NHS will have to make ‘hardnosed’ cuts its chief has said

NHS has tens of thousands of vacant posts it can’t recruit to, warns chief executive

NHS chief Amanda Pritchard said winter planning has begun earlier than usual (PA) (PA Archive)

The chief of the NHS has admitted there will have to be a “hardnosed assessment” of what the service can afford as it awaits the government’s funding announcement.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive for NHS England, also acknowledged how “stretched” NHS services are due to high vacancy rates and the “limits on productivity” resulting from the pandemic.

Her words come after Health Secretary Steve Barclay hinted that the NHS is likely to be getting additional funding in the Treasury’s autumn budget on Thursday to offset inflationary costs.

NHS England has previously said it would need several billion to offset the costs of inflation and increase staff pay.

Ms Pritchard committed to publishing a long-term workforce plan for the NHS and said this would need to be updated regularly in a similar fashion to OBR forecasts.

The Independent has previously reported publication NHS’ workforce plan had been pushed back amid rows with the Treasury over funding.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in his role as chair of the Health Select Committee has repeatedly called on the government to commit to a funded long-term workforce plan.

Amanda Pritchard speaking at the annual NHS Providers conference said: “The NHS would need to be “realistic that prioritising patient care will in many cases need a hard-nosed assessment of what else can be scaled back or done effectively, more cheaply through collaboration with neighbours…

“It’s also true that the level of vacancies that we are hiring, combined with the ongoing limits on productivity due to the pandemic means services are stretched now.”

NHS chief executive added: “we also have to acknowledge that we have tens of thousands of clinical roles budgeted for that we can’t substantively fill right now.”

When asked whether the NHS could receive funding for a workforce plan the Health Secretary did not answer.

During her speech Ms Pritchard announced plans to expand GP’s diagnostic and testing powers, allowing them to directly request MRI’s, CT scans and x-rays.

NHS England is asking family doctors to order more ultrasounds, brain MRIs and CT scans for vague symptoms that fall outside the current two-week cancer referral to see a specialist.

At present, people with vague symptoms can face long waits for tests or to see hospital medics, and then face delays in getting their first treatment.

According to NHS England, when GPs order these checks directly, waiting times could be cut to as little as four weeks.

Hundreds of thousands of hospital appointments could also be freed up by reducing the need for a specialist consultation first, it said.

Guidance has been in place since 2012 for GPs to have the right to refer patients directly for scans, but NHS England is now pushing on the issue in a bid to get more people diagnosed with cancer in its earliest stages.

The 2012 guidance, Direct Access to Diagnostic Tests for Cancer, said chest X-rays, ultrasound, flexible sigmoidoscopy and brain MRI were "priority areas" to which GPs should have free access.

Now, NHS England is trying to standardise the approach so that regions that may not have access to all the tests can get them.