Press release: Confederation call for honest debate on NHS funding after chief executive poll

15 Jun 2005

Nearly two thirds of top health chief executives do not believe that all the targets and improvements set by the Government can be delivered on current levels of funding, according to a poll for the NHS Confederation released today.

The NHS Confederation has called on the Government for an honest debate on the level of funding needed to develop and sustain the health service into the 21st century.

Top chief executives across the NHS voiced their concerns on the eve of the NHS Confederation Annual Conference in Birmingham.  On current levels of funding and expected efficiency savings, 62 per cent believe that not all the targets and improvements can be delivered.

Commenting on the findings, Dame Gill Morgan, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, said:

'This is not a story about a shortage of funding.  Rather our ambitions are running ahead of what is possible. Between 1972 and 1998, Britain fell £220 billion behind average European levels of health expenditure.  We have now seen large increases in funding but cannot get over those levels of chronic underinvestment over night.

The survey also found that 84 per cent believe that reducing the amount of money going into the NHS after 2008 will have a negative impact on patient care.  

Gill Morgan said:

We want to work with the new Secretary of State to ensure we can deliver the targets because at the end of day, they will improve patient care, and that's what we're all in this business to do.

'The NHS has delivered extraordinary improvements over the last 5 years.  Working flat out, we are treating over one million people every 36 hours.  The targets on waiting times have been met, and we have seen a transformation of care in A&E departments and elective surgery.

'The Government is right to be ambitious, and to demand excellence.  But NHS chief executives are worried that the pace of change cannot continue without further investment.  The task for the coming year is to deliver more non-hospital care and we need to ensure there is sufficient funding for this.

'Of course we must do more to become more efficient and productive.  There are a range of measures on track.  New technology will enable us to be much more imaginative with the way we deliver care.  For example, our members are already asking why we need specialist consultants on call in every area all the time, when we can now email x-rays to the world expert?'

Radical proposals to extend choice to treatment as well as service providers are also proposed by NHS chief executives.

85 per cent believe that the Government's choice agenda should be radically extended. The change would mean that people would be offered a choice of the actual treatment they receive, not just which hospital they go to.

The Government is committed to introducing choice of four hospitals for operations by the end of 2005, and extending the options to up to 40 providers by 2008.  But today's poll shows that one third of chief executives to do not believe this policy will actually improve the quality of care to patients.

Commenting on choice, Dame Gill Morgan, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation said:

'The NHS is way ahead of the current debate on choice - which is stuck on party political debates.  We want choice to mean choice.  Selecting which building you have an operation in one small part of the picture.

Choice does exist in some parts of the service.  A terminally ill cancer patient may choose not to have a round of drugs because they would rather be able to see their family without being constantly sick. But choice is not yet systematically built into the NHS. An orthopaedic surgeon may prefer to operate on a patient whereas intensive physio could be just as successful. We've got to get beyond the doors of hospitals into the places where more care is provided - in people's homes and in GP surgeries.

'Sometimes the Government's reforms can move so fast, we are left running to keep up.  But on choice, we are calling on the Government to be more imaginative with their policies.  If we are serious about putting patients first, let's start with this.'

Ends

 

Notes for editors

1. The NHS Confederation represents more than 92% of the organisations that make up the NHS throughout the UK. Its members include the majority of NHS trusts, foundation trusts, ambulance trusts, mental health trusts, primary care trusts and health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; NHS boards and special boards in Scotland; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.
2. The NHS Confederation poll is based on an email questionnaire sent out to a representative sample of 113 NHS chief executives in England across a range of NHS trusts, primary care trusts, strategic health authorities and foundation trusts - 80 chief executives responded to this poll.

The survey findings are below:
1. The level of investment in the NHS has been proportional to the gains.

Tend to agree (53%)
Tend to disagree (30%)
Strongly agree (9%)
Strongly disagree (5%)
Don't know (3%)

2. The additional funding has been used to achieve a sensible balance of quality and activity improvements.
Tend to agree (46%)
Tend to disagree (35%)
Strongly disagree (13%)
Strongly agree (6%)

3. The Service can deliver the targets and improvements set by the Government up to 2008 on current funding and expected efficiency savings.

Tend to disagree (37%)
Tend to agree (30%)
Strongly disagree (25%)
Strongly agree (6%)
Don't know (1%)

4. Reducing the amount of extra funding currently being invested in the NHS will have a negative impact on patient care.

Strongly agree (51%)
Tend to agree (33%)
Tend to disagree (14%)
Don't know (1%)
Strongly disagree (1%)

5. My organisation will realise the benefits of NPfIT.

Tend to agree (53%)
Tend to disagree (23%)
Strongly agree (13%)
Strongly disagree (6%)
Don't know (5%)

6. Offering patients a choice of hospitals for an elective operation will improve the quality of care provided by the NHS.

Tend to agree (47%)
Tend to disagree (30%)
Strongly agree (15%)
Strongly disagree (6%)
Don't know (1%)

7. Choice should be extended to the type of treatment not just the provider.

Tend to agree (51%)
Strongly agree (34%)
Tend to disagree (9%)
Strongly disagree (5%)
Don't know (1%)

8. Practice-based commissioning will improve the quality of care service users receive.

Tend to agree (37%)
Tend to disagree (27%)
Strongly agree (16%)
Strongly disagree (14%)
Don't know (6%)

9. Clinicians are engaged with the agenda set out in Creating a Patient Led NHS.

Tend to disagree (53%)
Tend to agree (34%)
Strongly agree (6%)
Strongly disagree (5%)
Don't know (1%)

10. Payment by Results will reward trusts fairly and equitably for the work that they do.

Tend to agree (48%)
Tend to disagree (28%)
Strongly disagree (15%)
Strongly agree (8%)
Don't know (1%)

11 Creating a Patient Led NHS puts too much emphasis on choice.

Tend to agree (46%)
Tend to disagree (32%)
Strongly agree (13%)
Strongly disagree (8%)
Don't know (1%)

12. The most significant threat to long-term public health in the UK is:

Obesity (42%)
Smoking (33%)
Alcohol (14%)
Other (5%)
Poor sexual health (1%)

13. Genetic and Stem Cell diagnostics and treatment has the potential to transform healthcare in the next decade.

Tend to agree (47%)
Strongly agree (28%)
Tend to disagree (13%)
Don't know (10%)
Strongly disagree (3%)

14. Surgical patients are now more afraid of MRSA than the operation itself.

Tend to agree (54%)
Tend to disagree (18%)
Don't know (13%)
Strongly agree (13%)
Strongly disagree (3%)

 

Contact details

For more information contact Head of Public Affairs Sarah Jones on 020 7074 3300 or 07768 546753.

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