Commenting on an announcement by the Department of Health and Social Care about the introduction of a new league table of NHS providers among other reforms being outlined today (13 November), Dr Nick Murch, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “The NHS continues to find itself in an eternal crisis with no light at the end of the tunnel. The pressures throughout the system are exemplified in urgent and emergency care where prolonged waits, degrading corridor care and increasing patient harm are occurring on a daily basis.
“At the heart of this appalling “new normal” is a system where demand continues to exceed capacity. Insufficient investment in workforce and infrastructure continues to be the fundamental problem. No hospital can perform excellently whilst functioning at 100% capacity – there is no resilience in the system to cope with any increased pressure.
“The government must consider how it manages social care and how it can ensure hospitals are protected from the impacts of delayed discharges, with backlogs exacerbating an already saturated system and stifling hospital flow.
“Penalising and shaming struggling hospitals while rewarding apparently better performing organisations with additional funds and less restrictions could have significant detrimental effects. It is simply likely to create division, damage patient confidence and further demoralise staff who are striving to provide good care in an already poor environment.
“Individual hospital performance is also heavily influenced by numerous factors not directly related to its own management. There is a real risk such an approach will adversely impact more vulnerable and at risk patients by condemning struggling hospitals in a vicious cycle they are unable to break free from.
“We are hurtling into months of chaos as this winter will be a new terrifying nadir in patient and staff experience. There is consensus that the situation in the NHS has never been so challenging. Funding is only part of the solution but a crucial one; poorly conceived performance metrics, penalties and shaming are not.”