To wonder what the NHS will be like in 10 years?

...the NHS. It is an unwieldy, inefficient beast of an organisation

America has a mostly privatised system.
The US government still spends about twice as much per head compared to the UK on population healthcare (even taking into account Obamacare which applies to a tiny minority of the population, and was introduced only recently). Privatisation is less efficient for the government in practice.

Our model worked for decades until endless Tory cuts got to it.

But to answer the question, the NHS won't exist in 10 years. The reason it's so unwieldy, bureaucratic and at ground level described as a 'war zone', is intentional. The saving grace you'll soon realise is a tory somewhere who just coincidentally happens to own a clinic here or there and so forth.

To be fair to the Brits (I am one though not native), they appear to also think their democracy, parliament, railways, pretty much anything you can think of was once 'the envy of the world'. A leftover from the heady days of imperialism.

DH works as a very senior manager in the nhs. Recently asked me what I would do about private medical cover when I retire… I’ve had a few issues and used private medical insurance several times. But I doubt it’s sustainable in retirement…. So much has changed since 2010 when the defunding came in. But while I blame the tories for a lot, with an aging population I don’t think the nhs is sustainable. The amount my elderly parents cost the nhs is staggering. 30/40 years ago they’d have been dead. Now they are having multiple appointments a week to keep them heading towards 90. I’ve not seen dr for…. Years.

Tbh I have not heard anyone online saying god I wished I lived in the UK tbh. We are so egocentric.

Absolutely this. Perfectly put!

Was it ever the envy of the world? I have never heard it.

Non existent. It hasn't been fit for purpose for a long time. Covid showed us that very clearly. It's why we had to lock down for nearly two years and trash our economy in the process.

It has never been the "envy of the world"

Even parts of private sector are overstretched. My DH needed his gallbladder removed. 2 years wait on NHS so looked into going private. 2 month wait for a consultation! Travelled 120 miles to a new private hospital. Cost in excess of £11k. New private hospital opening near us soon but I didn't know about it. Can I add he got sepsis as a result of NHS failing to remove it in the beginning.

The NHS was never designed to do everything that people expect of it nowadays. It needs to be stripped right back in terms of what it offers to patients so it’s resources can be used for what it’s original purpose was. It is taken advantage of on a daily basis and there is very little personal responsibility for health and well being taken by the general public. That needs to change quite frankly.

I love the original idea behind the nhs, that everyone regardless of money or wealth could access healthcare free at the point of delivery. Unfortunately, the complexities of today’s health care system mean it isn’t sustainable. A population that lives longer, transplants , various elective surgeries, joint replacements, extremely expensive drug treatments, vaccination programmes, the list goes on. It’s not simply about mis- management by whichever govt is ‘ in power’ , as a population we simply cannot afford the nhs anymore. It was not designed for the advances we have made in medicine. The sentiment behind the original idea has also been lost and replaced with contempt for nhs workers and the system in its entirety in all honesty. It will not be the wealthy who feel its loss either, it will be those who need it most.

I dread to think tbh and I'm dreading getting older.
A lady called lbc earlier on saying that her dad was on a trolley in a and e and she described it as ' a war zone ' and he'd been there 30 hours already without any hope of a bed on a ward
It's never been perfect , but it's definitely going to get worse.

Josh. It does t surprise me! I was a supplier to the NHS for many years. Parts of it are truly in the dark ages and the worst thing is

THEY DONT WANT TO CHANGE AND TRAIN THEIR STAFF WHATSOEVER IN ANY NEW TECHNOLOGIES.

As someone who works for NHS I reckon it’ll go one of two ways, collapse and rebuild, or just collapse.

It’s a fucking mess that’s for sure.

The idea of state healthcare is so perfect but the leaps in technology in the last 75 years since it was founded have not filtered in properly.

The trust I work in STILL uses paper notes! We have a medical records library with thousands of blue folders of patient records that in the grand old year of 2023 we still haven’t computerised! The amount of these folders that go missing on a daily basis is frightening, we actually have an email address dedicated to missing notes. Patients are missing surgery because notes cannot be found!

I'd be astonished if it exists.

It's broken and needs change. Shovelling money at it doesn't work.

I know so many people who've had to go private as they can't wait years for treatment and are in pain.

Time for some form of insurance.

Not Fast - agree too! People dont want to think about their health and take responsibility for it because the good old NHS will sort them out. After all they have paid their taxes - oh wait….

To be fair, anyone who pays tax is already contributing to it financially yet I doubt few would be happy paying direct for the levels of service they receive, and many people will be paying tax and also paying or being provided with private medical care. My only fear about abolishing it completely is that once again it’ll be the squeezed middle who suffer because those on low incomes and benefits will get free access and those at the top of the tree won’t think twice about paying to go private, and everyone else will have to suck it up and find the cash.

I think it will be GP, emergency and geriatric/palliative care only.

Everything else will be contracted outside the UK.

Coat is right. Fgs - let people co pay. There is nothing wrong with the European model. Stop with the USA model. It’s shouted out by people who want to scare us. We cannot keep pouring money in. Have you seen the waste going on within the NHS?

2013, since you asked.