Responding to a speech today by , secretary of state for health
and social care, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers
Saffron Cordery said:
“The secretary of state is right to acknowledge the ‘unimaginable
kinds of pressures’ which continue to be faced by NHS workers, as
well as their passion and dedication.
“He acknowledged too the ‘incredible professionalism of the
overwhelming majority of colleagues in health and care’.
“NHS trusts and staff in all sectors are working absolutely flat
out to deal with very high demand and to reduce care backlogs,
successfully bringing down the longest waits for treatment.
"The recent government-commissioned review into NHS leadership
recognised the many examples of ‘world-class’ leadership across
the service, but reflected back the complex pressures we face.
Despite the challenges, trusts are committed to working together
to support leaders and managers, eradicate racism and tackle
health inequalities, improve productivity and efficiency, and
ensure a high-achieving NHS as a care provider and employer.
“We look forward to working with the secretary of state to
develop the role of provider collaboratives and partnerships to
drive improvement, and with primary care colleagues to ensure
that those critical services remain robust.
“As we highlighted in our Reality Check report, the
faultlines present long before the pandemic hit haven’t gone
away. The NHS has gone through a ten-year financial squeeze, the
longest and tightest in its history, leaving a legacy of
financial challenges. We face severe staff shortages with more
than 100,000 jobs across the health system unfilled. And the
problems in an underfunded and overstretched social care system
are yet to be resolved.
“This was a wide-ranging speech setting out the secretary of
state’s ambitions for the future, but his decision not to mention
the new hospital programme or the need for extensive investment
in NHS buildings and facilities to tackle the alarming
maintenance backlog will concern trust leaders.
“As we embrace the biggest government reforms to the NHS in a
decade, unless and until ministers address these fundamental,
long-running problems then the NHS will remain under huge
pressure.”
