Health Secretary Andrew Lansley: funding crisis threatens the NHS

[Jazzy]

The National Health Service is facing a £20 billion-a-year funding black hole that will threaten its founding principles unless the Coalition’s controversial reforms are brought in to prevent it, the Health Secretary has warned.



In an article for The Daily Telegraph, Andrew Lansley says the core values of the NHS are under threat as never before from a “financial crisis” that will see annual health spending double to £230 billion a year without urgent reform.



While insisting he would never privatise the NHS, Mr Lansley warns that its future as a universal service, available to all and free at the point of use will be at risk “within years” if radical change is blocked.



Mr Lansley’s remarks are his first since the end of the listening exercise ordered by David Cameron to try to rescue the plans, which have angered many health professionals and disgruntled Liberal Democrat Coalition members, including Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister.



While admitting that he is prepared to accept “substantial and significant” changes, the Health Secretary’s article will be seen as a clear reaffirmation of his belief in the reforms, which would abolish two tiers of NHS management and allow GP-led consortia to decide whether to buy treatment from local state-run hospitals or private providers.



It will also serve as a warning to his Cabinet critics who have privately been suggesting that the Health Secretary might resign or be sacked over his handling of the NHS changes.



Mr Lansley’s intervention in the debate comes on the day that a leading doctors’ union describes a key plank of the reforms as “completely unethical”.



The British Medical Association says plans to hand bonuses to high-performing GP groups risk “undermining patients’ trust”.



It also warns that giving GPs the power to buy £60 billion-a-year worth of treatment for their patients — the centrepiece of the reforms — may lead to accusations of conflicts of interest.



However, the Health Secretary makes clear that the changes are essential to cope with the “enormous financial pressures” generated by advances in medical science and a rapidly ageing population.



He says that unless “we act now”, real terms health spending will ultimately double to £230 billion a year – or £7,000 a second – by 2030.



“This is something we simply cannot afford,” he says.

Rest of article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...Lansley-funding-crisis-threatens-the-NHS.html

 

[Evil Eye]

I thought the NHS sorta worked.