Ahead of the Chancellor’s budget on 24th March 2010 and the subsequent debates, the Royal College of Physicians, as the leading body representing UK physicians is asking Members of Parliament to bear key health considerations in mind:
i) Balancing efficiencies and public services
Following a decade of growth the NHS is being asked to deliver considerable efficiencies. There is a risk that without careful management, a supportive rather than confrontational culture and a high degree of medical engagement, any effort to increase productivity could easily subside into a process where services and posts are indiscriminately slashed and burnt. The health service holds a special position in the public aspiration. Over-hasty decisions now to cut back on the medical workforce, biomedical research, and audit programmes could have implications for generations.
ii) Staying the Course on National Programmes
Sometimes the distinctions drawn between ‘front line’ and ‘everything else’ can obscure the important contribution that research and capacity building organisations are making to improved patient safety and care quality. Undoubtedly some difficult choices will have to be made in the next few years. We urge the policy makers taking these decisions to reflect not only on the savings that can be made immediately, but the opportunities that will be foregone if national programmes reaching maturation are abandoned before their respective missions are complete.
iii) Smoking
Smoking remains the major cause of preventable, premature death and disease. Measures to reduce smoking prevalence, including through increasing tobacco taxes above inflation, are essential to improving the nation’s health and reducing health inequalities.