NHS keeps public away as patients seen as ‘inconvenience', new boss says

Powys County Times

11 hours ago

The NHS has built 'mechanisms to keep the public away' as patients are seen as an 'inconvenience', the new head of NHS England has told The Telegraph.
In his first interview since his appointment as chief executive of NHSE, Sir Jim Mackey told the newspaper the health service has retained too many 'fossilised' ways of working, some of which have barely moved on since its creation in 1948.
His statement comes as he prepares to implement a 10-year health plan to be published by the Government next week.
Sir Jim, who was knighted in 2019 for services to healthcare, told The Telegraph: 'We've made it really hard, and we've probably all been on the end of it.
'You've got a relative in hospital, so you're ringing a number on a ward that no-one ever answers.
'The ward clerk only works nine to five or they're busy doing other stuff; the GP practice scramble every morning.
'It feels like we've built mechanisms to keep the public away because it's an inconvenience.'
Sir Jim warned the disconnect between NHS services and the public could result in the loss of the public health service altogether.
'The big worry is, if we don't grab that, and we don't deal with it with pace, we'll lose the population,' he told the Telegraph.
'If we lose the population, we've lost the NHS.
'For me, it's straightforward. The two things are completely dependent on each other.'
The Government's 10-year health plan will aim at improving NHS services through relocating patient care from hospitals to community-based health centres, a greater use of digital tools, and preventive care.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Wednesday the plan will also aim to 'address one of the starkest health inequalities', which he claims is the unequal access to information and choice when it comes to healthcare.
Sir Jim told the Telegraph: 'We've got to somehow re-orientate it; think about how do we find people who need us, how do we stop thinking 'it's going to be a pain in the arse if you turn up because I'm quite busy' and instead think about how do we find out what you need and get it sorted.'
Sir Jim added his concerns are driven by his own traumatic experience of NHS services, when his father died in a hospital locally known for its poor standards of care.
He told the paper: 'My dad died in a hospital where the local folklore was terrible about the hospital, but the hospital was deaf to it and didn't know what was actually being said.
'I wasn't long into the NHS, it was a long time ago now, and I felt really powerless.
'I found out too late that the clinical community knew the guy who looked after him wasn't as good as I would have wanted him to be.
'I'll carry that for the rest of my life.'
In an effort to take pressure off hospitals and cut down waiting lists, the Government previously announced that 85 new mental health emergency departments will be built across England.
The 85 units will be funded by £120 million secured in the Spending Review, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they will be staffed by specialist nurses and doctors.
Patients who need help will be able to walk in, or will be able to be referred by their GP.
Under the new plans, mental health patients will also be able to self-refer for talking therapies using the NHS App
The new measures could also pave the way for AI-driven virtual support, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.