Last updated on August 29th, 2017 at 09:58 am

However, as the King’s Fund points out, the problem is that the majority of the additional money recently allocated to the NHS is not being invested in reorganising community healthcare, but being used to reduce the NHS deficit,  which is reported as being £1.6bn in the first half of this year.

The current healthcare system is under enormous strain, and it is not sustainable in its current format: that much is clear. Much of the overspend is likely to have been caused by poor management of funds within individual organisations themselves, but winter pressures caused by an increasingly ageing population who are likely to have increased care needs, rather than a medical need, will have significantly contributed towards this overspend. And, whilst it is obvious that early recognition of illness and better management of illness within the community, and quicker hospital discharges into community and social care services will reduce the operational pressures on the NHS, community care is not cheap, and the current lack of funds to invest in community restructure means that these plans are not credible.

The King’s Fund says:

“It is no longer credible for the government to argue that it has provided ‘the funding needed to deliver the NHS’s own plan’ when most of the additional funding identified in the 2015 spending review is being used to keep services afloat rather than to transform care.”

The root cause of the operational and financial pressures need to be addressed first.  It is not possible to reduce hospital care or capacity without investing more in the community and social care, and it is unlikely that current services will survive as they are.  Therefore, we must address pressing issues, such as the workforce crisis within primary care. GPs are constantly being asked to deliver more with even less and pressured to produced monetary savings. The workforce is being pushed to the limits with the effect that GPs are now leaving the profession in droves and we will soon face a very real national shortage. Many general practices are already closing; meaning that those displaced patients need to find an alternative practice, which impacts upon waiting times and places, and more stress on the GPs.  The NHS cannot function without GPs.