Does she believe, for example, that there are too many layers of management sucking funds away from front line care? Is she happy that NHS trusts are still recruiting equality and diversity officers at salaries well in excess of nurses’ pay? How worried is she about the level of pay-outs for negligent maternity care, and avoidable baby deaths?įrom his stint on TV during the pandemic, Chris Whitty became so recognisable that he was the butt of endless jokes, cartoons and internet memes, yet the majority of the British public have never heard of Pritchard, and certainly would struggle to tell you what her job is.
We know almost nothing about what she thinks. Why, then, is so little known about it?Īpart from a brief appearance today when she talked about all the “challenges” the NHS is having to endure, Pritchard’s public statements since her appointment have been almost non-existent. Arguably, her role is of as much concern to the public as the Prime Minister’s. The effectiveness or otherwise of Pritchard and her team therefore has life and death implications for the entire population. Nowadays we’re just scared of needing the NHS because we fear that it won’t be able to help us. Back in 2020, the Government wanted us to be so scared of Covid that we wouldn’t go out. Whether it is the dire state of maternity care in too many hospital trusts, endless waits for scans and tests, or the fear that calling an ambulance may be futile if there are no beds available, this “cradle to grave” service is failing at every level. This is even more extraordinary when, as international data shows, comparable European economies with similar levels of health expenditure have much better outcomes and, despite slower rates of vaccination, emerged from the pandemic in better shape – and with lower mortality rates – than the NHS. Governments continue to face demands for more money, and yet the people responsible for allocating that money face practically zero pressure to account for the results. Nor has it succeeded in lifting the blame for failure from the Government’s door – in part because neither politicians nor the public act as if it even exists.
Like most quangos, however, NHS England has created its own empire at huge cost without delivering any noticeable improvement in the quality of services on the front line. Cynics would suggest that, by putting a quango in charge, ministers could dodge the blame when things went wrong. NHS England was created in the coalition years, ostensibly to provide an arm’s length management structure more effective than the Department of Health in making healthcare decisions. She sits at the head of a managerial team of national and regional directors, the layers of bureaucracy having continued to proliferate even as the number of front line health workers has fallen. Amanda Pritchard was appointed chief executive of NHS England in 2021 her job description makes clear that she is accountable to the Secretary of State for the huge allocation of taxpayer funding being swallowed up by the health service in England. Yet in contrast to the days of the pandemic, when health officials became household names, the current head of the health service has been almost invisible. The price of “protecting the NHS” during lockdown is being paid in lost lives as well as cash. Delays are costing lives: figures published this week show that the rate of excess deaths in England and Wales last month was higher than during the Covid pandemic, confirming a pattern already seen in mortality figures over the spring and summer. Seven million people are on waiting lists for treatment, a backlog that may not be cleared before 2025. Health officials have told the Government that an extra £7 billion is needed to deal with rising costs, in addition to the staggering £152 billion already allocated to the health service this year.
The NHS is in crisis and the winter has barely started.
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