Blair: 'NHS faces tough winter'

Tony Blair admitted some patients will lose out

Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted that the NHS will find it tough to cope with demand this winter - but said the service was better prepared than ever before.

However, health service experts have warned that the service could once again find itself in serious trouble.

In a Downing Street speech on Monday, Mr Blair said the government had put a five-point plan into operation to ensure the NHS was able to cope this winter.

There will be cases where patients do not get the care that they should

Prime Minister Tony Blair

The Prime Minister said more hospital beds had been made available, with more nurses to staff them.

He said flu jabs had been made available to one million vulnerable people, and the expansion of the telephone helpline NHS Direct would help many to treat themselves.

In addition GPs, hospitals and social services had been encouraged to work more closely to provide quality integrated care.

'Massive organisation'

The government has also reportedly agreed deals worth up to £15m to transfer routine operations to the private sector, following an historic agreement signed last month.

Mr Blair said: "We are doing everything in our power to see that the NHS does not just improve on last winter's performance, but reacts quickly to any problems that may arise.

"During the winter, just as during any other part of the year, a massive organisation dealing with a million people a day will face problems."

"Under-investment over decades is not put right in three years. It takes years to train doctors, consultants and nurses.

"Until we have delivered, therefore, the increases in capacity year on year for several more years there are bound to be pressures, and there will be cases where patients do not get the care that they should."

Mr Blair said compared with last winter, the NHS had:

• 3.2million more doses of flu vaccine
• 16 million more people covered by NHS Direct
• 2,900 more intensive home care packages
• 1,350 more acute beds
• 445 extra critical care beds
• more than 6,000 more nurses

Mr Blair criticised the media for concentrating on the negative aspects of NHS care.

He said the NHS was going "in the right direction" and called for a "proper sense of balance".

"Let us not fall into the trap of saying every time something goes wrong anywhere in the health service the system is on its knees, or in crisis.

"The truth is the glass is half full, and not half empty."

'Not enough'

Critics have warned that the government's investment in the health service may not be enough to avert a winter crisis.

Andrew Dilnott, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: "There is no doubt that the amount of money we are talking about is large, but it is large following many years when the increase in spending on health was pretty small.

"So I think it would be very surprising if this amount of money - big though it is - made a huge difference, both because it is following on from several years of relative famine and also because it takes a long time to change the delivery of a public service like health.

We are seeing crisis every day in intensive care

Dr Stuart Withington, Royal London Hospital

"It is unlikely that we are going to see a massive transformation this side of an election."

Dr Stuart Withington, director of intensive care at the Royal London Hospital, said the hospital had already opened two new intensive care beds provided by extra government funding, and planned to open a third.

But he said: "This is just too little too late. We are seeing crisis every day in intensive care, cancelled operations, refused emergency admissions, non-clinical transfers to other units. It is just a battle zone every day."

Dr Liam Fox, the Conservative health spokesman, accused Mr Blair of blaming everybody else except his government for the problems in the NHS.

He said: "It is no good Tony Blair trying to blame everybody else in the world.

"He effectively said this morning it would be the media's fault if there was a crisis in the NHS this winter.

"We have now got the wrong sort of press, the wrong sort of managers, the wrong sort of doctors. It is only a matter of time before he tells us we have got the wrong sort of patients."

Dr Ian Bogle, chairman of the British Medical Assocation, said: "Ministers must recognise that the enormous pressures under which all NHS staff are working are being exacerbated by the shortages of doctors and nurses."