Writing in the Daily Telegraph on the 24 January, Chris Skidmore, MP for Kingswood and a member
of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, argues that we need to
find a way to care for our ageing population immediately if the NHS is to avoid
near-collapse within decades.
In his
article, Mr Skidmore points out that rising levels of obesity, alcohol abuse,
chronic disease, diabetes and an ageing demographic are shoring up a "perfect
storm” for the NHS, for which it is currently not prepared.
He also
argues that more money is not the answer, pointing out that healthcare spending
rose from £38 billion in 1997 to £102 billion today. An extra £12.5 billion
will have been poured in by 2015, and this is likely to continue to rise. Under
current projections, the NHS is expected to require in real terms £230 billion
in 2030, or twice its current budget.
The
government has pledged to make £20bn of savings over this parliament, but let’s
be realistic. Frankly, there is very little chance of any real savings to be
realised while the NHS is so disparate and unplumbed and suffers from a chronic
silo budget mentality to commissioning goods and services. Furthermore, at times is seems there is more
co-operation between Israel and Palestine than between Primary Care Trusts and
Social Services.
The good
news is that the Health Select Committee and Health Ministers are slowly
beginning to realise that for healthcare to become ‘efficient’ it needs to
reduce unplanned admissions, place more focus on community care, health
prevention measures and above all a closer working relationship between various
departments and budget holders.
However,
until there is a cultural change in public sector procurement, the road to recovery
will be slower than it need be. Presently, public sector procurement strategy places far
too much emphasis on "cost effective procurement of goods and
services" when they should be looking at "cost effective delivery of
goods and services." There is a small, but significant, difference
between the two and if we focus on the latter, well we might just get a tad
more healthcare for our taxes.