Dr Mary McCarthy: Government must spend to save health service

He made a plea to the Government to rethink their austerity plans for the health service while the NHS England chief, Simon Stevens, echoed his sentiments, warning that the NHS needs considerable investment not another series of budget cuts.

A recent report compared the health system investment in EU countries and the UK came in near the bottom of the list.

The percentage of funding that GPs receive from the NHS budget has reduced from 11 per cent to seven percent, which is particularly worrying against a backdrop of the changing demographics of an ageing population, with chronic and complex diseases and the rising demands for GP appointments.

The government claims that the need to balance the budget is paramount and that the NHS along with the welfare and benefits system must save money.

The problem is that the need to save money now can often override clinical decisions: patients are discharged when they may still need a good deal of care, operations are deferred and appointments cancelled and the lack of a robust social care system often means that the care packages required before a hospital can discharge a patient may not be available.

The social care system and the NHS have two separate budgets when in fact, in a lot of cases, they deal with the same group of people. There have been suggestions that the services should be amalgamated and there have already been some moves to try and achieve this.

New ways of working are encouraged and new teams are forming in an effort to try and make the money stretch further. More hospital work is being dealt with by GPs since it is much cheaper than the previous system of multiple follow-ups at hospital clinics, but sadly the necessary funding hasn't followed. Most of the money-saving ventures have now been tried and systems are beginning to creak at the seams.

The thought of the NHS failing is disturbing but it's a reality we may have to face. Our health service was conceived and started in a time of austerity, when the UK was struggling with the aftermath of the second world war. We are now, in world terms, a prosperous country, and I am convinced we can support and fund the NHS we need.

We must persuade the Treasury and the Government that the NHS should be given the budget it needs to survive and indeed flourish.

* Dr Mary McCarthy has worked at Belvidere Surgery in Shrewsbury for more than 20 years. She is chairman of the local medical committee and represents Shropshire, North Staffordshire and South Staffordshire on the General Practitioners Committee of the BMA.