RCoA response to the Chancellor's Spending Review

The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) has responded to the Chancellor's Spending Review. 

Dr Claire Shannon, President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists said: 

“The government’s commitment to a 3% increase in annual day-to-day NHS spending – equivalent to £29 billion a year – is welcome, though it remains below the growth levels seen in previous decades, despite rising demand on services.

“The priority now must be to ensure this funding delivers tangible benefits for patients and improved support for our members and their colleagues across the NHS who are under increasing pressure as they deliver high-quality care. We hope to see more detail in the forthcoming 10-year plan, which needs to succeed in its aim to improve productivity across the NHS.

“Our evidence highlights significant opportunities to improve both efficiency and patient outcomes through supporting teams to deliver high quality perioperative care – a point we’ve made consistently in our engagement with the Darzi Review and Change NHS consultations. Encouragingly, some of this thinking appears to be taking hold, including in the Elective Reform Plan published earlier this year.

“The government’s continued commitment to addressing the harm caused by tobacco is also welcome, particularly the focus on enforcement of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and investment in smoking cessation services. 

“However, to deliver sustainable improvements for patients, it’s essential that productivity gains are accompanied by addressing the crisis in specialist training and investment in building the workforce of the future. In anaesthesia alone, the shortage of anaesthetists is preventing around 1.4 million operations and procedures taking place each year. This shortage not only keeps patients waiting, it also puts additional pressure on the anaesthetists we do have, fuelling burnout and harming retention. 

“There are plenty of doctors who want to become anaesthetists and we have capacity to train more of them. What is urgently needed is an increase in anaesthetic training places alongside measures to improve retention and recognition of anaesthetists. We look forward to the forthcoming update of the Long Term Workforce Plan addressing this issue.”