The NHS

We keep hearing the NHS is struggling, and I dont doubt it is.
But to be honest I cant remember a time when it hasn't.
We just get it more dramatised these days.Media love this kind of thing.
Cant remember when there hasn't been very long queues for ops.

A&E are struggling mostly because GPs are not pulling their weight.
My one is very hit and miss.

Do you think there would ever be an amount of money that could be thrown at the NHS that would make it operate as intended, so that we get a first class service?
They were actually stating on the news this morning that patients are in danger due to not enough resources.

More and more the NHS is being expected to take on more.
Even suggested this morning that people addicted to gaming should be able to get treatment from the NHS.
Yeah, I'd treat them, a large mallet applied to the head.

 

We have had a massive green field site near me taken to build what amounts to a private hospital.
I go past there quite often but rarely see any traffic going along the lengthy drive way to the place.
For years now they have had for sale signs up, tying the get someone interested in the rest of the site, I really dont see what the place was built for or why?

I know this is not NHS but I think the NHS can use the place if they pay.
I know of people that have been sent there by their GPs.

Paying for your treatment- Self Pay

In my mind the place is a blot on the landscape that is totally under used.

I cant help thinking that maybe the NHS should go down the road of just buying places at private hospitals for general everyday problems and just run A&E and other services that cant be farmed out.

 

I'd like to make a couple of points regarding my local NHS......

We had a brand new hospital built around late 90's early 2000's - - - clised after a year by Labour.

The majority of the doctors at my surgery have reduced the days they work from 5 to 2 a week and yet have kept their full wage. Now i may be jumping the gun here a bit but doesn't this mean they've effectively given themselves a 100% pay rise for doing less hours.

And, what about this tv advert for nurses...... Earn £26,000 a year and pay no tax.

I think basically what I'm saying is I'm fed up with hearing the NHS hasn't got the money. In my opinion it has money but hasn't got the management it needs to stop the frivolous spending.

 

But there you go, that is what goes wrong when something is denationalised, nobody keeps a check on the people providing the service.Off- Wat, Off -Gen, off whatever, none of them worth a light.

Railways are rubbish, yes, but it has been underfunded for 50yrs, so who pays?
I never use the trains, so should I have to pay for them?

It's the same old story, can you provide a service for a fair price? Usually no, unless you get government funding.

If the NHS used private hospitals more, they could free up space for the poor gamer that needs his head examined, or fertility treatment.
Lets face it half the time they appear to be paying stupid prices to agencies for nurses anyway.

 

I have many opinions on this but it gets me angry...while our NHS is going down the tubes and they haven't got enough money all the time to found in to the hospitals but it's funny it can be funded worldwide

 

Taking your own BP readings at home over a few days with your own (£10ish) monitor will normally provide a more accurate picture than a single reading at their surgery, in congunction with taking your own machine to the surgery when you visit and checking the callibration of yours by taking BP readings from both their and your machines.

 

Having the government throwing even more money at the NHS isn't the solution. The money has been misused for decades, being diverted to top-heavy, greedy, corrupt, ineffective management rather than actual health-care professionals and resources. Combine that with a change in attitude towards the actual care given (nursing and doctoring used to be a vocation, remember that?) and it's no wonder that the whole thing is slowly imploding. The French two-tier system is in trouble too, which is even worse given the amount that people pay into it, whether state or private or a mixture. Newly-qualified doctors won't accept jobs outside the big cities, leaving rural areas deserted. They're on commission from the big pharmaceutical companies as a matter of course...it's all a long, long way from the principles of the Hippocratic oath. The big advantage here, though, is the speed with which things are dealt. That's reassuring...it can mean the difference between life and death.

 

And it don't help with a unheathy nation and people who need treatment for a scratch

 

I'm sure you're right, John, and it's certainly not a job I'd do for any money, but there has been a radical shift from the 'caring' side of the profession to it being a job like any other. A dear friend in UK who was a nurse for her entire working life told me years ago that mostly, all the youngsters coming into nursing were interested in was rapid promotion away from the 'dirty' end of the job, and the money. That certainly is the case with the GPs and interns here. Nothing as trivial as patient care is allowed to interfere with their evenings, weekends, holidays and celebrations. I know that for a fact having spent a New Year's Eve and night trying to alleviate the distress of my mother during her final hours. All 14 of them .

 

Thanks, John..that's sweet of you. The poor old girl is well out of it (Alzheimer's) but it certainly could have been handled better and no doubt would have been if it hadn't been a holiday. Where do you get a balance between the medical profession having a life like everyone else and the sacrifices required if a decent service is to be maintained? Tricky one.....
But in answer to @pete's original question, more money isn't the solution. Streamlining /losing dead, bureaucratic weight and redistributing the existing funds, tackling fraud and petty theft, and bringing back efficient, in-house services would all be more effective.