As Labour calls on the government to spend an extra £500 million on a winter bailout fund for NHS England, director of Radiology Management Solutions (RMS), William Bailey, says the problems run far deeper than many commentators outside the NHS could possibly imagine.
‘It sounds like a sizeable sum but, in reality, is nothing more than the usual seasonal sticking plaster. The Department for Health says “robust” plans are in place for the winter. It will pump “an extra £100m for accident & emergency cover, plus another £2bn funding for social care” to get us through the cold season.
And there you have it. This isn’t just about getting through the cold season. What about next spring? New analysis predicts 10,000 people will be stuck for too long in A&E waiting rooms every day if this situation continues unchecked, against a backdrop of growing waiting lists and cancelled operations.’
This summer, poor weather and seasonal flu heaped pressure on hospitals and GPs.
‘Australia has endured one of its worst epidemics for more than a decade, where at least 170,000 influenza cases have been confirmed. It’s a virus that plays out globally every 10 to 15 years and it’s heading this way,’ reveals Bailey.
‘It threatens to impose a huge strain upon our already creaking health service. As a consequence, we’ll see NHS radiology teams pushed beyond their limits. If the pattern continues, waiting lists could soar to 4.3 million this winter, so a backlog of scanning is inevitable.
RMS has a cost-effective solution to help dig NHS Trusts out of an ever-deepening, financial black hole. Our teams can run your radiology departments beyond the traditional working day, which is a course of action that comes highly recommended by Finance and Business Managers, who oversee our radiology management best practice.
Vastly superior to (and cheaper than) mobile scanning, we’ll provide leading edge assessment and leave you in much better shape.
Our aim is never to be a continuous drain on precious radiology budget but a caring, authoritative, tactical business support, which fairly reflects NHS England guiding principles.’
