Now that the dust is settling following the General Election, how will promised public sector cuts impact on the NHS? Jill Davies discusses the possible future of healthcare in the UK
We’re facing a new era in the NHS. Andrew Lansley, our new Health Secretary, has an ambition to serve the NHS to the best of his ability. Times have changed since the NHS was introduced in 1948 – however, the principle of the NHS remains the same – free treatment at the point of delivery, from the cradle to the grave.
With a new government comes new ideas and strategies. The challenge is going to be how to deliver an improved service at a reduced cost. Pre-election, the Conservatives’ policy statements held a determination to protect the service.
Mr Lansley pledged that, if elected, the Tories would continue to invest in the NHS, driven by patient needs, with savings made in administrative areas. A particular focus for the Tories was NHS dentistry, with them wanting to bring more dentists back to the NHS. They also claimed that a million more people will have an NHS dentist, with school check-ups for every child being put into practice.
Post-election, a manifesto has set out the agreements between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, which reveals funding for the NHS should increase in real terms in each year of the parliament.
Rise in budget
The NHS has already received its allocated budget for this financial year, receiving a rise in excess of five per cent, bringing it over the £100bn mark. This increased budget is, of course, good news for the NHS. However, a far-reaching programme of cuts is still predicted.
There is always the worry that the funding is unlikely to keep up with the demand for services. The ageing UK population and increasingly sophisticated developments in medical treatments together mean that the NHS is under intense pressure to keep pace with clinical advances and to keep up with demand.
The fact remains that the health service is now responsible for nearly a fifth of government spending. In the future, this budget may come under closer scrutiny, impacting other public sector services. Before the election, some PCTs were already warning that they were not able to fund routine operations, such as varicose veins treatment.
As a not-for-profit health insurance provider, Westfield Health aims to identify those areas where provision and availability is diminishing and to introduce new benefits where the NHS may need support, particularly to help patients achieve a quick diagnosis and get fast access to treatment.
The British public have already become used to supplementing NHS cover for dental and optical treatment. Now, more health services are coming under pressure. This is where cash plans are happy to play a supportive role. Mental health is an obvious example.
Mental health on the increase
Mental health charity Mind has revealed that mental health problems among British workers are rising on an unprecedented scale, with many identified as being linked to the UK’s recession. In addition, new government statistics show the biggest rise in antidepressant prescriptions on record, with 39.1 million issued to sufferers in 2009, up from 35.9 million in 2008.
These findings coincide with the launch of Mind’s new campaign – Taking Care of Business – which over the next five years will aim to improve working environments and raise awareness about mental health issues at work.
The NHS has also launched its own 10-year mental health strategy to improve the way anxiety and depression problems are treated. Within that strategy, the previous Government committed to improving access to psychological therapies by giving additional funding for a programme designed to increase talking therapy services over the next three years. This works by investing the money in training counsellors to deliver more talking therapies and move away from the dependency on drug therapies.
This programme, called Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), will provide specific guidelines for PCTs working with people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders. Although IAPT is not intended to fund all psychological therapies, it will help to improve availability.
Cash plan providers
Areas like these are where cash plan providers can come in, being able to respond to changing health and wellbeing needs, offering a range of different plans with benefits to meet the evolving UK healthcare environment for both individual and corporate policyholders.
For example, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is recognised by the Government and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence as the talking therapy with the most potential, as it helps change patterns of thinking or looks at the behaviours that are causing problems. It has also been found to work for a variety of mental health problems. It can help treat symptoms of depression, anxiety, trauma, panic attacks, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorders and some eating disorders.
In support, some cash plan providers now offer CBT or face-to-face counselling sessions as part of an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
An EAP is an excellent way of addressing mental health in the workplace. It enables employees to seek help, which can keep them at work throughout treatment. The health of a workforce can have a significant impact on the health of a company – which in broader terms can impact on the economy.
Cover for non-urgent surgical procedures is also available as an add-on benefit on some corporate-paid health cash plans, which gives employees the opportunity to access treatment quickly. These cover operations such as those for gallstones, varicose veins and hip replacements, which often have longer waiting periods on the NHS.
In addition, many cash plan providers offer therapy treatment benefits, giving employees the opportunity to tackle specific musculoskeletal problems without having to join an NHS waiting list. Many cash plans provide money back towards the cost of physiotherapy, osteopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic treatment, which helps people to treat their conditions and get back to fitness sooner.
Of course, cash plans are not only available to plug the gaps within the NHS – they can also help employers to provide routine healthcare benefits for their staff, which with impending cuts ahead will no doubt be welcomed by many.
Privately-owned Scottish oil and gas service company, Collabro Ltd, replaced its PMI scheme with a cash plan as a more affordable healthcare solution. Gwen Moran, contract manager at Collabro Ltd, said: “We cancelled our PMI because we felt it was much more acceptable as a company to implement a health cash plan.
“The health cash plan was far more economical than PMI, even on the top level, which meant we could provide the maximum benefits to the whole workforce for far less money.”
The Government has some difficult health decisions ahead and some will no doubt be unpopular. Cash plan providers are experts in the healthcare field, and know only too well where the gaps lie within NHS services. So, why shouldn’t we talk to our Government and give advice for the future of healthcare? In a new world, where every penny is being scrutinised, perhaps the only solution is for us to work together, using both our knowledge and expertise to really help keep the system on track.
To sum up, history tells us that health cash plans become more relevant during tough economic times. Movement towards the health cash plan (HCP) market may accelerate as the NHS changes and gaps in free healthcare provision open up, particularly in primary care – traditionally the domain of cash plans. Most unexpected family health bills arise from the traditional cash plan areas of dental and optical, but this is certainly likely to spread to other services.
As the tougher economic climate prompts more employers and employees to consider a cash plan, the potential for the market to grow is undoubtedly significant.
Whatever the future holds, we are undoubtedly in for some real change in the future healthcare landscape.
Jill Davies is Chief Executive of Westfield Health
