Latest news with #SirJimMackey
Times
21-07-2025
- Health
- Times
BMA warns patients may not be safe during junior doctors' strike
The British Medical Association has warned that patients will not be safe in NHS hospitals during a five-day strike beginning on Friday. The doctors' union said that a decision by NHS leaders not to cancel all routine appointments means that senior doctors will be 'spread too thinly' to provide emergency and urgent care. Up to 50,000 resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, are set to join the strike from 7am on Friday July 25 to 7am on Wednesday July 30 in pursuit of a 29 per cent pay rise. Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS England, has written to hospital bosses urging them to keep routine operations going 'to the fullest extent possible' and only cancel appointments in 'exceptional circumstances'. This is a different approach from previous strikes in 2023 and 2024, when a 'Christmas Day' service was imposed, meaning only A&E and urgent treatments.
Telegraph
29-06-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
It really shouldn't be radical to expect the NHS to put patients first
SIR – Sir Jim Mackey, the new NHS boss (The Saturday Interview, June 28), states that the service is deaf to criticism, has wasted a lot of money and sees patients as an inconvenience. The general public has known all this for far too long. One truly hopes that Sir Jim's insight will bring about some real changes, and that he will have the strength to see them through. Peter Rosie Ringwood, Hampshire SIR – Sir Jim Mackey says 'it feels like we've built mechanisms to keep the public away because it's an inconvenience'. I do find that, when I am able to see a doctor, I tend to start the conversation with the words: 'I am sorry to bother you, but …' If I were receiving any other service for which I was paying (as we do for the NHS through our taxes), it would never occur to me to say that. Felicity Guille London SW6 SIR – Sir Jim Mackey acknowledges the failure of the NHS and hopes that this bureaucratic Titanic might avoid its fatal iceberg. He identifies the walls erected by the NHS to obstruct access – not least the high one in front of primary care, which is the point of first contact for patients who choose not to abuse A&E departments. Large general practices, often the result of mergers, should create a daily, open-access morning clinic for patients who perceive their problem to be urgent; after receiving a ticket, they would be seen in order. Each GP would take turns to run the clinic. The early weeks would overwhelm, but demand would start to settle down. Some patients, after waiting for several hours, would realise their problem was not urgent, and opt for an arranged appointment. Remote consultations can never compete with the doctor-patient chemistry in the consultation room. Dr Adrian Crisp Weston Colville, Cambridgeshire SIR – Your Leading Article (' Reform the NHS, not our shopping baskets ', June 29) discusses Labour's plan to introduce yet more heavy-handed measures. Forcing shops to promote fruit and vegetables will not address the causes of obesity. Better education, for instance, could genuinely help to combat it, but piling more regulations on to shops will only push prices higher – something no one wants. Charlie Temple Billericay, Essex SIR – The plan for cutting the calorie content of the average shopping basket is a step in the right direction, but does not go far enough. I suggest recruiting food police to stand at checkouts and fine us £5 for each non-government-approved item in our trolleys – reduced to £2.50 if we return the item to the shelves. Fines for bottles or cans of alcoholic drinks would, naturally, be much higher. Max Sawyer Stamford, Lincolnshire
The Independent
28-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
This 10-year plan may be the last chance to save the NHS
The 10-year plan for the National Health Service that Sir Keir Starmer is expected to publish in the next few days is likely to be a somewhat incoherent document. From the advance publicity, it would seem to have a lot of disconnected ideas in it, some good, some not so good and some irrelevant. The government hopes that weight-loss drugs will offer the hope of a big advance against obesity-related illnesses – but this comes after new figures raised concerns about their safety. If large language models can speed up the development of new pharmaceuticals, so much the better. But we remain sceptical about whether supermarkets ought to be recruited into policing their customers' calorie intakes. What will decide the success or failure of the NHS over the next decade, however, will be the design of the structural reforms to the service. Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, has made a good start in two respects. He has welcomed private-sector providers to help deliver NHS services free at the point of need, and he has taken an axe to the central bureaucracy of NHS England. The test for the 10-year plan will be the extent to which it brings in further changes to incentives throughout the NHS so that it becomes responsive to patients. Sir Jim Mackey, the new chief executive of the NHS, says many of the right things. 'It feels like we've built mechanisms to keep the public away because it's an inconvenience,' he says in his first interview since taking up the post three months ago. He says of the current NHS: 'It takes forever. It costs a fortune. We need to 'de-layer it' because it's expensive, it slows decision-making down, it de-powers people who need to make decisions.' The sentiment is right, but again, some of his ideas seem better than others. We are not convinced that using patient satisfaction surveys to decide how much money NHS trusts receive is going to work. The evidence of reform under the last Labour government was that the mere existence of competition from private-sector providers had a dramatic effect on the performance of NHS units. Already, there are the very early signs that the extra resources put into the NHS are bearing fruit, less than 12 months after the change of government. Luke Tryl, the opinion pollster for More in Common, reported on BBC's Newsnight on Friday that people in focus groups are starting to report positive experiences of the NHS for the first time since the pandemic. 'If there is a bright spot for the government, it's the NHS,' he said. One of the biggest challenges for Sir Jim and Mr Streeting, however, is more political than structural. They have to send the starkest message to doctors: please do not go on strike; take responsibility; show leadership; it is up to you to make the NHS work, because if it cannot be turned round this time, then it probably is the end of this model of healthcare. Sir Jim appears to understand this. He says that his 'big worry' is that if the NHS cannot deliver a service that is better at listening to patients – the particular example he gave was maternity care – 'we'll lose the population; if we lose the population, we've lost the NHS; for me, it's straightforward: the two things are completely dependent on each other.' He is absolutely right. Universal healthcare free at the point of need is a noble idea, but it desperately needs Labour's reforms to work if it is to survive.
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Patients are kept away and seen as an 'inconvenience', says NHS boss
The NHS has built "mechanisms to keep the public away" as patients are seen as an "inconvenience", according to the new NHS boss. The incoming head of NHS England, Sir Jim Mackey, has given his first interview since taking up the role as chief executive. Sir Jim told The Telegraph that the health service is clinging on to many "fossilised" practices, some of which have barely changed since its inception in 1948. READ MORE: Friends left stunned at Manchester Airport after landing £24,000 in terminal READ MORE: Workers at trendy new neighbourhood development make amazing discovery His statement comes as he prepares to implement a 10-year health plan to be published by the government next week. Knighted in 2019 for his contributions to healthcare, Sir Jim expressed to 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 issued a stark warning about the consequences of this growing divide between NHS services and the public, suggesting it could lead to the demise 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 cautioned in his interview. "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. Open24 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. Mr Streeting also unveiled plans to divert more than £2 billion in NHS spending to working class communities.
Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
NHS keeps public away and patients are seen as 'inconvenience', health service's new boss says
The NHS has built 'mechanisms to keep the public away' as patients are seen as an 'inconvenience', its new boss has said. 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.
