NHS keeps public away and patients are seen as 'inconvenience', health service's new boss says
Sir Jim Mackey, who was made chief executive of NHS England on March 31, has publicly criticised the health service for often being 'deaf' to criticism and retaining 'fossilised' methods of working that are outdated.
Ahead of the implementation of a 10-year health plan set to be published by the UK Government next week, Sir Jim told The Daily Telegraph that in recent years, the NHS has often 'made it really hard' for people to receive care.
He added: '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 also warned that if the growing disconnect between NHS services and the public is not rectified at 'pace', it could result in the loss of the public health service altogether.
He said: 'If we lose the population, we've lost the NHS. For me, it's straightforward. The two things are completely dependent on each other'.
It comes ahead of the Government's 10-year plan for the NHS, set to be unveiled next week.
Aimed at improving services, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly set to link doctors' and nurses' pay to their success in bringing down waiting lists.
Under the proposed plans, NHS patients could also be contacted several weeks after receiving treatment and asked if it was good enough for the hospital to get paid in full.
If the patient says no, roughly 10 per cent of 'standard payment rates' are set to be diverted to a local 'improvement fund', the Times previously reported.
The major revamp is also set to relocate patient care from hospitals to community-based health centers.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Wednesday that the plan will 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.
For Sir Jim, the health service, first created in 1948, is in urgent need of a 're-orientation', with a shift in mindset from "it's going to be a pain if you turn up because I'm quite busy" to 'how do we find out what you need and get it sorted.'
Having started his career in the NHS in 1990, Sir Jim also revealed that his concerns about the health service are predominantly driven by his own childhood experience, after his father died in a hospital 'known for its poor standards of care'.
Adding that he will carry the trauma of his father's death 'for the rest of my life', the NHS England boss previously vowed to MPs that he would 'pick up the pace of reform' and tackle the widespread 'inefficiency'.
In April, MailOnline revealed how Sir Jim is 'running the NHS from a train carriage' as he was caught watching Netflix in the middle of the afternoon before snoozing off.
Sir Jim, who commutes 1,200 miles a week between the office in London and his Northumberland home, was also found by a Mail exclusive investigation to have left his laptop unlocked while using a train toilet.
He openly displayed documents including one revealing details of an 'NHS leadership' meeting. And the health service chief slept half an hour - through an alert on his device reminding him of an online meeting.
In response, former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: 'You couldn't make it up.
'It's not a great lesson in efficiency when you waste so much time travelling and falling asleep. You can't run the NHS from a train carriage. If you want to do the job properly, you've got to be in the office. It's what most businesses would demand.'
But Health Secretary Wes Streeting backed his hire to lead the NHS, declaring: 'Jim is proving to be worth his weight in gold.'
Sir Jim was initially appointed to oversee a dramatic cut in waste and inefficiency across the NHS, with the Government saying it wants to axe 50 per cent of corporate management jobs and use the savings of hundreds of millions of pounds to improve frontline services.
It comes ahead of the Government's 10-year plan for the NHS, set to be unveiled next week. Aiming at improving services, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly set to link doctors' and nurses' pay to their success in bringing down waiting lists. (File image of an NHS waiting room)
The transition' period under the Labour government is expected to take two years, with Sir Jim due to be the helmsman until then.
In a bid 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 £120million 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.
Maternity wards are also expected to be among the first parts of UK hospitals to be placed under the microscope, after Streeting launched a full review into services across the country, saying that women had been 'ignored, gaslit [and] lied to' by the NHS.
Previous plans unveiled by Mr Streeting revealed a diversion of more than £2billion in NHS spending to working class communities.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
15 minutes ago
- The Independent
Using AI tools can ‘deskill' certain health workers
Using AI regularly can potentially 'deskill' health workers, a new study suggests. Academics said that the finding is 'concerning' given the rapid uptake of artificial intelligence (AI) across healthcare. The new study looked at health workers who perform a test to look for early signs of bowel cancer. Endoscopists perform a test called a colonoscopy to look for precancerous growths in the bowel known as adenomas. This means these pre-cancerous growths can be detected and removed, preventing them from becoming bowel cancer. Advances in AI technology have led to the development of computer-assisted polyp detection systems, which have been found to help these health workers spot more adenomas. Researchers wanted to assess whether continuous use of AI led to a dip in performance when endoscopist perform colonoscopies without AI by analysing work conducted in Poland. The research team analysed 1,442 colonoscopies conducted by experienced health workers before and after AI systems were rolled out at certain centres in 2021. Writing in the journal Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, researchers reported that the rate of detection of polyps was 6% lower after the introduction of AI in standard and non-AI assisted colonoscopies. 'To our knowledge this is the first study to suggest a negative impact of regular AI use on healthcare professionals' ability to complete a patient-relevant task in medicine of any kind,' said one of the study authors, Dr Marcin Romanczyk, Academy of Silesia in Poland. 'Our results are concerning given the adoption of AI in medicine is rapidly spreading. 'We urgently need more research into the impact of AI on health professional's skills across different medical fields. We need to find out which factors may cause or contribute to problems when healthcare professionals and AI systems don't work well together, and to develop ways to fix or improve these interactions.' In a linked editorial, Omer Ahmad, a consultant gastroenterologist and interventional endoscopist and clinical research fellow at University College London, wrote: 'These findings temper the current enthusiasm for rapid adoption of AI-based technologies such as CADe and highlight the importance of carefully considering possible unintended clinical consequences. 'The study provides the first real-world clinical evidence for the phenomenon of deskilling, potentially affecting patient-related outcomes.'
