14 December 2001
The startling admission was made at the Healthcare Financial Management Association annual conference in London. During a question-and-answer session, Lord Hunt, a former chief executive of the NHS Confederation, was asked how much time the service had to improve before other funding options would be considered.
Without hesitation, he replied: 'We have got two years. I don't think we have much time because the NHS has never been under so much scrutiny in terms of its performance.
'Most of the time I have been involved in the NHS, the argument has been about the need for more resources. The argument has now moved on. Though there are considerable pressures out there, the rates of growth in funding in our programme have moved the debate on. There is now more emphasis on whether the system is up to using it effectively.'
The public gauged NHS performance by the length of waiting lists, which was why the government was so keen to fulfil its targets on waiting times. By the end of the current financial year, no-one should wait longer than 15 months and no longer than six months by 2005, he insisted.
The acknowledgement of the service's precarious future came as Sir Peter Morris, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the NHS had got worse in the past ten years.
'I can't say that I would be happy to be treated in the NHS,' he told Radio 4's Today programme.
He said lack of beds and lack of funds frustrated surgeons by preventing them from carrying out more operations.
Lord Hunt was optimistic the NHS could overcome its problems. He said government plans to devolve budgets and responsibilities down to local managers and staff were part of the solution.
'This is a determined attempt to step back from micro-management and give room to people to manage. One thing I have learned at the Department of Health is that micro-management is self-defeating in the end.'
PFdec2001
