NHS overspend could lead to suffering of patient care

Experts are warning that following a record overspend of £2.45bn by hospitals and other NHS trusts in England last year, patients could suffer, with hospital chiefs warning that the need to use extra money to bail themselves out this year, could lead to poorer patient care and longer waiting times.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of the organisation that represents trusts, NHS Providers, said that the situation was “simply not sustainable”.

“We have to rapidly regain control of NHS finances, otherwise we risk lengthening waiting times for patients, limiting their access to wider services and other reductions in the quality of patient care.”

Waiting time targets within the NHS in England are already being missed for cancer care, A&E and the ambulance service, and there are also a record number of patients on waiting lists for routine surgery, such as hip and knee replacements.

Anita Charlesworth of think tank the Health Foundation, said “The level of deficits in terms of scale and how many hospitals are in deficit is unprecedented. It puts organisations under stress, which makes them fragile and risky.

“There is pressure on recruitment, pressure on management and that has an impact on services. We are already seeing waiting time targets being breached.”

A key factor in the deficit was the high level of spending on agency staff, although this was not as large as predicted, as hospitals had been urged to rein in their spending on locum staff, for which a cap has now been introduced.

A spokesman from the Department of Health said “We recognise parts of the NHS are under pressure as demand rises due to our ageing population, but we are providing intensive support to improve performance, boost efficiency and reduce the use of expensive agency staff.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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