Access to NHS care is worsening and the service is 'running on fumes', leading doctors warn

Patients are being 'belittled and bewildered' as access to NHS care is worsening, leading doctors have warned.
The NHS is "running on fumes," the BMA said.The NHS is "running on fumes," the BMA said.
The NHS is "running on fumes," the BMA said.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said the Government wants a world-class NHS but was only offering it a “third-class” financial settlement.

It said that the health service is at “breaking point” and concerns are being “wilfully ignored” by ministers.

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The NHS is “running on fumes”, the BMA said, as it called on ministers to increase health spending to rise to match that of other leading EU economies.

It comes after The Yorkshire Post revealed earlier this year the scale of change faced by the region’s healthcare providers.

The NHS is estimated to need to save £2bn in Yorkshire by 2021 as part of plans to close accident and emergency departments and wider reorganisation proposals, known as sustainability and transformation plans (STPs).

And last week Healthwatch claimed that NHS chiefs in North Yorkshire are being told to work together and come up with radical plans to make “significant” savings. This could involve closing wards, cutting whole departments and longer waiting times, as bosses try to claw back £40m over the next nine months, according to the campaign group. It said it had seen new proposals affecting a number of hospitals and groups providing NHS services in the county, which is one of 14 areas across the country to be placed under a “capped expenditure programme”.

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Dr Richard Vautrey, Leeds GP and deputy chair of the British Medical Association, told The Yorkshire Post: “There are many areas in Yorkshire that are really struggling financially. We have seen this particularly in North Yorkshire and in other areas too where Clinical Commissioning Groups or local hospitals are in serious debt and are struggling to balance their books.

“This means services are being cut back in some areas and being retained in others, which leads to a postcode variation in care. This is completely unacceptable. We should have a National Health Service, but we have got a fragmented health service.”

A new BMA poll found that more people were dissatisfied with the NHS than satisfied with services. The survey found that 82 per cent are worried about the future of the NHS, and three in five said they expect the NHS to get worse in the coming years.

It was issued to mark the start of the union’s annual representative meeting in Bournemouth, where leading medics will debate many issues facing the workforce and the NHS as a whole.

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Addressing the conference, BMA chairman of council Dr Mark Porter will say: “We have a government trying to keep the health service running on nothing but fumes. A health service at breaking point. Run by ministers who wilfully ignore the pleas of the profession and the impact on patients.

“After years of underinvestment, with a growing, ageing population, and despite the extraordinary dedication of its staff, it is failing too many people, too often.”