NHS waiting times and claims crises need urgent attention

THE situation in the NHS is getting worse by the day.

Although the Boris Johnson government has promised to tackle the NHS crisis head-on, nothing concrete has been done about it so far.

Six million people will be left waiting for crucial operations such as hip replacements and cataract surgery by 2024 because NHS hospitals cannot cope with rising demand, and the number of people on waiting lists for planned treatment in England will jump by 30 per cent from the current 4.6 million, according to a new forecast from a collection of private health firms.

The chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, David Hare, said as waiting lists expand, the proportion of people forced to wait longer than the benchmark 18 weeks will more than double to 19 per cent. And lists for elective surgery will swell as increasing numbers of seriously ill patients take up beds on general wards when they are moved from packed A&Es, Hare added.

At the same time, demand for surgical procedures is growing as the population gets older.

In addition, the NHS in England could reportedly have to pay £4.3 billion in legal fees to settle outstanding claims of clinical negligence. The figure includes existing unsettled claims and projected estimates of future claims, the BBC reported after getting details through a Freedom of Information request. The NHS receives more than 10,000 new claims for compensation every year and the Department of Health has said it will tackle “the unsustainable rise in the cost of clinical negligence”. Dr Christine Tomkin, of the Medical Defence Union, which supports doctors at risk of litigation, said: “We are now awarding compensation in sums of money higher than almost anywhere in the world. What we need is a fundamental change to the legal system.”

All this shows that the NHS is not yet out of the woods, and a lot has to be done to bring it up to speed, so that proper health services are provided to the people. The hard-working staff of the NHS are doing their best but are unable to cope with the rising demand they are facing because of the austerity they have suffered for the past 10 years.

Baldev Sharma Rayners Lane, Harrow.