Coffey plans to help NHS backlog 'lacks detail', say staff and patients

Health and Social Care Secretary, Therese Coffey, announced the government's plans to ease the staffing crisis and health backlog in the NHS

Health Secretary Therese Coffey has announced a raft of measures to improve healthcare, as the NHS continues to experience unprecedented backlogs and shortages. Her measures include better access to GPs and £500m to help free up hospital beds. But how have GPs and patients responded to the announcement?

'We need to retain GPs'

Dr Lindsey Crockett is disappointed the government has not announced improved measures to help retain GPs

Dr Lindsey Crockett, of The Peninsular Practice in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, is doubtful of the government's proposals to ease waiting times.

Retaining GPs, she says, is key to ensuring patients can make appointments within the two-week time promised by the health secretary.

Therese Coffey is also her local MP.

"On the face of it, there isn't anything new that I'm seeing, but perhaps there might be in the detail," Dr Crockett said.

"Unless we get and retain our senior GPs, and training is optimised, we're going to find we have great difficulty providing the complex care that many of our patients need."

Dr Crockett has invited Ms Coffey to spend a day at the surgery to see for herself the pressures facing staff.

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Patient John Wooley said: "Waiting two weeks is ridiculous. People have got to be seen a lot quicker than that."

Another, Jill Silvester said: "For minor things I'm quite happy to see a nurse or physio, but I think when you know there's something that's very wrong it's very important."

It has been argued that for the NHS to be successful in tackling backlogs and reducing ambulance delays, much more needs to be done to strengthen the care sector now - not just in the future.

According to the BBC, there are currently an estimated 165,000 vacancies in the care sector in England.

Ms Coffey would like people to use more private providers to help ease the operations backlog in the NHS.

'We are at capacity'

Louise Solalsky, of the private Spire Healthcare in Norwich, says they are at capacity with NHS referrals

At the privately-run Spire Healthcare in Norwich, the number of patients paying a one-off fee for operations has almost doubled in three years.

"It's important to us that we can support the NHS as we can our private patients," said Louise Solalsky, director of its clinical services.

But she said it would be difficult for them to take on any more NHS referrals.

"We are absolutely full at the moment because of increased demand. We are at capacity most of the time," she said.

The Spire carries out about 100 NHS operations a month, with one in six of its patients paid for by the NHS.

'The NHS needs more resources'

Patient David Packham had a hip replacement on the NHS at a private hospital

One of them is David Packham, from Tunstead in Norfolk.

Mr Packham's life changed in March, when the NHS sent him to Spire for his new hip. He wants others to get the same chance.

"I was in an incredible lot of pain, having to take pain killers at the end of the day just to calm my leg down," he said.

"Having to have my shoe built up just to basically walk straight, kneeling down, nightmare."

He said he was disappointed with Ms Coffey's plan, and said he had expected the health secretary to announce "more resources and more staff to bring the backlog down, because that's only what's going to do it."

Ms Coffey said GPs will be able to take on extra staff, including senior nurses, while pharmacists will be asked to take on more work to free up appointments for GPs.

Her measures also called for a "national endeavour" with the recruitment of a million volunteers to help out too, as they did in the pandemic.

Sasha Savage, of the health workers' union, Unison, greeted the proposals with "shock, horror and disbelief" and did not feel the government had a "real plan" to tackle the issues.

"NHS and social care both face the biggest workforce crisis in their combined history," she said.

"And the proposal from a Tory government after 12 years in government is to offload the problem onto volunteers?"

She said the union wanted to see "a proper workforce plan from government" that would give staff proper pay and conditions to attract them to work and stay in the NHS.

The union is also calling for better and more training of medical staff.