NHS crisis deepens as it treats fewer people per medic than before pandemic despite more funding AND staff
THE NHS is under fire after a review found it is treating fewer patients per medic than before the pandemic despite more funding and staff.
Lord Darzi’s report said England overall had seven fewer appointments per consultant per day in 2023/24 than in 2019/20, and 12 per cent fewer operations per surgeon.
Hospital productivity fell by more than a third in the worst performing NHS trusts, stats show.
Analysis by NHS England, leaked to the Health Service Journal, estimated productivity was down by 39 per cent at Manchester University Foundation Trust between 2019/20 and 2023/24.
Staffing levels were up by 23 per cent but medical activity fell by 24 per cent, it said.
Barts Health, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals, and North Middlesex University Hospital — all NHS trusts in London — also struggled with productivity down between 31 and 34 per cent.
As staff increased by between 22 and 30 per cent across the three organisations, procedure and treatment numbers dropped by between 11 and 20 per cent.
The hospitals dispute the figures, claiming that not all the recruits were medics.
A North Middlesex spokesman said: “We rapidly expanded our staff cohort in this period and those staff do valuable activity that isn’t accounted for in these figures, skewing how our productivity is represented.”
PM Sir Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting are due to reveal a rescue plan for the service in the spring.
A Department of Health spokesman said: “Our ten-year plan will reform the NHS so we get more bang for taxpayers’ buck and clear the backlog faster.”