NHS Confederation responds to NHS England's winter plan
Responding to NHS England's plan for winter, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
“Health leaders will be grateful for the clarity this plan provides and will do all they can to help realise its aims, to build further capacity and resilience in the NHS this winter.
“The plan is based on sound evidence of what works and is backed by data and learning from the last few winters. Its publication now, in summer, will give the health service a timely opportunity to prepare for what will likely be an extremely challenging winter.
“At the same time, we should be upfront that the financial settlement provided for the NHS and required to effectively fund this plan, is not enough. We should be honest about this. The efficiency savings that services are being asked to make will rub up against this very sensible strategy for winter and we are seeing some capacity and investment in hospital avoidance and community capacity being rolled back. There is real tension here between a good plan, and the financial reality local leaders face.
“As ever, the ongoing industrial action is impacting staff across the NHS hard. It is impacting on people’s ability to introduce new services, to improve and learn, as they face a constant challenge to keep services and patients safe. If industrial action is still in place this winter, it will impact this plan significantly and we urge both sides to negotiate a solution at the earliest opportunity.
“Health leaders may have questions about what this plan means for assurance, reporting and regulation over winter and will want to see a light touch approach adopted as they put these new measures in place to mitigate what is sure to be intense pressure on services.
“Lastly, many of the same teams who are expected to design and deliver these whole system approaches to health and care this winter are currently at risk of redundancy as Integrated Care Board look to shed 30% of their staffing costs. We should be upfront that the shift in the way that the NHS works requires staff to do the work. They can’t do that whilst under threat of redundancy.
“There is the ongoing question of social care, and leaders will be keen to see that investment in social care this winter is sufficient and is followed by a long-term workforce plan for social care.
“In its simplest form, this plan is about answering one key question. When people need access to care, they need to be confident they will get it. That is a core part of the public’s relationship with the NHS and one that was strained last winter. This sensible range of measures aims to answer that question, by building resilience across the NHS, to maintain the flow of patients through the system, and to keep people healthy and safe.”
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We are the membership organisation that brings together, supports and speaks for the whole healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The members we represent employ 1.5 million staff, care for more than 1 million patients a day and control £150 billion of public expenditure. We promote collaboration and partnership working as the key to improving population health, delivering high-quality care and reducing health inequalities.
