Report shows budget cuts and increasing pressures have taken their toll on workforce
The performance of the NHS has “slipped” in the past two years, as efficiencies are becoming “harder to deliver” and the scope for further cuts has been “largely exhausted”, an influential think tank has found.
The withering verdict of The King's Fund report The NHS under the coalition government, identified NHS employees’ inability to cope with the increasing pressures of more budget reductions as a pivotal concern for the organisation.
According to the report, in the most recent quarter (Q3 2014/15) 7.4 per cent of patients, compared to a target of 5 per cent, had to wait longer than four hours in A&E before they were seen. This is a 47 per cent increase on the previous quarter. Linked to this, the report found that between 2010 and 2014 the number of NHS staff reporting they felt unwell due to work-related stress increased by 9 percentage points to 38 per cent.
Further analysis by The King’s Fund revealed an NHS seriously weakened by low morale. Although 68 per cent of staff admitted they would feel secure about raising any concerns they had about medical practice to managers, only 57 per cent felt confident their concerns would actually be addressed. The think tank added that for NHS trust finance directors “staff morale remains at the top of their list of concerns, along with the four-hour A&E wait”.
Commenting on the findings, Rob Webster, chief executive of the NHS Confederation said: "On the one hand, this report is testament to the staff and leaders in the NHS, who have kept performing during tough times. But there is no doubt the NHS is under huge pressure, to meet ever growing demand, and it is also clear things need to change, and quickly."
Although the government had intended for NHS headcount to fall during this parliament, the report reveals it actually went up - by around 9,000 nurses, while productivity, according to certain measures also went up. But The King's Fund said it questioned traditional measures of productivity, and instead argued "crude productivity had decreased by between 4 to 5 per cent during this period."
Savings the NHS has made from pay freezes amount to around £1.9 billion, but Webster said this cannot be a long term solution.
“The King’s Fund report highlights that the NHS cannot continue relying on limiting staff salaries and reducing prices paid to hospitals to make savings."
Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said politicians must take note of the warnings made by the King's Fund. "Morale is low, and more and more staff are being made sick with stress because of the intolerable pressure they are under."