It really is not all doom and gloom for the NHS

The well being and care sectors face some main hurdles which need to have addressing in the future, writes Rob Webster. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Pictures

If you believed every little thing you go through or heard about the wellness services recently, you could be forgiven for thinking the NHS and everyone involved in it is on a quick-track journey to oblivion. Whether it really is missed waiting time targets for patients with cancer, predictions from the Royal School of GPs that components of the nation could turn into GP ghost towns, or assertions that if the NHS had been a plane, it would “fall out of the sky”. Wherever you flip, it looks like someone, somewhere, is ready to condemn our health support as one particular that would be much better if we place it out of its misery.

In this context, it is a lot more essential than ever to reflect the actuality of the NHS so we can build hope for a future we all want to see. This means focusing on what’s very good as nicely as the challenges.

Now I’m not blind to the difficulties we encounter. Since taking over the helm of the NHS Confederation in February 2014, I’ve driven forward a sturdy emphasis with partners on the 2015 challenge, which brings to the fore the significant concerns we need to have to address. And in my speech to the NHS Confederation’s 2014 yearly conference and exhibition on Wednesday, I will not be shying away from some of the main hurdles the health and care sectors encounter now or these that want addressing in the future. It would be remiss of me if I did.

There is, nevertheless, a key element missing from a whole lot of the coverage we see and hear about the NHS. The small miracles of kindness, compassion and care that arise in many elements of the services every single hour of each day. Our workers deserve credit score for the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives are far more independent because of care that assists them control their a number of extended-phrase circumstances. They deserve credit score for the thousands of individuals whose lives have been extended due to the fact of cutting-edge remedies developed, pioneered and rolled out across the NHS. And credit score for the problems most individuals functioning in the NHS have as they function alongside a patient, service consumer, carer or advocate each and every morning, evening or during the evening. They have presently observed us by way of challenging instances of austerity and structural reform.

Just as we never shed sight of what we need to do to preserve the NHS for future generations, we need to also remind ourselves of every little thing in the overall health and care sectors which offers us self confidence that it will proceed for decades to come. We should remind ourselves of the energy, the dedication, the ambition and the resourcefulness of people functioning in the wellness service. We ought to harness these attributes, combine their strength, and deploy them for full effect. The one million patient interactions each and every 36 hours. The one.3 million men and women who perform to commission and deliver NHS funded care every single day. Much more than 1 million individuals in functioning social care. The three million volunteers who function alongside us every single 12 months. The seven million carers who are a basic portion of the crew. That’s a lot of potential advocates for a well being services which has folks at its quite core.

The NHS Confederation’s yearly conference and exhibition is a cornerstone of the calendar for well being services leaders. This 12 months will see a new generation of leaders alongside the knowledgeable old heads. We will see clinical and patient leaders alongside management experts and regulators. Liverpool will be the place where the complete technique comes collectively to debate the way forward, share our experiences and tap into peer support to achieve our common aim – delivering a sustainable NHS.

There have been many years, although, when the mood of the NHS Confederation yearly conference has been downbeat, even gloomy. As a crucial barometer for the mood of the NHS, this is totally understandable, specifically in many years when one set of changes after an additional seemed to loom ahead, waiting to be foisted on a service which could only wait and hope it survived. This year is not one of those years. Rather, as we technique the opening notes of the conference, the mood includes more than a whisper of hope. Since the difficulties we face are actual, but they are surmountable. Due to the fact we know that as we chart a course by way of the up coming 12 months, up to and through the 2015 standard election, we can plainly articulate the expectations we are placing on politicians to perform their element. Simply because the well being service has great people operating in it, and good individuals counting on it, and that is also critical to disregard.

Rob Webster is chief executive of NHS Confederation. He will be speaking at the organisation’s yearly conference on Wednesday 4 June.

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It really is not all doom and gloom for the NHS