Sajid Javid was something of a breath of fresh air when he was appointed as Health Secretary last June. Gone was the libidinous, lockdown-loving Matt Hancock; in came the Thatcherite free-marketeer promising a ‘return to normalcy.’ Since then, some of the shine has come off the Saj. First, there was the debacle over Covid passes at Christmas. And now the Health Secretary faces the perennial problem which faced his predecessors: how to pay for a creaking health service with an ageing population?
In his first major policy speech last week, Javid spoke candidly to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). He warned that the NHS is on an ‘unsustainable financial trajectory’ and urged new methods to ‘reduce costs.’ It is perhaps regrettable then that less than a week on, Mr S has seen figures which show that health bosses spent more than £236 million on management consultants last year – despite evidence that they make matters worse.
Figures from Javid’s ministerial colleagues show that the Department of Health spent £171 million on such consultants in 2020/21 – the most recent year for which data was available – while NHS England spent a further £65 million: a combined total enough to pay the starting salary for 9,440 nurses. A recent study by the universities of Bristol, York and Seville into NHS Trusts that used management consultants found that far from improving matters, they tended to become less efficient over time
In fairness to Javid, he can at least claim that the spend took place before he took over at the helm. But sadly the other big idea proposed in his speech to the RCP – better use of technology – does not seem much in evidence either. For Mr S has been taking a look at the newly-launched My Planned Care platform which, when launched last month, Javid claimed would help tackle record NHS waiting lists. He boasted on his launch that:
This first of its kind platform will give millions of patients more certainty over their own care no matter who they are or where they live… the My Planned Care platform will help us put patients in control.
Javid also told the Commons that the platform ‘shows the approach that we will be taking in the years ahead.’ Stirring stuff but does the rhetoric live up to reality? Mr S browsed the site which ‘went live’ nearly three weeks ago. Unfortunately, other than providing visitors with contact details for each hospital, the website seems to have no other functions, other than telling patients just how long they can expect to wait to have a condition treated, based on average waiting times. Judging by Steerpike’s experience, Javid’s platform seems less designed to empower users than it does depress them.
A long-suffering Brummie in need of orthopaedic treatment, for instance, is greeted by the cheery news that the average waiting time at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust is 54 weeks. A disclaimer below adds: ‘Some patients will wait less time than the average and some patients will wait longer than the average waiting time.’ Patients waiting for other forms of treatment, like spinal surgery, are merely told: ‘This information is currently unavailable for this Provider’s Speciality. Please check back later.’
If that’s giving patients ‘certainty’ and ‘control,’ what on earth does the alternative look like?
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