Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2008 | Page 11

FOREWORD Andrew Turner MP 24 The Mall, Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight PO30 1BW Tel: [phone] email: [email protected] BY - ANDREW TURNER MP The NHS at 60: a study in inequality? This year saw the 60th anniversary of the National Health Service. On the Island the milestone was marked with a week of celebration for staff and the public at St Mary’s Hospital. The NHS was introduced in 1948 to provide free healthcare for all and to combat inequality - a laudable aim - and it has achieved much to be proud of. Sixty years on average life expectancy in England and Wales has increased by about 12 years. The previous system was a patchwork of private, charity and municipal provision; on the Island alone there were 9 sanitary authorities and 17 medical offices of health. In 1948 quality of life, and life expectancy, largely depended on your wealth and where you lived. The NHS was meant to change all that. So why after 60 years of development, trail and error, reform and reorganisation is the NHS still fundamentally unfair? Nationally a “postcode lottery” has developed within the NHS. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are responsible for delivering healthcare locally, but they don’t all fund the same things. Some people have access to fertility treatment or expensive new cancer drugs denied to those that live nearby under the jurisdiction of a different PCT. Not only does availability of treatment depend on your postcode, but also on how national rules are interpreted locally. Some PCTs refuse to fund NHS treatment if a patient pays for certain drugs privately – others continue to offer care. Inequality has increased with devolution of the UK. We have a health lottery on a national scale with Berwick-upon-Tweed operating under the NHS England system whilst a few miles away in Scotland, a totally different system is in operation. English taxes help fund services in Scotland and Wales not available in England; such as free long-term care for the elderly in Scotland and free hospital parking in Wales. There are health inequalities even here on the Island. Statistically, residents of 12 of the Island’s 48 wards (including Newport North where I live) can expect to die three years earlier than people elsewhere on the Island. It is an NHS priority to address this. In October 2006 a single organisation was formed, with responsibility for all health provision on the Island. This is a unique arrangement; the only totally integrated health system in England and it is being watched closely to see if lessons can be learned from the ground-breaking work being carried out here on the Island. Massive sums of money have been poured into the NHS over recent years. Spending levels now match European averages, yet health outcomes (for example survival rates for cancer) are amongst the worst in Europe. In many cases it is hard to see how value for money has been achieved. So what on earth has gone wrong? I am thankful that when I www.wightfrog.com/islandlife suffered a stroke the professionals at St Mary’s were doctors not politicians. Thank goodness Robin Beal was running A&E that afternoon not Gordon Brown. Constituents don’t usually come to MPs to discuss their treatment options, so I do wonder why so many politicians still think they know best how to run the health service. Health professionals tell me that constant political interference, endless top-down targets and an overly bureaucratic approach has become a big part of the problem. This is failing patients, distorting clinical priorities and undermining highly skilled doctors and nurses. There have been cases reported nationally of patients being kept in ambulances so the clock doesn’t start ticking against the 4 hour target for them to be seen in A&E. Nobody wants to wait a long time to see a doctor but that is clearly ridiculous. The NHS and the professionals that work within it should be accountable to patients, not to Westminster. We must trust doctors to make clinical judgements and ensure they are properly involved with balancing difficult priorities. We need to make sure that nurses ar Rg&VP