Two Nottinghamshire GPs have written a letter to their patients saying the NHS is "on its knees" and it has become "impossible to deliver a service that does no harm". Dr Ian Campbell and his GP partner Dr Claire Hatton, both doctors from the Jubilee Park Medical Partnership, co-authored the letter which was released today (December 1).
This letter has coincided with the publication of a British Medical Association (BMA) report titled The Country is Getting Sicker. In their letter, Dr Campbell and Dr Hatton discuss the difficulties experienced to satisfy patient demand with the decreasing amount of resources.
In addition to concerns for the welfare of their patients, they also speak of fears for their staff. They said patient demand is resulting in abuse and aggression.
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They wrote: "Four years ago, both of our practices at Jubilee Park Medical Practice did well when inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the NHS standards watchdog, both receiving certification of good quality practice. The harsh reality, however, is that we are now no longer able to deliver that same standard of service for our patients.
"Across the country the NHS is on its knees, and it has become impossible to deliver a service that does no harm. We understand the utter frustration and despair that you, on the receiving end of these cut-backs, feel.
"Waiting times for GP appointments are excessively long, telephone lines have never-ending waits, and access to hospital services, with more than seven million people on waiting lists for treatment, is becoming almost impossible. None of us works in the NHS for fame and fortune."
They add: "We do it because we believe in what it is supposed to deliver: high quality, safe, healthcare for everyone, free at the point of delivery, regardless of ability pay." Later in the letter the pair discuss the number of NHS staff suffering with their mental health due to the "severe stress" levels from the job and being treated poorly by patients who three years ago applauded them each Thursday evening during the pandemic.
The letter states: "But now, instead of weekly applause, our staff are subject to ever increasing and daily abuse and aggression from patients and family members, understandably frustrated by delays to access treatment. I have never known so many NHS staff to suffer from mental and physical ill health, the effects of years of severe stress.
"Staff absences are at a record high: 60,000 nursing jobs are currently unfilled; we have vacancies for 7,000 GPs and the NHS as a whole is missing 130,000 staff. Add to this the now unprecedented huge demand for NHS care from millions of patients and it’s not difficult to see why patients are increasingly subjected to a severe lack of access to healthcare."
Both doctors also speak about the seven million people who are currently on waiting lists for treatment, with accident and emergency departments "bursting at the seams" and ambulances failing to get patients to hospitals quick enough. They explained that these factors are contributing to patients dying. They wrote: "Within our practice and more widely, we have numerous examples of patients experiencing unnecessary dangerous delays to treatment and current data shows that delays to cancer treatments, as just one example, is leading to greatly increased death rates.
"All this could, and should, have been avoided. Years of financial restraint before Covid-19 meant that the NHS was unprepared and unable to cope.
"We need massively increased NHS funding, to improve services, attract new staff, reduce waiting times and make sure that we can begin again to deliver a first-class health service fit for the future. And until then, we at Jubilee Park Medical Practice promise you this."
They add: "We will continue to do our best and strive to make things better: to see you sooner and try to deliver an even higher standard of care with the scarce resources with which we operate. We thank you for your understanding, patience, and support as we endeavour to continue the campaign to protect our NHS."
Their letter echoes statements from other doctors in the BMA report, with repeated sentiments that doctors cannot continue to pick up the pieces of governmental "failure" to protect the country's health, and that it has become impossible for GPs to do everything expected of them. Nottinghamshire Live has asked the Department for Health and Social Care for a response.
In his Autumn Statement last month, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the NHS will receive an extra £3.3billion in each of the next two years - but experts have warned the cash is probably only half of what is needed to keep the health service afloat.
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