely to succeed unless sufficient extra theatre staff are given permanent job contracts to keep them going.
And what is the effect on other hospital areas, like wards and bed availability?
Remember, Sister Nightingale calculated the optimum bed capacity at about 72%, no greater.
And some hospitals are already rushing people to recover faster than they can, with 3 hours intensive Physio and smae-day discharge instead of making sure they are fit to go home to ‘normal duties’ before discharge; and dumping emergency post-op visits on overworked GPs !
Sadly patients are not all similar F1 cars. Instead they are a procession of bespoke vehicles with non standard parts, rusted with creaking suspension, leaking engines and often little to no servicing or maintenance over the years, many worsened by the poor quality of the ingested ‘fuel’.
….in which case, shouldn’t we get Stefano Domenicali to run this F1 show?