I love the NHS it is rather comforting and its like the BBC a part of the Britishness of living here. You know warm beer and cricket. Seeing the news stories the last few days and Prime Ministers Questions got me to thinking what are the problems. http://unelectedspokesman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/nhs-in-melt-down.html
Is my blog post on it.
Don
Its bizarre really as i went for my EEG on Monday in Glouceseter Royal Hospital, it was EMPTY, didnt even have to wait to have the test done lol, and said to the guy where is everyone…Thats second time now in a few weeks been there and it just doesnt seem busy hardly anyone walking about to be honest and the disabled bays were empty to park too.
Where it is busy is A&E. Over xmas 2 weeks nearly surgeries were closed on and off, people couldnt see doctors. You dont just stop being ill. The 111 service we had to use on Saturday 27th as I had awful pain over my right kidney and felt rotten and had burning urine. They eventually sorted me out with the doctor on duty at my local hospital Stroud who wanted me to come in but i cant drive, and my husband was unwell too with is COPD. So we got a sample sent to her and it was positive for UTI, so i was given antibiotics which a neighbour kindly want and collected for me.
I personally think that the medical surgeries should be manned 247 during the day regardless of holiday. They can supply a locom when they need to so why not on holidays. This would take the stress of A&E. I know several people who went to A&e FOR stomach viruses…whats the point.
Also i think its time the surgeries now were changed. The nurse who does bloods etc, I think should be trained to a certain level where they can deal with ear aches, colds, and coughs etc, and leave the other things for the doctors. The doctors are inundated with kids coughing, sore throats etc, when these can be easily seen by someone else.
Our practice is good actually well i have my MS nurse who deals with my bladder issues. We have an agreement if i think i have an infection i send the sample to her, and she gets me a prescription if it is positive.
I think A&E is so over run in the holiday with drunks and stuff that can be sorted via the pharmacy. I do think its time that people who go in their drunk should have to pay for their treatment.
I must say we had to use the 111 TWICE actually as i was throwing up after taking the tablets, and they were concerned but they sorted it all out for me and the doctor issued me different meds. I have nothing but praise for the way i was treated on the 27th and 28th to be honest.
Having worked in a hospital until retiring through ill health 2 years ago I saw first hand what was happening to make our wonderful NHS and it’s amazing staff struggle.
When Conservatives were campaigning just before they came into power David Cameron promised he would not touch the NHS but he did in a round about way.
It happened as soon as they took over power 5 years ago. Consultants, nurses, health care assistants, started leaving and to our amazement were not being replaced. Therefore, going from 7 Consultants in the team I was working for reduced down to 2 and these 2 were having to work with the same caseload of very poorly people. How can the NHS continue with reducing workforce leaving those left with a massive workload. With no pay rise for 3 years to boot. Also, we lost 3 busy wards (80 beds) at this time too.
Thank you NHS staff for all the work you are trying to do under very bad cicumstances.
Shazzie xx
The current crisis in A&E can’t possibly have been helped by this Government closing down NHS Direct and shutting a huge number of Walk in Centres. According to Jeremy Hunt it’s all down to an ageing population, as if we have all got old in the last five years. Nothing to do with a top down reorganisation that nobody voted for then?
The Tories voted against the creation of the NHS in 1948 and have done nothing but try and privatise the profitable bits it ever since. Our greatest national achievement is never, ever, safe in their hands.
As the late Brigadier Enoch Powell said when he was Health Minister “The problem with the NHS is that demand is infinite and resources finite.” I was looking at some stats and wonder if this is correct that a million and a half patients are dealt with every 36 hours?
Rob
Yes, the Tories have done their share of causing NHS problems - but Labour have helped as well.
It was the Blair Government that set up the NHS treatment Centres - privately owned and run, with large guaranteed income from the (then) PCTs - paving the way for Care UK to take over a huge chunk of the treatment business. Google them and see for yourself.
It was the Blair Government that set up the private finance deals that got us a lot of new hospitals - but no staff - on which the rentals are now proving to be a drain on NHS funds.
It was the Blair Government that saddled the NHS - right down to GP level - with a load of useless targets, that just diverted time and money away from where it was needed. One of those targets was the bed occupancy rate. This had been running at around 85%, but Blair wanted it up to near 100% - and at that rate the “bed blocking” became a real problem.
In my book, Blair screwed the NHS and brought it to its knees - the Tories are just kicking it while it is down. As a quick example:
A couple of years back, my wife needed a operation. She was referred to the nearest NHS Treatment centre (of course) who quickly decided that it could be done by laparoscopic surgery (which meant using a general anasthetic) A provisional date was set and the week before she went in for a final review. An anesthetist decided that she was too high a risk to operate on because of her Parkinsons disease (it might cause breathing problems, you know). That took her right back to Square 1. Now came the referral to the local District Hospital - and a 16 week wait. Then the hospital had to ask the PCT for the money to carry out the operation because this should have been done at a Treatment Centre, and this became a “Special Case”. When the money was released and a date set, the operation was cancelled the night before because there was no bed available. Another month went by, a bed became free and the operation was done without any problems at all.
