Patients 'belittled and bewildered' as access to NHS care worsens, doctors warn

Seventy-one per cent of doctors say it has become harder for patients to get treatment in the last year

An elderly gentleman walks past a hospital sign (Getty)

Patients are being “belittled and bewildered” as access to NHS care is worsening, leading doctors have warned.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said the Government wanted a world-class NHS but was only offering it a “third-class” financial settlement.

It said that the health service was at “breaking point” and concerns were being “wilfully ignored” by ministers.

The NHS was “running on fumes”, the BMA said, as it called on ministers to increase health spending to match that of other leading EU economies.

It comes after Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said in an exclusive interview with The Independent that the Government had failed to respond to clear and alarming signals another Mid Staffs hospital scandal was “inevitable”.

Ms Davies pointed to the collapse of foreign arrivals in the profession due to Brexit, chronic low pay and high stress, which was pushing people out. She sent ministers a “final warning” to take action or face nurses striking.

The Independent also revealed on Saturday how the number of GPs seeking specialist help for substance abuse and mental health problems is “increasing day on day”, amid rising levels of stress and burnout.

A new BMA poll found that more people were dissatisfied with the NHS than satisfied with services.

The survey found that 82 per cent are worried about the future of the NHS, and three in five said they expect the NHS to get worse in the coming years.

Three quarters of those surveyed said they thought the number of services on offer will be reduced and 83 per cent said they believed that waiting times would increase.

The poll of more than 1,000 English adults also found that 43 per cent were dissatisfied with services compared with a third being satisfied.

The concerns were echoed in a poll of 422 doctors, where 71 per cent said it has become more difficult for patients trying to access NHS care over the past 12 months.

The poll was issued to mark the start of the union’s annual representative meeting in Bournemouth, where leading medics will debate issues facing the workforce and the NHS as a whole.

Addressing the conference, BMA chairman of council Dr Mark Porter will say: “We have a government trying to keep the health service running on nothing but fumes. A health service at breaking point. Run by ministers who wilfully ignore the pleas of the profession and the impact on patients.

“After years of under-investment, with a growing, ageing population, and despite the extraordinary dedication of its staff, it is failing too many people, too often.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. It is the result of an explicit political choice. We don’t have to spend less of our GDP than the other leading European economies on health.

“If we spent the average – the average, not the most – then patients would see £15bn extra investment in the English NHS within five years.”

He will add: “How many people does the Government think should have to suffer like this? Waiting more than four hours for admission to a bed?

“Would 129,000 in a single year be too many? That’s what it was five years ago. Last year it was more than half a million, a four-fold increase. How many patients belittled and bewildered in this way is acceptable to ministers?”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “This does a disservice to the achievements of NHS staff – the highest cancer survival rates ever, mental health care expanding at the fastest rate in Western Europe, and 17 million people getting evening and weekend GP appointments, which is why genuinely independent research shows public satisfaction is now the highest for all but three of the last 20 years.”

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour's shadow health secretary, said: “This latest dire assessment from the BMA comes just days after severe Tory cost-cutting plans were revealed and the Royal College of Nursing issued a 'final warning' that staffing shortages leave us on the brink of another Mid-Staffordshire disaster.

“The vast majority of the public are deeply concerned and yet Theresa May remains in utter denial of her government's flagrant disregard for our health service.”

Additional reporting by Press Association