Report sets out damaging impact of NHS financial pressures on patient care

14 March 2017

 

The King’s Fund has published a new report looking at the impact of NHS financial pressures on patient care.

The report titled Understanding NHS financial pressures has found patient care is increasingly being affected by financial pressures in ways that often go unseen. It says that access to and quality of care is being affected in different ways.

The findings show that community and public health services have been hit the hardest, while hospital services have so far been “relatively protected”.

 

Commenting on the report findings, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery said:

“NHS Trusts have been working flat out to protect patients from the impact of the longest and deepest financial squeeze in the history of the health service. But as this report points out, the gap between what the NHS is being asked to deliver and the resources available is growing. The impact on patients is becoming increasingly clear, both in terms of access to treatment and the quality of care.

The impact on patients is becoming increasingly clear, both in terms of access to treatment and the quality of care.

 

“It is particularly worrying that these effects have been most pronounced in community services and public health. The vision outlined in the NHS five year forward view was predicated on improvements in prevention, and providing more care closer to home rather than in hospital, to help balance the equation of rising demand and costs with no additional resources.  This report suggests the NHS is moving in the wrong direction and that although times are hard now, there’s worse to come.”