This article was taken from: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/22/hospitals-struggling-to-afford-new-equipment-after-nhs-budget-cuts
Hospitals can no longer afford the most modern scanners and surgical equipment to treat patients who have cancer and other diseases because of multibillion-pound cuts to the NHS’s capital budget, research reveals.
Staff are having to continue using vital diagnostic and treatment technology beyond its natural life because there are insufficient funds to replace it.
For example, radiographers are using out-of-date scanners that produce images so unclear they impede correct diagnosis. In one case, 200 patients had to be rescanned because the images of their lumps, tumours and broken bones were of such poor quality.
Ambulances are breaking down because they have been kept in service for too long, and hospitals are having to continue using archaic IT systems in the wake of repeated government raids on NHS capital funding, the researchers heard. One trust had to scrap plans to bring in electronic scheduling of operations because it could not afford the technology.
Hospitals can no longer afford the most modern scanners and surgical equipment to treat patients who have cancer and other diseases because of multibillion-pound cuts to the NHS’s capital budget, research reveals.
Staff are having to continue using vital diagnostic and treatment technology beyond its natural life because there are insufficient funds to replace it.
For example, radiographers are using out-of-date scanners that produce images so unclear they impede correct diagnosis. In one case, 200 patients had to be rescanned because the images of their lumps, tumours and broken bones were of such poor quality.
Ambulances are breaking down because they have been kept in service for too long, and hospitals are having to continue using archaic IT systems in the wake of repeated government raids on NHS capital funding, the researchers heard. One trust had to scrap plans to bring in electronic scheduling of operations because it could not afford the technology.
Others are unable to expand their A&E units to help them cope with rising patient numbers, while some lack the money to repair rotten windows and leaking roofs in hospital buildings because of the cash squeeze.
The problems are outlined in research conducted at 30 trusts by the health services management centre at Birmingham University and funded by the Health Foundation, a thinktank.
Trust bosses told the academics the lack of money for new equipment and repairs had started to affect the quality and safety of patient care.
“The surroundings that they [patients] are actually being cared for in are appalling and we all know … that those surroundings do impact the recovery rate. So in that respect it is impacting their recovery as well,” one NHS trust finance director said.
Since 2014 Jeremy Hunt, the health and social care secretary, has taken £4.3bn from the NHS in England’s capital budget and used it to help pay for day-to-day running costs, in response to its deepening financial crisis. In 2016-17 alone he removed £1.2bn, a fifth of the entire capital budget.
“This has left the NHS between a rock and a hard place, postponing and cutting vital capital investment to fund day-to-day running costs,” said Anita Charlesworth, the Health Foundation’s director of research and economics. “It’s clear that shortfalls in NHS capital spending are starting to hurt: spending on new equipment such as medical scanners has more than halved over the last four years.”
NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said the shortage of capital funding was so acute that hospitals could not afford to replace outmoded machines that deliver radiotherapy to cancer patients.
“Just in the last few days one trust leader told us of frustrating delays in funding needed to improve an emergency department. Another spoke of her worries about being able to replace linear accelerators. But as we see in this report, this is also a major problem for mental health, community and ambulance services as well,” said Phillippa Hentsch, the organisation’s head of analysis.
A separate analysis of NHS finances by the Health Foundation found that capital spending for healthcare, such as for hospitals and equipment, in the UK was low compared with other OECD countries, at 0.3% of GDP compared with an average of 0.5%.
Increasing the percentage spent in the UK to the OECD average would mean the NHS had another £3bn a year for such projects, it said.
Charlesworth said: “The maintenance backlog for hospitals is now over £5bn. Most worryingly, £2.8bn of this backlog is high or significant risk, related to clinical services and safety.” She said cutting capital spending was “a false economy” that made hospitals inefficient and prevented them from improving patient care.
One trust boss said £40m of “priority one high-risk” urgent repairs were needed in one year, but only £11m was available for them.
On Wednesday Labour will use parliamentary procedure to try to force ministers to disclose documents that reveal what elements of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 they want to scrap.
There have been reports that Theresa May is keen to repeal some sections of the legislation to help pave the way for an overhaul of how the service works, tied to a big increase in NHS funding planned to mark its 70th birthday on 5 July.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We want patients to receive world-class care in world-class facilities, which is why the governmenty recently announced £3.9bn of new capital investment in the NHS. This will pay for new buildings, wards and beds to improve the patient environment and patient treatment whilst offering good value for money.”
