Saving the NHS

Since the Covid pandemic back in 2020, the NHS (National Health Service) has been struggling to meet the demands of its patients, resulting in appointments being delayed by months, emergency services struggling to respond due to hospital waiting times, specialist treatments being delayed. Although figures today are showing a slight improvement in waiting times for treatments and operations. Accident and Emergency departments are still struggling with the average waiting time for an Ambulance being anywhere from two to four hours.

So what has been the main cause of this?
There's several causes to why the NHS is struggling, especially within A&E departments. Doctor surgeries are struggling with patient demands, increase in workload, being under staffed and funding issues. Obviously your doctor is the first port of call when it comes to illnesses. But it has become very hard for many to book an appointment with their doctor. As a result of this, many people are going to their local A&E because they can't wait days or even weeks before they're able to see their doctor. Sadly, its something that isn't going to be a quick fix. What they need is improved funding, better workforce planning, bigger surgeries and policies that make general practice sustainable. But meaningful and sustained improvement depends on three hard things: (1) actually keeping GPs in the NHS (retention), (2) making training increases real and timely, and (3) sorting premises, funding, and local delivery inequalities. Without progress on those, more appointments now can be only a temporary relief.

The NHS 111 helpline has made the situation worse due to many of its call handlers not being medically trained, therefore after reading from a script, most of the time call handlers suggest the patient needs to visit the hospital, when in most cases this isn't necessary.
A study found that if experienced GPs reviewed the decisions made by 111 call handlers, many fewer people would be sent to A&E: in their sample, only ~27% of cases reviewed by a GP were actually recommended for A&E, while the rest could have been managed by out-of-hours primary care or self-care. Also, according to NHS 111 statistics, the proportion of calls assessed by a clinician or clinical advisor has actually fallen in some recent months, which could limit the “safety net” effect.

Another major issue, which did see a reduction in other UK nations, is England still charges for prescriptions. The cost per item on a prescription is £9.90. Some people who receive certain benefits or suffer from certain health conditions are exempt. Yet, a majority of people who have to pay, can't afford it especially if their prescriptions contain two or more items. This due to the current state of the cost of living. So those who can't afford a prescription tend to visit A&E for a secondary diagnosis and their medication. The NHS do offer a pre-paid prescription scheme, but again, this is a practical as it can be expensive for those who are financially struggling.
Therefore, by scrapping prescription charges in England can help reduce A&E admissions, and stop wasting everyone's time.

So What's The Solution?
There isn't a quick fix unfortunately, however there are ways the Government can and should make changes to help ease the pressure on hospitals across the UK, including their current plans to help the NHS by 2032.
Firstly, they should scrap prescription charges. There's no reason why they can't. If other UK nations have done this, and continued to do so since 2007, the Government has no legitimate reason not to do the same in England. Other UK nations have taken on the cost within their health budgets, therefore England should be no different. This can be implemented within months, not years. In addition to scrapping the charges, it will help thousands of people who can't afford to buy prescriptions, it will improve the health of those struggling, therefore relieve the pressures in hospital waiting rooms, doctor and dentist surgeries. When it comes to desperate measures regarding people's health and relieving the strains on the health service. This solution should be top of the Government's list, without any excuse. The country needs resolution, not excuses and lies.

NHS 111 Helpline needs a huge overhaul. The current system is causing more harm than good. Its not acceptable employing non-clinical call handlers, who are reading from a script and being told to send their caller to the hospital when its not required. If that has to be case, then update the system with better information instead depending on overworked hospitals to deal with them. This is also a quick solution that could take months and not years. If their system had the same full knowledge as a GP, how many of the patients who phone 111, would be advised to go to hospital? Even, AI could help with medical issues. Unless the person was severely ill (i.e. heart attack, fitting, broken bone). Nobody should be redirected to the hospital. In doing so, having the 111 service is technically pointless and a waste of money.

Mental Health is another department that needs overhauling.