BMA chairman of Council, Dr Hamish Meldrum, warned of tough times ahead as he set out the key challenges for the NHS in his opening speech to the BMA’s annual conference.
He said: “These are very difficult times and the only way the NHS can come through, is for there to be a real and shared commitment between all of us who have a stake in its future – a commitment to build trust – trust between and among Governments, staff, employers, patients and the public. “The Government has made some positive moves on NHS reform with the listening exercise – but that is not enough. We need to build on that, not throw it away with short-term costcutting of frontline care, poorly planned major service changes or a phoney war about the unsustainability of an NHS pension scheme that is £10 billion in surplus.” Dr Meldrum acknowledges that although the Health and Social Care Bill is a significantly different bill from the one that was originally proposed and is now on a better track, “there is still a lot to play for, still much detail to be devilled out, still much else we want to change”. The BMA will continue its battle against the divisive features of the healthcare market in England, said Dr Meldrum. “Doctors are not afraid of competition – in fact, they thrive on it. They want to know that they are working as well, if not better than their colleagues and they need fair, effective and evidence-based data on health outcomes to provide them with that information. “But that is quite different from the unfettered, free market of the industrial world, because the NHS must never be like that – you only have to look across the Atlantic to see why, and why we will continue to resist all attempts to make it like that.” Speaking about the NHS funding situation, Dr Meldrum said: “The NHS is in the grip of its greatest financial challenge: The challenge of ever-increasing demand, finite resources and the most difficult financial situation the NHS – in all four nations – has ever faced in its 63 years. “There is a huge difference between adapt and change and slash and burn, between carefully planned reorganisations and knee-jerk closures and redundancies, between partnership working amongst health professionals, managers and patients and imposed, top-down, politically motivated diktat.”
