The new head of the NHS says the huge public organisation views patients as an “inconvenience” and that the health service is too often “deaf” to criticism and ” wastes a lot of money.” The Damning assessment of the country’s often vaunted National Health Service comes as Sir Jim Mackey takes on a new role as chief executive overseeing the NHS.
In his first interview since taking on the job, Sir Jim said the NHS “made it really hard” for patients to get the right care they need. His comments come as Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in June she would be giving the public sector body a record £29 billion funding boost. The NHS budget currently stands at around £192 billion, or around 11% of the UK’s total GDP.
Sir Jim said: “We have wasted a lot of money in the last few years, we haven’t spent it as wisely as we could have done. It feels like we’ve built mechanisms to keep the public away because it’s an inconvenience.”
Sir Jim told the Telegraph his own family’s experience of treatment by the NHS had shaped some of his views, adding: “My dad died in a hospital where the local folklore was terrible about the hospital, but the hospital was deaf to it.
“I wasn’t long into the NHS, and I felt really powerless. I found out too late that the clinical community knew the guy who looked after him wasn’t as good as I would have wanted him to be. I’ll carry that with me for the rest of my life.”
Speaking about his mother’s death, Sir Jim said her friends all knew “which ward not to go into” when they had to be treated at a local hospital.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has insisted the Government can hit its NHS waiting times targets despite scepticism from rival party leaders. Speaking after her spending review in June, Ms Reeves said the Government was confident it could hit pledges set down by the Prime Minister last year.
Sir Keir Starmer said in December the NHS will carry out 92% of routine operations within 18 weeks by March 2029 in the run up to the next General Election. However, in March this year, the NHS waiting list for hospital treatment in England rose for the first time in seven months.
Sir Jim said he was confident the pledge to cut waiting times could be reached, but also noted he didn’t worry about winning elections, adding: “I worry about the population. I’m really competitive. I want to deliver on everything, and in all of that, I want to deliver for the population and our staff. I want to see more pride in the NHS.”
