Basic NHS standards are not being met across the city, according to a new report by our dedicated Research and Campaigns Team. Chronic underinvestment and workforce shortages, combined with a widening of health inequalities generally, are the key factors in this decline in adequate health care access for local people.
Our report shows an NHS increasingly in crisis. The 18-week target for treatment (a key legal standard as per the NHS Constitution) has been continuously breached since 2016. Overall, waiting times across the board are still unacceptably high years on from the pandemic. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic is not the primary cause of the current failings, it merely accelerated an already declining situation. The NHS had already been subjected to over a decade of under-investment and failure to adequately plan long-term staffing levels. Inevitably, the NHS entered the 2019 pandemic with one of the lowest bed capacity levels in Europe (just 2.4 beds per 1000 people) alongside a serious undersupply of staff.
Delays in health care cause real harm, resulting in anxious families, prolonged pain for vulnerable people and, in the worst cases, loss of life. Our report also shows concerning level of inequality in the access to health care provision, with those from poorer areas often facing longer wait times or a greater difficulty in navigating the system. All too often: those who need care most are least likely to receive it.
Too much pressure is currently being placed on hospitals, while primary care is significantly under-resourced. More and more patients in Peterborough report calling their GP surgery at 8:30am only to find no appointments available for that day. Much investment is needed to grow access GPs, community and mental health services. This will enable much earlier intervention that will ultimately prevent illnesses from escalating into emergencies and thereby reduce the sustained pressure on ambulance services and hospitals.
