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Last week, the annual British Social Attitudes survey found that public satisfaction with the NHS had dropped to its lowest level on record, with fewer than one in four happy with the service. The public’s unhappiness was driven by GP and dental practices but reflected across all services.
New data published on Friday revealed that one in four ambulances were waiting outside A&Es for longer than half an hour to hand over emergency patients, preventing paramedics from attending new cases, when the target is 15 minutes.
The health service has also experienced repeated strikes by doctors over the last year. On Friday, consultants announced they would end strike action after accepting a new pay deal worth up to £20,000 a year.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers which represents hospital trusts, ambulance services and primary care networks, told The Telegraph the proposals to delay letter deliveries were “extremely unhelpful”.
“It’s really important that patients be updated at the earliest opportunity on developments in their care and treatment,” he said.
“An efficient, punctual postal service remains a key part of that process. At a time when far too many patients already face long delays – the last thing any trust leader wants – anything that adds to that uncertainty, and possibly the worsening of conditions, would be extremely unhelpful.”
Healthwatch England, a think tank that makes recommendations on how to improve patient care and safety, said around 3 per cent of the 82 million hospital appointments confirmed with a letter involved letters arriving after the appointment date, based on a representative sample of 2,100 people.
It found that two-thirds of the public still rely on letters from the NHS to know when their appointment is and other medical information.
Experts estimate that the cost of Did Not Attends is around £1 billion a year in lost NHS productivity.
Exasperation at late deliveries
Louise Ansari, chief executive at Healthwatch England, said it had “heard worrying stories from people who are exasperated by the late arrival of crucial NHS post”.
“When appointment letters, test results and other communications from the NHS are delayed, patient safety is put at risk, while NHS teams must deal with the fall out of missed appointments,” she told The Telegraph.
“We are concerned that the proposals to further delay posting of letters will make such risks more widespread.”
She added that it would increase health inequalities among those who rely on post and have less access to digital technologies, and urged the Royal Mail “to ensure the most pressing NHS correspondence is not delayed further for the most vulnerable patients”.
Royal Mail is campaigning for a shake-up of postal regulations as it grapples with a slump in letter sending that has pushed its finances to the brink.
The company lost £319 million in the first half of the year as it warned letter volumes were likely to drop to 4 billion in the next five years, down from their peak of 20 billion two decades ago.
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