By Professor John Robertson
In June 2024, researchers at The Kings Fund revealed the above collapse in funding for the NHS in England, after the last Labour Government in 2009.
Above, from the House of Commons Library in March 2024, revealing the 100% plus increase in the waiting lists in the same period of suppressed funding.
Above from the Kings Fund in May 2024, evidence of significant increases in some NHS England staffing but, crucially, not in nurses and those who support them – a 25% increase to deal with doubled waiting lists.
In the Guardian‘s Lucy Letby: killer or coincidence? Why some experts question the evidence today:
In 2013-14, the CoC neonatal unit had four deaths each year. Then, between June 2015 and June 2016, an unusual cluster of 13 deaths occurred. (The hospital has given different accounts of the number and dates of the deaths on different occasions, stating 15 deaths in an earlier response to a freedom of information request.)
The hospital, worried by the deaths, commissioned a review from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in July 2016. It found the unit was very short of nursing staff and that consultants were spread too thinly between the paediatric ward and the neonatal unit.
Junior staff did not feel they could call in consultants, often leaving the unit in the care of mid-grade doctors, many of whom lacked sufficient experience, the review reported.
Dr Svilena Dimitrova, an NHS consultant neonatologist who is part of the government-appointed Ockenden review:
“There are fundamental flaws in the justice system when it comes to prosecuting healthcare professionals, which mean that it does not address systemic NHS failures and blames individuals instead … The information presented to court was flawed and not proof of guilt beyond doubt,” she added.
I’m, of course, not competent to have a strong opinion on much of the case presented but I am sure that the prosecution statistics are pure bunkum and that there is a long history of institutions finding convenient scapegoats to protect senior staff and the government ministers at whose door bucks should stop.
Finally, the situation in NHS Scotland? There are 50% more (!) nurses per head of population, in Scotland than in England. See this from 2019, only a few years after the baby deaths in NHS England.
NHS ISD collate statistics on the number of qualified nurses and midwives per 100,000 population for NHS Scotland only. Statistics on the number of qualified nurses and midwives for England and Wales are collected by NHS Digital and StatsWales respectively.
According to the latest available published information, the number of qualified midwives in Scotland per 100,000 population is 45 WTE (whole or full-time equivalent), compared to 39 WTE in England and 43 WTE in Wales.
According to the latest available published information, the number of qualified nurses in Scotland per 100,000 population is 771 WTE (whole or full-time equivalent), compared to 518 WTE in England and 688 WTE in Wales.
Sources:
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/nhs-budget-nutshell
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/nhs-workforce-nutshell
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/09/lucy-letby-evidence-experts-question
https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers/question?ref=S5W-22501
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 