I work in a large London hospital and small Scottish island hospital, and I agree with Wes Streeting that the NHS is “broken”, as do the majority of people in the NHS. But the proposed funding boost (Wes Streeting pledges billions to GPs in order to ‘fix front door’ of NHS, 8 July) won’t fix it – bolder solutions are needed.
It has been reported that the NHS will need an extra £38bn by 2030, but Rachel Reeves has told us that the coffers are empty. Therefore we have to start by reducing demand. Tough decisions must be made on limiting expensive, poor-value treatments, allowing a focus on excellent basic care. We can partly do this by revisiting medical care in the last phase of life.
People want less medicine and more care. The bedrock of the NHS is primary care, and we need to better resource and reinvigorate it. Workforce expansion will take time; we have to utilise the people we have better.
We need a shift to prevention in public health, including legislation, and NHS initiatives with a focus on obesity. There is no health without mental health – we urgently need to tackle access to mental health support, especially for children and adolescents. These are the priorities. It is possible to fix the NHS, and I hope the new government will be bold enough to do so.
Dr Kevin Fox
Consultant physician and cardiologist
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