NHS whats happened?

[Electro1980]

RichB said:

The flaw in that line of thinking is that the NHS was st under Labour too.

Except it wasn’t. It wasn’t perfect, but it was acceptable and improving.

[super7]

People used to just die…. Now we keep them alive! Each person we keep alive subsequently require loads of hospital appointments to keep them alive

The population is increasing, they’re getting older and we’re keeping them alive! The NHS hasn’t got a hope in hell….

Equally, people need to take more responsibility for their health. Get in a car or a Taxi and leave the Ambulances for REAL emergencies….

The NHS should start charging for various non-emergency treatments… make some treatments profit centres.

For example, ear syringing… they wont do it anymore, but charge £10-20 for it instead….

[272BHP]

One thing though is very clear.

Private healthcare in all its myriad of forms is the new gold rush.

[RichB]

Electro1980 said:

RichB said:

The flaw in that line of thinking is that the NHS was st under Labour too.

Except it wasn’t. It wasn’t perfect, but it was acceptable and improving.

My experience was that hospitals were filthy and it was all pretty run down but other opinions may differ.

[CharlieCrocodile]

Local hospital in Suffolk - only one doctor on call for the entire hospital over Christmas. The rest all on holiday.
Patient on a nil by mouth order until said on call doctor could see him 96 hours later.
So glad we clapped them during COVID.

[RichB]

CharlieCrocodile said:

Local hospital in Suffolk - only one doctor on call for the entire hospital over Christmas. The rest all on holiday.
Patient on a nil by mouth order until said on call doctor could see him 96 hours later.
So glad we clapped them during COVID.

Most GPs in our area are still 'working from home'. WTF

[Cold]

My daughter's friend is a senior nurse in palliative care on the south coast. She's tired. She tells us that although a pay rise would be welcome that's not the real issue at the moment.

She needs more staff. She can go home at night/morning/evening knowing full well that the staff levels are not sufficient to ensure the patients are not at risk, so much so that she'll often work a double shift just to make up the numbers. It's been like this for a while.

There's a strike day coming up and she's in a real dilemma whether or not to take part. Should she strike to show support and use the day to sleep, or should she go in to make sure the patients are cared for and that there won't be a complete clusterflock to go back to?
She's giving serious thought to striking but going in to work unpaid. There will be no one of authority there to say different.

[Dingu]

CharlieCrocodile said:

Local hospital in Suffolk - only one doctor on call for the entire hospital over Christmas. The rest all on holiday.
Patient on a nil by mouth order until said on call doctor could see him 96 hours later.
So glad we clapped them during COVID.

Blaming the frontline staff is bonkers.

[lizardbrain]

Not sure what rebase means tbh!

[super7]

And agencies providing contract nurses, doctors, consultants should have a fixed commision. None of these stupid charges that are being demanded and basically screwing the NHS.

[BobToc]

Electro1980 said:

RichB said:

The flaw in that line of thinking is that the NHS was st under Labour too.

Except it wasn’t. It wasn’t perfect, but it was acceptable and improving.

Yes, the idea that nothing has changed under 13 years of the Tories misrepresents what happened under Labour. As for what’s going wrong, I suspect that a key factor is simply the reduction in acute trust bed capacity which was intended to push patients back into the community (ostensively a good idea, if done as part of a whole system change). Unfortunately no one thought to make sure community hospitals and social care had enough bed capacity - instead significant cuts to local authority budgets resulted in the opposite effect - lower bed numbers. It’s very, very hard to reverse that quickly, but they only have themselves to blame.

[gazza285]

Still spending £2.3 billion a year on PFI, and it hasn’t peaked yet.

[pavarotti1980]

gazza285 said:

Still spending £2.3 billion a year on PFI, and it hasn’t peaked yet.

Out of interest how much they be paying if they borrowed it via Treasury Capital route?

[poo at Paul's]

DBSV8 said:

interested on thoughts what exactly is going on with the NHS



or is there a darker reason , NHS going slow due to pay deals ?? political; reasons unions etc

no idea but this needs fixing

It’s hard to imagine them being any slower than they were pre strikes, but I’m guessing they add some jobsworthiness into it and they could easily make it worse.

[Elysium]

I spent 12 hours in A&E waiting for help about 25 years ago.

Cut to my hand with tendons visible and stitches needed.

In the end they sent me home and told me to come back for an appointment the following day. Guy who stitched me up was pissed off. He said he had been quiet all day, I got stuck because the triage people were too busy to refer me to him.

The NHS has been broken for decades.

[Douglas Quaid]

Jasandjules said:

The cynic in me says the Govt has spent many years ensuring the NHS is not fit for purpose so they can then sell privatisation of the NHS to the stupid who will welcome it. Then their rich friends will profit and hey presto, the poor will be screwed ever further.

That sounds far too organised and long term. I suspect it’s down to stupidity and day to day corruption rather than a masterplan.

[Klippie]

The problem is with GP's...its widly reported that tyring to get a GP appointment is along the same odd's as winning the lottery, people can't get to see a doctor the next port of call is a hospital.

These stuck up cretins need to be taken down a peg or two, they are hired to provide a service not to dictate why they should not be seeing patients, they are no different to any other employee and should be treated no differently.

[DBSV8]

LivLL said:

272BHP said:

Why call an ambulance for a fractured leg?

Why could someone not get him in a vehicle and off to A&E?

Broken femur, yup well just lift him up and pop him in the fiesta. Ok.

It’s just an example of how like the OP, years ago same was apparent. We all know it isn’t a bottomless pit of resources, I’m sure the MHS has plenty of stats to show overall performance rather than individual cases.

HSE policy to call an ambulance there was potential for other internal injuries , however thats not the point raised . The ambulance was despatched quickly
once it arrived at hospital is where the problem arose
he was then sat outside the hospital in the ambulance for 14 1/2 hrs which seems a waste of resources

[Previous]

What hasn't happened to it?

Poor management;
Poor procurement policy;
Poor procurement even within policy;
Aging population;
Growth in types of ailments its expected to fix;
Wider awareness of mental health (and expectations to treat);
Lower mental health funding;
Lower social care funding meaning beds taken up unnecessarily;
General public apathy;
Lack of public differentiation between free and free at point of use;
People attending when they don't really need to;
People calling ambulances when they don't need to;
Aging workforce for experienced GP's;
Lack of funding for dental issues;
Low pay;
Poor staff retention (better pay elsewhere when qualified);
Lack of access to staff (redued immigration);
Inefficiency due to overzealous bureaucracy;
Poor IT and adoption of Meditech at pace and scale;
Aging hospitals and increased maintenance costs;
Expensive PFI service costs;
Health tourism and a reluctance to fix;
Political interference of all kinds;

Each a complex issue in itself. Collectively...


I'm surprised it works as well as it does.

Edited by Previous on Friday 13th January 01:05

[Rufus Stone]

The tax payer should not be picking up the tab for adult social care. People have a lifetime to prepare for meeting the cost of any assistance they need because they are old and infirm.