Responding to the Government's elective reform plan – Plan for Change, Prof Phil Banfield, chair of BMA council, said: "The Government's plan for improvements in elective care to be driven by arbitrary targets and upgrades to an app, misses the crucial point; we need to treat the patients most in need first, rather than return to the wasteful obsession with artificial, non-clinically relevant, targets.
“With 7.5 million people waiting for care, the app may help some patients navigate disjointed and complex pathways of care, but an upgrade to the NHS app on its own won’t make serious inroads into waiting lists without significant improvements to other parts of our healthcare system.
"Waiting times are inherently linked to both demand and capacity in healthcare services and workforce. As this current winter crisis is showing, hospitals are bursting at the seams as vaccination rates have fallen and seasonal illnesses have flourished, which have added to patient numbers in emergency departments and a desperate shortage of community care provision for those patients who could be discharged.
"Furthermore, we must not discriminate or alienate those patients who cannot use or do not have access to digital technology such as tablets and smartphones; we already have a two-tier health system - those who can and cannot pay to access care. We must guard against creating a third tier of the disenfranchised vulnerable, whose needs are often greatest, with the fewest choices in their lives already.
“Direct booking by the ‘worried well’, and indiscriminate ordering of tests by those without the clinical expertise doctors have seems superficially attractive but risks swamping what limited capacity exists. This is not just about the funding of existing waiting lists but avoiding spiralling demand from an over-investigation free-for-all.
“Even with additional use of private healthcare providers, the issue with staffing remains. The most important element of the NHS is its people. Innovative reform is more than welcome but this plan needs joining up with the realities that it needs appropriate funding and support to monitor and manage potential unintended consequences. Ultimately, the health service needs enabling to provide the capacity necessary to make the real improvements patients so desperately need to see.”
Notes to editors
The BMA is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors in the UK. A leading voice advocating for outstanding health care and a healthy population. An association providing members with excellent individual services and support throughout their lives.