No, I don’t blame the NHS for the delays - just two governments. And I think they are both to blame for the rest of the NHS problems.
Geoff
I do not think we should neglect what the drug industry have done either by turning western medicine into the third largest cause of death and pricing so many things out of general use. Ref First Prise BMA book of the year 2014 in the category of the Basis of Medicine - Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime, How Big Pharma Have Corrupted Healthcare ISBN 978-190891-112-4 Written by the Nordic Head of the Cochrane Collaboration
So what do we do about the prescriptive drugs being used to deal with MS? I have never used them myself but people known to me have found huge benefit in the drug called campath. They had severe relapses every year. They went on the campath trial. Today she no longer has any relapses. Campath I am told can have serious side-effects and needs to be managed by regular yearly blood tests. Nevertheless she works as the development manager at an MS Therpay Centre doing fantastic fundraising work. She has fatigue problems and has to pace herself but the fierce, severe, relapses no longer happen.
Regards
Rob
Our A&E depts are crippled with drunks every weekend - such is our UK society nowadays and they don’t have the resources to cope with it, thanks to cuts enforced on them by governments…
I know three people who have had to deal with breast cancer, they have nothing but praise for the NHS. My sister especially has had amazing support, and can ring her doctor who is dealing with her anytime if she is worried after her op.
I dont think its so much the NHS that is on meltdown its the ANE departments which are so abused by the public.
I know people who go there for stomach ache/flu stuff…which can be treated at home.
Over christmas i was really ill with pain over my kidney and a small temperature and terrible burning urine, but i rang 111 and i have to say they were brilliant, and got me sorted with out of hours doctor who dealt with me and got a sample tested and antiobitoics without me even leaving the house.
Its always doom and gloom but many people are satisfied with the service. its free for gods sake we should go and live in the states LOL…and my sister in law recently came back from Spain afer living there for 11 years because her husband was unwell and not getting much treatment, and now they are back she has had so much done medically and they both feel a lot better.
I think the problem is with drunks they are saturating the service at the weekend, and I actually agree if its self inflicting then start charging them.
There are more people now trying to use the same system its not the blame of governments the trouble is anyone can use it rich or poor.
We have one of the best systems for cancer now.
I have nothing but praise. When i recently got took to the emergency room i was dealt with kindly and professionally.
I know where i would rather live thats for sure.
Hi Shazzie, The Con-Dems didn’t do it in a round about way. Lansleys Health and Social Care Act destroyed the NHS as we know it. The NHS is now a brand. It rammed open the door to competition so that the privatisation started by Thatcher and continued by Blair’s New Labour was accelerated to the point that hospitals were taken over by private companies and referrals to private health providers went up astronomically and the share holders have been having a bonanza.
The problem here is that people just didn’t get what the Act was going to do. It amazed me how it got through both houses with hardly a whimper from the public.
There’s a People’s demo about the NHS on 17th Jan ( hope I have the date right!) and if it’s possible for you, do try to join it. The last one a few years ago was massive and it was ( despite its focus) pretty trouble free and joyous in the sense of solidarity felt by the marchers.
Pas you say Shazzie, the NHS is beloved and crucial to our well being. I’m not a Labour supporter in that I’m far to their left but they are the only Party with a commitment to repealing this awful Act and saving the NHS, so if you do care about it ( and we are part of a demographic where you are uninsurable by reason of current health or income) you should be voting Labour in May.
Forget the line ’ they’re all the same’ because they aren’t. Vote Tory and see the NHS becoming a replica of the Amerucsn system and a return the the 30s with the poor having no rights and no security.
Who’d heard of zero hours contracts before this government got in? Another hateful import from the US? The Tories took work disputes out of the legal aid system. Again resulting in no job security for those at the bottom of the income pile.
sorry I seem to have hijacked your main point and gone off on other points!
Susi x
That is exactly why we should take care of the NHS Goldengirl. Noone is saying it is a bad service. It is the best in the world and second to none. If we don’t shout loudly about the cuts that are being made through the back door then we too will end up like America, Australia, etc etc.
I have witnessed this first hand as a worker in the NHS so I know what I am saying is actually happening. I feel for the wonderful conscientious staff who try their very best to carry on as best they can so that the public wouldn’t even realise how exhausted they are working in teams that are getting smaller and smaller.
I too have experienced excellent service from the NHS and so glad your and your family’s experiences have been good.
I agree with you that the drunks and people turning up at A&E when they don’t need to makes things even worse for the NHS and something should be done about that too.
Take cake
Shazzie x