The Government did not adequately prepare NHS for winter, says former Tory health secretary

Exclusive: Stephen Dorrell told The Independent British public services need major rethink and focus on spending

Earlier this week the NHS National Emergency Pressures Panel took the drastic step of demanding health trusts delay non-urgent operations (Getty)

A former Conservative Health Secretary has said the Government did not adequately prepare the NHS for winter, as hospitals struggle to cope with increasing demand.

Stephen Dorrell told The Independent that for patients missing out on some 50,000 operations, the health service was not meeting standards.

He went on to say the NHS’s problems will go on until ministers are willing to have a major rethink on how all public services are structured and funded, with increased spending at the core of any change.

Mr Dorrell, who currently chairs the NHS Confederation, also warned there are dangers for the Conservatives if they go into another election without talking about more money for public services.

It comes soon after Theresa May apologised to patients who had operations cancelled due to a surge in demand, and as hospitals began reporting using children’s wards for adults.

Earlier this week the NHS National Emergency Pressures Panel took the drastic step of calling for health trusts to delay non-urgent operations until at least the end of the month.

But officials and politicians having been reluctant to accept there is a crisis, with the Prime Minister insisting the NHS is better prepared this year than ever before.

Mr Dorrell said: “It’s true that there has been a better effort that has gone into trying to meet the demand of greater stresses on the NHS. There are people being treated and who are satisfied, and for those people there is not a crisis.

“But for those people for whom the health service is not meeting standards to deliver high quality care, it should be.”

He went on: “So better prepared, yes, adequately prepared – no.”

Average bed occupancy across all trusts jumped to 91.7 per cent between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve compared to 90 per cent occupancy in the same week last year, analysis by The Independent showed.

It remains significantly higher than the recommended safe operating levels of 85 per cent occupancy, above which hospital infections and “bed crises” become more common.

But Mr Dorrell said the current difficulties facing the NHS, were linked to a much wider problem in the way the country had structured public services.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is under pressure over the NHS's problems (Getty)

He said need for help was being pushed onto the NHS from from less well-funded areas of public service – assisted housing, mental healthcare and social care, for example – leaving the health service’s funding pot stretched to the limit.

While the ex-cabinet minister said Ms May was not wrong that there are record levels of money going into the NHS, he said the funding was still not enough to meet the rising demand.

better prepared, yes, adequately prepared – no

Ex-cabinet minister Stephen Dorrell on the NHS

He said: “In the world today more people are living longer and there are rising levels of dependency. Then what you need to have is a range of public services that meet the new requirement for dependency.

“If the only place they can find support is in an accident and emergency department, then that is where the people are going to go.”

Mr Dorrell added: “So the question is, how is a rising level demand met – and it will require rising expenditure.”

The Conservative frontbencher from 1987 to 1998 emphasised that any party promising the kind of NHS and other public services the country needs would have to go into an election talking about increasing spending.

He explained: “The idea that you can achieve the kind of public services that we want for an open and liberal system, and at the same time cut financial support for public services, is a non-starter.

“If you take yourself to the voters, then you have to share their views and priorities, fundamentally they want to see an increase in their living standards.”

Think tank the Resolution Foundation recently concluded the UK was in the longest period of falling living standards since records began in the 1950s.

Mr Dorrell added: “If you are cutting back on public services at the same time, that doesn’t work.”

Former Prime Minister John Major warned against the dangers of 'snakeoil salesmen' (Getty) (Getty Images)

Broaching the subject of how the Government should find the extra money for public services, he hinted that extra taxes could be needed.

“If you had a growing economy and therefore expenditure on those services is rising, then you would not have to change taxes,” he said.

“But the evidence is, from this country and from right across the world, that those services are taking a greater share of overall expenditure however you chose to fund them.”

The former MP went on to say that it is possible to maintain the “equitable access” to the NHS that is the heart of its ethos, while also increasing the amount of private sector money keeping the health service going.

However the money is found, he warned that if politicians did not face up to the linked triplet of problems – boosting productivity, increasing living standards and improving public services – they risked pushing voters to the political extremes.

He said: “The danger is that in a democracy people become attracted to what John Major used to call ‘snake oil salesmen’.”