The NHS crisis
From Dr C.B. Brown Sir: The response of Nigel Crisp (Letters, 24 August), chief executive of the NHS, to your leading article of the 17 August on the parlous state of the NHS was the sort of political claptrap I would expect from Alastair Campbell rather than from the leader of a professional service. Verbiage such as 'patients' need for information', 'choice', 'staff flexibility and control', 'wide range of service providers' are as unrelated to the reality of day-to-day clinical care as Mr Milburn's wish-list for the NHS by the next election — a world-class health service! The fact is that we have the worst health-care service in Europe, despite being one of the seven richest countries in the world.
At the kidney unit where I work, we have more than 60 patients waiting to go on a kidney machine. They have to wait for someone else to die or be transplanted before they can be accepted. Yet we have ten stations available that could be used by 60 patients but are empty because of lack of revenue to pay for the cost of running them, a situation that has existed for many months. This is unheard of anywhere else in Europe. We have a number of patients waiting more than six to nine months for an operation to treat the bone disorders often seen in kidney disease. A colleague of mine from Belgium tells me that his patients wait only two weeks.
The medical wards for this large hospital were built during the reign of Queen Victoria and have been revamped so many times that it is only the many coats of paint that keep them together. and yet this hospital got top marks in the NHS league — three stars. Imagine what is must be like to be a patient or to work in those with two or one.
The NHS in its present form, politically driven rather than for clinical benefit, has failed not only those who are patients but also those health professionals who work in it. Like all state-controlled monopolies with central-command management, it fails to respond to changing needs and runs roughshod over professional advice and expertise.
C.B. Brown
Consultant Renal Physician, Sheffield Kidney Institute, University of Sheffield, Yorkshire
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