The Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) has welcomed the announcement of extra funding for the NHS in today\u2019s Budget.\r\n\r\nRachel Reeves MP delivered her first Budget since becoming Chancellor and announced an extra \u00a322.6 billion in the day-to-day health budget and a \u00a33.1 billion increase in the capital budget.\r\n\r\nThe funding was welcomed by DAUK chair Ms Helen Fernandes, who said it was desperately needed after more than a decade of austerity and underinvestment.\r\n\r\nMs Fernandes said: \u201cThe news of extra funding is a welcome step in the right direction.\r\n\r\n\u201cBut it\u2019s going to take sustained long-term investment to put right the years of austerity and cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a result of that underfunding there are issues regarding pay, working conditions, staff shortages, training, access to jobs, buildings and estates, the list goes on.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd the Government also needs to sort out social care. As Lord Darzi said in his review, the dire state of social care is one of the reasons the NHS is in a mess.\u201d\r\n\r\nMs Fernandes expressed concern that the rise in employer national insurance contributions, if extended to general practice, could have \u2018dire consequences\u2019 on practices.\r\n\r\nMs Fernandes said: \u201cGP surgeries are struggling to survive, with hundreds already closing their doors, and many general practitioners struggling to find work.\r\n\r\n\u201cAn increase in employer national insurance costs, if it was to include general practice, could have dire consequences and might well be the expense that makes many unviable.\r\n\r\n\u201cA rise in employer costs is also likely to have an impact on recruitment and retention in social care, which in turn would have a detrimental effect on hospital admissions, discharges, and waiting lists.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe same with the rise in the national minimum wage. Of course we want to see people paid properly for the work they do, but it could have unintended consequences for general practice and social care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DAUK\u2019s GP lead Dr Lizzie Toberty said a large proportion of the new funding announced by the Chancellor should be directed towards primary care to help ease the pressure on hospitals and to move care to community settings.\r\n\r\nDr Toberty said: \u201cFollowing the Darzi Report and Wes Streeting’s stated desire to move care from hospitals to community, the money has to be spent in primary care.\r\n\r\n\u201cDarzi said GPs had been the most fiscally responsible group within the NHS. Yet somehow we now have the utter catastrophe of qualified GPs without employment while patients are desperate to see a general practitioner.\r\n\r\n\u201cLet’s get them back to work by investing funds in core general practice work.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Toberty said the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) needed reforming.\r\n\r\nShe said: \u201cMillions of pounds of ARRS funding is sent back to the Treasury unspent every year. The Government needs to move ARRS into core funding.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe don’t need more GPs, we need employment for the ones we’ve got.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere also needs to be a shift from recruitment to retention. Reward NHS staff who stay firmly rooted in their communities and who provide the continuity which ultimately provides the most financially efficient and effective way to provide patient care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInvestment is vital but money needs to be spent in the right places.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Toberty added: \u201cThey also cannot focus on one size fits all solutions.\r\n\r\n“They need to trust local health systems to organise their own solutions without absurd rules set by Whitehall.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf they did this patients could see improvements in their access to a GP within weeks, presuming pre-employment checks could be carried out quickly.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd Dr Toberty said there needed to be a \u2018huge shift\u2019 in how the NHS values staff.\r\n\r\nShe said: \u201cLord Darzi talked about loss of discretionary effort because staff\r\n\r\n\u201cAll the new scanners and surgical hubs require staff, not only to recruit but to retain.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe NHS has a poor reputation in this regard.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat is the government going to do to look after and value the staff they have?\u201d\r\n\r\nSupport the work of DAUK by donating to our Go Fund Me<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) has welcomed the announcement of extra funding for the NHS in today\u2019s Budget. Rachel Reeves MP delivered her first Budget…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,59,58],"tags":[689,38,435,658,23,644],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-general-practice","category-the-nhs","tag-budget","tag-dauk","tag-dauk-news","tag-dr-lizzie-toberty","tag-gp-crisis","tag-ms-helen-fernandes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}