New ideas alone won’t be able to magic up new staff

Responding to the health secretary's speech on reform at the Royal College of Physicians Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:

“NHS leaders share the secretary of state’s vision for giving patients greater choice and control over their own care. And they also recognise the need to make the best use of the extra funding coming into the NHS by reforming services, providing better care for patients and value for money for the taxpayer.

“There are many welcome initiatives in the secretary of state’s speech, not least the ambition to harness digital technology and personalised medicine. But new ideas alone won’t be able to magic up new staff, and that remains our single biggest constraint. The sooner we get a fully costed and funded workforce strategy the better.

“And while measures that increase choice for patients are welcome, the secretary of state’s confirmation that this extra choice will initially be restricted to those who have been waiting the longest risks widening health disparities. We understand the desire to end the longest waiting times but this needs to be balanced with treating those patients with the greatest clinical need. They won’t always be the patients who have waited the longest.  

“We are pleased to see the secretary of state confirming that integrated care systems and their wider focus on improving the health of their local communities is at the heart of his vision for the NHS. This was one of our key asks of the secretary of state leading up to his speech. 

"We wanted to see a coherent vision that was grounded in the much-supported NHS reforms that will see the creation of integration care systems and will further boost our efforts to integrate patient care. The worst thing the government could do now is to slow down the progress we are seeing when it comes to system working and greater provider collaboration. Along with a sharper focus on public health and support for community and primary care services, these measures offer hope for keeping more people well at home and out of hospital.

“Ultimately, NHS leaders and their teams are patients, carers and consumers of health and care services too. They want the same things that all of us want when it comes to our healthcare. But they also know first-hand how gruelling the last two years have been and what they now face when it comes to the daunting size of the backlog. 

"The NHS’ major achievements over the last two years show what can be delivered when the service is supported. But it’s also not unreasonable to say that the NHS faces a once in a generation challenge given the size of the care backlog, major pressure on emergency care services, staff shortages of over 110,000 and widening health inequalities. That’s why the ambitions of political leaders must be firmly grounded in the intense operational reality that NHS staff find themselves in every day of the week.”