The NHS Under the Conservatives 2010-2019
What an honest Conservative Manifesto would have been, covering the last 10 years of Conservative government (in coalition with the Lib Dems 2010-15).
NHS
We'll make NHS cuts of 20 billion between 2010 and 2015 and then demand further cuts of 22 billion.
All while the NHS has to cope with a growing population living longer.
At the same time, to put extra pressure on the NHS we'll slash billions from local authority social care budgets.
Our Neoliberal approach to the economy means we run the NHS as a market, this costs us at least 4.5 billion a year. Private finance initiatives meanwhile cost the NHS an estimated £3,700 every minute. Private firms such as Virgin Care were given £9.2bn of the NHS budget in 2018.
We will always put profit before people.
"This paper sets out how the wider costs of the market have included both opportunities foregone and likely harm to the system" "The only reasonable conclusion is that that market policy is based upon ideological dogma, pressure from commercial interests or both." Calum Paton - Professor of health and public policy, Keele University.
SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES
Under our care and economic management:
NHS operation waiting lists reached a 10 year high in 2018. In 2019 even with new funding deal "There is little prospect of performance being restored across the board in the foreseeable future."
The 62-day waiting standard for cancer treatment hasn't been met nationally since 2013/14.
There are now record numbers of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E.
The NHS is facing a debilitating shortage of 70,000 nurses. We scrapped nurse bursaries in 2015 to make things worse and as expected there has been a huge drop of new applicants.
We gave nurses and midwives a wage freeze which will be equivalent to a £4,000 pay cut by 2020.
Fact check
Claim - The Conservatives have increased spending on the NHS every year. The truth is that NHS budgets have to rise by an average of 3.7% each year to keep up with growth. The Conservatives have reduced this to only 1.5% over the past 10 years. This has caused massive underfunding and required the NHS to make unmanageable cuts.Claim - we are now funding the NHS adequately - Whilst the new 5 year funding deal sees some health spending increase by 3.4% and will ease current pressures "it is not enough to simultaneously restore performance against key waiting times standards and transform services to deliver better care"
Claim - 50m more GP appointments a year and 6,000 extra GP's by 2024/25 - This pledge has been made 1 year after their failed pledge and dropped deadline to recruit 5,000 GP's by March 2020. The workforce has only risen by 474 and when trainees are excluded fully qualified GP's have actually dropped by 539.
Claim - We are building 40 new hospitals - This is incorrect, the government is reconfiguing six new hospitals rather than building 40. Money has been committed to upgrade six hospitals by 2025. 38 hospitals have received money to plan building work between 2025 and 2030, but no money has been given to begin any work.
Labour on the doorstep campaigning sheet / shareable image - NHS:
