Leading Sheffield GP says NHS feels “broken” and Darzi Review points way forward
A leading Sheffield GP and health service manager has spoken out to say that he agrees the NHS feels “broken” and believes that honesty is welcomed by frontline staff.
Dr Zak McMurray is medical director (Sheffield) for the NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, which plans services, and is also co-chair of Sheffield Health and Wellbeing Board, which scrutinises city health issues. The board brings together Sheffield City Council with local NHS leaders and members of organisations such as South Yorkshire Police, Hallam University and Voluntary Action Sheffield.
Speaking at the first board meeting (September 26) since the general election, Dr McMurray said: “From a GP perspective – I’m still a GP that does a little bit of work in the community – we’ve also had a lot of conversations about an NHS that’s broken.
“I just want to put the record straight on that. A lot of people want to talk on behalf of frontline clinicians and say that we’re offended at the fact that that is expressed.
“I would say, over the last several years at least, it certainly felt that way. When I’m waiting months, if not years, for patients to get operations and the same for outpatient appointments, it doesn’t really feel like it’s an NHS that’s functioning properly.
“So I would just like to say for people at the frontline, it’s much more demoralising to have propaganda that pretends everything’s okay. I think honestly a bit of honesty is usually welcomed.
Performance
“We then had the Darzi Review, so the NHS in particular there’s no new money, but actually the Darzi Review has described what a lot of us have said and sounded like broken records over the last few years as well.”
The Darzi Review is an independent investigation into the performance of the NHS in England, commissioned by new health minister Wes Streeting in July. Its findings include:
- The NHS is failing to meet its waiting targets for services, including mental health, community support, hospital appointments, and cancer care;
- It’s difficult for people to see their GP;
- A&E is “in an awful state”;
- The quality of care needs to be improved;
- Mental illness is increasing, particularly among children and young people;
- Cancer care lags behind other countries, with higher death rates;
- Patient rights are not being exercised due to low awareness of them.
Among other recommendations, surgeon and peer Lord Darzi argued that too much money is being spent in hospitals and not enough on community services.
Productivity
Dr McMurray said: “There is actually quite a lot of money in the NHS, the problem is the money is pushed towards the wrong parts of the system. It’s pushed to, in my view, an over-medicalised model which has just thought the best thing for patients, not the best thing for the service, and certainly not the best thing when it comes to services for other parts of the system and heads you back to patients waiting a long time for treatments and whatever.
“There’s also mention of productivity – people talk about productivity challenges. I’ve also seen productivity, or poor productivity, as an opportunity.
“I would hate to be in a position where the NHS in the mess that it is at the moment would be told we’re really very productive and there are no efficiencies to be gained.