A practising doctor and former North East MP who represented a Teesside constituency from 2017-2019 has said the NHS is in a “crisis” as the service reaches its 75th anniversary.
Dr Paul Williams, former Labour MP for Stockton South has expressed his concern for the NHS on its anniversary despite new government policy to boost the current workforce.
The latest news, announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on June 30, will implement a Long Term Workforce plan for the service that will see 24,000 more nurses join the NHS.
Read more: North East and Cumbria Care Board backs NHS workforce plan
Despite these plans, some - including Dr Williams - are concerned that the measures are not enough to fix the issues inside the NHS immediately.
Between shifts, Dr Williams spoke to The Northern Echo and expressed his thoughts about the latest plans for the NHS and what they could mean for its future.
“There should have been a workforce plan ten or 15 years ago for the NHS. It’s very belated because we have already reached a crisis point and it takes so long to train NHS workers,” he said.
“The plan is better late than never so it’s necessary to have this plan and it needs proper funding. We need to know where the money is going to come from and whether it is guaranteed to come in."
However, whilst the Long-Term Workforce Plan has been announced, some of the policies including the plans to double medical school places to 15,000 will not come into effect until as late as 2031.
This is something Dr Williams says will not fix the problems and issues the NHS is facing at the moment, which is a huge concern.
He said: “It won’t help the immediate crisis. Let’s make it clear, we are in a crisis at the moment. We have got record waiting lists, far too many people whose health is getting worse and we have an NHS workforce that is really struggling.
“I’ve been working at a practice in Newton Aycliffe, and they are really short on doctors.
“They can’t recruit the doctors they need to run a quality and safe service. The new plans won’t help with today’s problems or the people who are sitting on Aycliffe’s waiting lists.
“This plan will help in five or ten years time. But, if you’re struggling with a bad knee and you’re waiting on an operation, you need that help tomorrow and you cannot wait five or ten years for somebody to see you.”
In the UK, it takes on average four to seven years to become a fully qualified doctor.
For staff members like Dr Williams who are already under pressure, this is a long period to cope with as educators struggle to keep up.
He said: “We do need more doctors to be trained but you can’t necessarily just flick a switch and find places for them to be trained. When I talk to people who work in medical education, they tell me they struggle as it is now.
“You need doctors to train doctors and when people are under so much pressure with the amount of work that is in the NHS now, many people do not have the time to train others.
“It’s not going to be simple to negotiate all of these extra training places as well. When you look at the NHS and try to solve one problem, you can often even inadvertently create another set of problems.
“The NHS is a complex organisation and it’s been struggling now for so long and it is not just because of Covid-19.
“The mistakes that were made were in the years before Covid through austerity. Budgets were being squeezed year on year and it meant that as soon as there was a crisis, the NHS broke rather than being able to flex and cope with that crisis.”
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Despite the challenges being faced, Dr Williams has admitted he is still ultimately filled with pride to be a member of the NHS as it reaches its milestone 75th year.
“I’m still proud of everything the NHS manages to do. I think the most important principle for me is that healthcare is accessible to people regardless of their ability to pay. The principle that you get care when you need it, not when you can afford it.
“That principle still works for the NHS – although the caveat for that is that you must wait quite a long time and that widens health inequalities. But I do think that that principle still stands.”
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