Patients’ lives are being cut short because hospitals are having to ration routine operations, the NHS’s financial watchdog has warned.
Jim Mackey, head of NHS Improvement, said the health service was ‘juggling hand to mouth’ and having to ‘deprioritise’ non-urgent surgery.
He said that if the NHS was not given more money in the Budget, in two weeks’ time, there would have to be an ‘adjustment’ of what it was expected to provide.
‘At some point there’s going to have to be an adjustment of what the expectations are.
‘We’re all just juggling hand-to-mouth, none of us really feel like we’ve got a long-term plan.’
Jim Mackey, head of NHS Improvement, said the health service was ‘juggling hand to mouth’ and having to ‘deprioritise’ non-urgent surgery
Referring to hospitals ‘deprioritising’ non-urgent operations – as a way of saving money – he said: ‘If you’re 85 and you can’t walk, we’re going to shorten your life.
‘That’s wrong, that’s not what we all want as society.’
Mr Mackey was addressing the NHS Providers annual conference in Birmingham, which represents 230 hospital, ambulance and community trusts.
Infection levels starting to rise
In a separate intervention, the chief executive of NHS Providers, warned hospital death rates and infection levels were starting to rise.
Chris Hopson also said that targets on cancer treatment, mixed sex wards and waiting times were ‘starting to slip back at an increasing pace.’
Extra investment needed
He claimed the UK would need to invest an extra £900 per patient to match the healthcare spending in Germany.
The NHS is struggling to meet the needs of the rising, ageing population on top of having to pay for more expensive new medicines and procedures.
Although the Government has recently injected more cash – an extra £8 billion was promised by 2020 – healthcare leaders say this wont be enough.
But the NHS has also been accused of wasting its money and figures only last week showed it was losing £1 billion to fraud.
A separate analysis last month showed hospitals’ inefficient operating theatres were wasting £130 million a year.
How much does the UK spend on healthcare?
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the UK spends an average of £2,777 per person on healthcare each year, which is the NHS and private combined.
But Mr Hopson claimed that France spent an extra £300 per head and Germany an additional £900 per head.
He said: ‘The simple point is that if we want the best care, we have to pay for it.
‘We have now reached a point where it is no longer possible to meet those NHS constitutional performance standards on current funding levels.
‘The the hard fought gains of the 2000s across a range of measures – for example, waiting times and single sex wards – are starting to slip back at increasing pace.’