BMA annual meeting: Government is trying to keep NHS “running on fumes,” departing BMA chair warns

Gareth Iacobucci

The government is failing patients and doctors by trying to keep the NHS “running on fumes,” the BMA’s departing chair of council, Mark Porter, has warned.

Speaking to doctors at the BMA’s annual representative meeting this week in Bournemouth before he steps down and is replaced by Chaand Nagpaul on 29 June,1 Porter urged ministers to heed the growing concern among patients and doctors about the future of the NHS in England.

His call came as a BMA poll of doctors found that three quarters believed that access to services was worsening in their area, while a parallel survey showed that the proportion of the public dissatisfied with the NHS had doubled in just two years.

Of more than …