What the Marie Celeste NHS feels like today
Mansfield Advisers recent research showed that whilst the number of doctors and nurses working for the NHS has risen by 15% since 2019 and the Covid pandemic, the actual volume of work has fallen to 90% of the levels in 2019. What does that really feel like?
Mansfield boss Victor Chua says that Mansfield estimates that half the effective 25 point shortfall in expected activity is down to Covid restrictions. “Practitioners still have to take two weeks off if they get Covid,” he points out. And the remainder? Chua shrugs: “Burn out, low morale?”
So what does this mean for the patient experience? I have two relatives who have had experiences this week which illustrate the problem. One has had two outpatient appointments. In both cases she says the medical offices were “like the Marie Celeste”. One was at a university hospital which would normally have been crowded with activity. She saw two patients and almost zero doctors and nurses. The appointment came after a 20 month wait to see a specialist rheumatologist. He indicated that she probably has a life limiting genetic condition. He then said: “It will take at least 9 months to get to the genetics clinic and when you have the appointment they may decide that they can’t afford to test you. So I will probably see you again in a year.” So she’s been told she probably has a crippling genetic condition which may be passed onto children and then told she has at least a nine month wait for confirmation and then the very real possibility that she won’t be tested anyway.
My other relative was sent to a Long Covid clinic. After a six month wait, this turned out to be a ten minute zoom call. It also emerged that the Covid clinic has three patient pathways – one to do with mental health and two to do with your physical condition. But the patient can only be put on one of these and the three groups do not share patient data.
The NHS gruel is getting very thin indeed.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Max Hotopf or call 0207 183 3779.
