London (Parliament Politics Magzine) – The NHS fails the old in their hour of need, a landmark report has discovered.
The study by Lord Darzi, a surgeon and an ex-health minister, will lay bare the lack of care provided to the most vulnerable, with a doubling in A&E waiting times for pensioners. The report, which is anticipated to guide the Government’s strategy on the NHS after it is issued, will caution that too many elderly people have been left to mourn “appalling experiences” at the hands of the health service.
Lord Darzisaid: “I am deeply concerned that older people have been let down. After a lifetime of contributing to the NHS, they rightly expected it to be there for them in their hour of need. But the NHS is no longer able to hold up its end of the bargain.”
What Are the Key Findings of the Report on NHS Care for the Elderly?
The independent investigation was called by Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, a week after Labour won the election when he declared the NHS “broken”. The review discovered that average A&E waiting times for the elderly have doubled in 15 years.
Pensioners in need of care can now anticipate waiting almost six hours in casualty units (5 hours 54 minutes), up from less than three hours (2 hours 55 minutes) in 2008. It will also state that 2.5 million patients on NHS waiting lists in England are over the age of 65. The report, which runs to nearly 140 pages, will catalogue a litany of failings in the way the NHS operates, attacking the way swaths of routine healthcare activity were halted during the pandemic.
How Will Lord Darzi’s Report Influence Future NHS Reforms?
Lord Darzi, who performed as a health minister under Gordon Brown, is anticipated to blame “underinvestment” and the 2012 “top-down reorganisation of the NHS” under the Tories for the extent to which backlogs mounted during the pandemic.
The ideas from a former Labour health minister are anticipated to stoke fierce political rows.
Victoria Atkins, the shadow health secretary, has already increased concerns that the report is “cover for the Labour Party to raise our taxes in the budget in October”.
Ministers have stated that the surgeon’s findings will supply the basis for a 10-year plan to “radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future”. The project is expected to be published early next year. Lord Darzi’s investigation is anticipated to warn that NHS improvement is going backwards for the first time in 50 years, with progress in slashing deaths from heart disease now in reverse. He is extremely concerned about the failure of the service to satisfy the needs of the elderly, with most people suffering from multiple long-term conditions by the age of 75.