The Independent
15 minutes ago
- The Independent
Calorie labels rarely influence takeaway choices, survey suggests
Calorie labels rarely influence takeaway choices and are unlikely to encourage people to eat more healthily, a survey suggests. A poll of 1,040 adults living in England found the majority (77%) did not notice any calorie information during their most recent online takeaway purchase, the study, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Reading and Exeter universities and published in BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health, found. Of those who did, 71% said it did not affect their food choices. Instead, taste and price were ranked the most important factors when deciding which takeaway to order, while healthiness and low carbon footprint were ranked as the least important. Around 50% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that alternative interventions, such as traffic-light labels and more healthy alternatives on the menus, would encourage them to make a healthier choice. People under the age of 35 were more than twice as likely to order takeaways weekly or more often than those who were older, the poll found. The study also asked respondents to report their height and weight measurements, which the research team used to calculate body mass index (BMI) scores, finding just over half of the sample had BMI scores indicating they were living with obesity (35%) or were overweight (28%). Those with BMI scores that classed them as obese or overweight were twice as likely to have weekly or more frequent takeaways compared to those with healthy or underweight BMI scores. It is estimated almost two-thirds (63%) of adults in England are overweight or living with obesity. Current guidance recommends adults should consume around 2,000 calories a day and main meals should contain around 600 calories each. Frequent consumption of out-of-home food, including takeaways, has been linked to higher energy intake and poorer diet quality. As part of a government strategy to encourage healthier eating, calorie labelling was introduced in April 2022 for large out-of-home businesses across England, including restaurants, cafes and takeaways. As well as listing the calories for each food item, menus also need to include a statement of the recommended daily calorie intake. Associate Professor Laura Cornelsen, lead author of the study based at LSHTM, said: 'While calorie labels can encourage businesses to provide healthier options, they aren't necessarily the answer to reducing unhealthy eating and tackling obesity. 'When we asked participants what they think could improve healthy eating, they suggested for example 'buy one get one free' offers on healthier dishes and more education early on in schools on food preparation. 'These are both examples of interventions that can equip people with the knowledge to plan healthier options in a way that works with their schedule and income. 'The focus should be on tackling systemic issues, like making it simpler and more affordable to purchase healthier options, rather than adding even more pressure to consumers and families to change their choices. The onus should also be on the food industry to get creative with offering tasty and affordable meals that also meet nutrition guidelines.' Study co-author Dr Cherry Law, a food economist at the University of Reading, said: 'While awareness of calorie labelling rules is quite high, most people don't notice the information when ordering online, and even when they do it rarely changes what they choose. 'The takeaway message is that we need strategies that reflect what people care about when eating out, as calorie information alone is not enough.'
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Patients like a medic in a white coat, but often mistake female doctors for nurses
Patients see doctors in a white coat as professional and trustworthy but often mistake a female medic wearing one for a nurse or medical assistant, a study has found. Female physicians are 'unfairly judged based on appearance and attire, which affected patients' perceptions of professionalism and competency', according to a global review of the evidence around patients' impressions of what doctors wear. 'Female physicians are often judged more on appearance than their male counterparts,' it said. 'The way female physicians dress significantly influences perceptions of competence and professionalism, highlighting the gendered expectations that patients hold. 'Even when male and female physicians wore identical attire, female physicians were still more likely to be misidentified as nurses or medical assistants.' The researchers found that 'gender-related perceptions of physician attire' existed across the 13 countries studied, including the US, India, Japan, China and Germany. The paper, published in the journal BMJ Open, is based on an analysis of 32 previously published studies on perceptions of doctors' clothing. 'The expectations regarding attire are often gendered, particularly affecting the recognition and respect given to female physicians,' the paper's co-authors write. Such behaviour is so widespread that hospitals and other healthcare providers should try to reduce bias among patients and 'foster equitable perceptions' of male and female medics, they add. The white coat has been a symbol of medical expertise for decades. Its association in patients' minds with cleanliness and professionalism meant that 'white medical coats became the standard attire for physicians worldwide in the 20th century'. Until then, doctors had generally worn black clothing to reflect the seriousness of meetings with patients. People receiving healthcare find the white coat reassuring, the study found. 'Regardless of gender, patients exhibited favourable attitudes towards physicians wearing white coats, perceiving the physicians as trustworthy, respectful, skilled, communicative and empathetic.' The white coat is still widely used by doctors worldwide. However, it was banned in the UK in 2008, when the government decided that medics working in the NHS should follow a 'bare below the elbows' approach to reduce their risk of spreading infections. The British Medical Association was unsure that evidence justified the change. Despite patients' preference for doctors wearing formal clothing, the Covid-19 pandemic made them more accepting of scrubs. 'Patients tended to feel more comfortable with physicians wearing scrubs after Covid-19 ceased. While the traditional white coat is seen as a symbol of professionalism and trust, patients have increasingly accepted scrubs, especially in emergency or high-risk settings,' the researchers found. Globally, male doctors seem to enjoy another advantage in many patients' minds as to what they wear. 'Patients' perceptions of male physicians' accessories have shown that details such as watches and glasses significantly impact professionalism and trustworthiness' and add to their perceived authority, the study found.
