General Election briefings

2 Test 1 There needs to be a limited number of targets and pledges, based on how much care the NHS can actually provide What’s the problem? What needs to happen? The English NHS is not delivering nine out of eleven of the Targets and promises must be justified by calculations showing waiting times targets in the NHS Constitution handbook and has how the total number of treatments they require will. [...] 3 Test 2 Improve people’s access to all NHS services, not just hospitals What’s the problem? What needs to happen? Successive governments have focussed on improving access to To make the goal of reducing dependence on hospitals a reality, hospitals at the expense of services provided closer to home understand why community services spend has fallen and take steps to address it In the last 7 years. [...] All available figures suggest that the UK also lags behind in the Do not raid the capital budget to cover NHS running costs – number of diagnostic scanners – crucial for addressing waiting instead maintain it at well above historic levels lists The capital budget has been repeatedly raided to be used to prop up day-to-day NHS services Almost every area of investment spending has been short- change. [...] Commitment to put the long-term first is needed 5 Test 4 Set up long-term programmes for improvement over multiple years and don’t raid them What’s the problem? What needs to happen? Studies suggest that stable, consistent and focussed policies are Policies should be consistent and long-term – short-term more effective and generate more legitimacy among staff initiatives are associated with failur. [...] White people receive more planned care, adjusted for age and sex, than Black, Look at ways to measure deprivation and wealth for individual Mixed and Asian ethnic groups patients to properly understand and act on inequalities in access to care Focussing only on deprivation by area not individual patients may create hidden disparities but there is currently no way to measure this The NHS has not ta.