We deplore the involvement of Capita in the administration of retired doctors’ return to the NHS workforce. Reported delays of over two weeks to inclusion back on the performers’ list, while NHS 111 remains overwhelmed, are unacceptable. Valuable, willing expertise is being underused at a time of national crisis. Inexperienced call handlers are being recruited at £5.82 per hour and given as little as 90 minutes training. Senior support is badly needed.
Capita’s record in providing NHS services is a poor one. Their contract for cervical screening has already been removed after nearly 50,000 women were denied vital information. They should never have been offered this new role.
The 2012 Health and Social Care Act enshrined competition in the business of the NHS. Fragmentation and deterioration of services quickly followed, as the newly involved private sector cut costs to increase profits.
The NHS has been subjected to systematic under-funding for over a decade. The average increase in the NHS budget before 2010 was 3.7%. Since the Conservatives came to power it has been only 1.4%. This lags behind inflation, and leaves no room to treat a growing population or invest in modern medical technologies.
This is brought to sharp focus by our response to coronavirus. Our health and social care services are struggling with a shortage of staff, beds, ventilators and personal protective equipment. Public health organisations cannot conduct the widespread testing needed to inform any meaningful preparations for an end to the lockdown.
Retired health workers began their careers in a very different NHS; one that was comprehensive, universal, and properly publicly funded. Our much applauded health service now deserves restoration to these founding principles.
Doctors in Unite 