The health secretary has pledged 15,000 new healthcare workers to be recruited by the end of March as the Government has told us that we will not start to see a decline of the amount of people on the NHS waiting list in the UK for another two years and this could even rise higher (Independent). Mr Sajid Javid stated in the Commons that 1,600 people have been waiting longer than a year for care before the pandemic but the figure is now over 300,000. Approximately, six million people in England are on the waiting list for treatment. These changes are vital for the well being of our mental and physical health in the future.
How is this going to happen?
Sajid Javid has stated in the Daily Telegraph that the NHS aimed to recruit 10,000 more nurses from overseas as well as 5000 more healthcare support workers by the end of March. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has stated that this plan that is in place will be the biggest catch-up programme in the history of health service backed by unprecedented funding. However, Mark Harper who is the Conservative former Chief Whip has argued that this plan is not ambitious enough.
What has been promised?
Mr Javid has set out in the commons how the NHS would tackle the problems created by the Covid-19 pandemic and has included new targets for how they are going to solve it.
Within his ambitions, he stated that…
- The NHS will eliminate the wait of over 18 months by April 2023.
- Patients waiting for longer than a year will end by March 2025.
- By March 2024, 75% of patients that have been referred for suspected cancer will be diagnosed within 28 days.
The plan will focus on ‘four areas of delivery’ which are to increase the health service capacity together with the independent sector, to prioritise patient’s diagnosis and treatment, to reform patient care and to increase activity through dedicated and protected surgical hubs (The Northern Echo).The NHS has said this will mean that over a three year period, patients will be offered around 17 million more diagnostic tests which will be an increase in capacity of a quarter compared with the three years prior to Covid-19.
The plan has further promised that it will create more community sites for surgical procedures and quicker diagnostic checks which is in addition to the network of 122 surgical hubs that are already in operation. Faster clinical advice for patients will be offered as teams of specialists will be deployed to help patients get results.
Mr Javid has tweeted that as we have come together to be able to fight the virus, we must come together to be able to fight the aftermath that has come with it.
At Meltemi, we fully support the incentive to get more people into the NHS. We are very proud to be one of the main NHS clothing suppliers and hopefully this pledge will help strengthen one of the UK’s most important institutions. If we can support you in terms of workwear garments, let us know. Get in touch with us today on 01603 731330.
