AIBU to ask if you believe that a labour government will go some way to fixing the NHS?

I agree. The fact is that most western countries spend more per capita on healthcare than we do. If we raised our healthcare spending to the level of France, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands or Australia and our health outcomes lagged behind theirs, then fair enough, blame the system. But until we do that, we’re comparing apples and oranges.

unfortunately labour is the only realistic option if you want to be rid of the festering fungus that is the current bunch of tories

I have no hope re the nhs

I feel like it's been pushed too far. it needs total overhaul in its funding and structure and frankly no politician has the balls to do what is needed

It’s a Sophie’s choice - Vote Labour and hope they improve the NHS - with the knowledge that they will destroy all your and your Daughters’ rights infavour of larping Men and potentially harm thousands of children if they ignore the Cass report and the Wpath files
Just look at Angela Eagle’s statement 🤬

I work in senior central NHS. If the next government focuses on getting the basics right then yes. And that includes education, social care and local authority funding as these play a vital role in prevention.

If it continues to pander to excessive lobbying from industry and spending too much on IT systems without making sure the basics around digital infrastructure are in place, then no.

None of this is dependent on whether it is a Labour or Tory Government. The current incumbents since Johnson have been dire.

Don't believe the headlines the NHS is surviving... just. And the alternatives of private provision not great at a national level for all sorts of reasons expensive marketing budgets and glossy magazines will fail to tell you about. But the NHS can't take another battering and neither can its partner services.

This is a systemic issue across all public services. Not just the NHS.

I'm not sure they could fuck it up further

I don't understand why the NHS throws money at keeping people with dementia alive though pneumonia, but spends nothing on diagnosing developmental problems and neurodiveristy, and food intolerance in small children.

My Mum was in intensive care for a month, and they made the decision to do that knowing she had dementia. They went into it with no idea about whether she would have her mind working in anything like a reasonable way when she came out. It was a horrendous experience waiting to see what would happen, and it must have cost them a bomb. Now she has lewy body dementia and suffers terribly with it, and it didn't need to happen.

At the same time, my son has neurodevelopmental problems and food intolerance problems, and has had no NHS help at all. He has now dropped out of school with mental health problems because his childhood has been so hard. That didn't need to happen either, if they had spent a tiny fraction of the intensive care money on getting him a little bit of help early on.

Everybody keeps saying the NHS is struggling because we have an aging population. That's only happening because of decisions that consultants and relatives make about prolonging life. I wish they would think about the quality of life that a person can look forward to, before they make the decision to treat.

I think we ourselves need to have a national debate about this stuff, and where money should be spent, and what is a compassionate approach to medical care for the elderly. I don't want to end up the way my Mum is now. I hate seeing her suffer, and I hate seeing my son suffer too. It all makes no sense.

How is it a racist comment if it’s a fact? African based agencies have filled the gap Brexit left -no European nurses anymore.

Care homes, and to a lesser extent NHS wards, are recruiting via these agencies and particularly for “carers”, not much is needed to get employed. I’ve worked in several care homes so have seen this with my own eyes.

Anyone thinking young lads in Nigeria and other African/Indian countries are sitting there thinking “working with people with dementia in a foreign country is my dream” is kidding themselves. They are doing it to get a visa full stop.

Local people don’t want this type of work because it’s very poorly paid and soul destroying- who wants to get kicked, spat on, bitten etc for 12 hours a day when they can make more money doing night fill in a supermarket - but overseas workers cannot get a visa to come and do that type of work.

I’ve been an HCP for over 30 years and worked in all different sectors. I don’t need to watch TV programs to know the reality of what is happening on the ground.

You think there are no inefficiencies?

And you've made my point exactly, the tinkering doesn't help, it needs completely re structuring

@Calculuses typical old Tory argument. Blame managers , blame incompetence. It's all crap. The NHS has been reorganised almost every 3-4 years for decades. Each time the messages further the aims of whatever political party. Chucking out Tory messages of inefficiencies fool no one these days-the problem is lack of cash, and really you know it, even if it doesn't suit your political purpose to acknowledge it.

I really hope so. They’ve done it before so I’m hopeful they’ll be able to do it again. It’ll take a long time though.

@Minkyfalinkinky I don't know what you are even talking about.

They didn’t. They doubled it - it make up for 18 tears of Tory underfunding.

IMO the trouble is within the NHS, not only the funding.

It really needs to start from scratch, the inefficiencies are astounding, but that's such a huge piece of work and would require such enormous investment short term, I'm not sure the public would support it. The staff certainly wouldn't

King’s Fund says otherwise. Here is a graph showing the percentage annual change in real terms spending on the NHS:

It needs to be taken out of politics permanently. There's a consensus in the country for it, but governments are too short-term and ideological to take care of it. We need a brave government to set up a cross-party, multi stakeholder committee that will set longer term strategies and goals, with funding guaranteed over the long term.

There also needs to be wholesale reform of how it operates, procures, what treatments, working with private healthcare etc., but that can't happen while it's a political football. The general health of our workforce depends on it, so it needs to be dealt with.

If by "fixing" you mean scrapping it completely (which is absolutely what needs to happen), then sadly my answer would be "no".

Having been waiting since 2019 for an appointment following a GP referral in Labour controlled Wales I have very little confidence that anything will improve.

My Grandmother was a contemporary of Nye Bevan and as far back as the late 70’s when she died she would muse on how far away from their initial vision the NHS had become and could never be sustainable.

You would be surprised. You think Labour support women?

We are currently living in a raging bin fire. When Labour come in it will be like some one has chucked a can of petrol in.

We are truly fucked.

I have my criticisms of the Labour Party but everyone sees that they'll inherit a poisoned chalice. That said, I don't for a minute think they will be as incompetent, uncaring or as shambolic as another Tory government would.

Brown/Blair had to treble NHS funding to make it "much better". They won't be able to do that this time.

The stats, regardless of source, are unarguable. Waiting times fell dramatically in the first decade of this century and were already at record high levels before the pandemic. The NHS wasn’t haemorrhaging staff then either. I worked in the NHS during those years - six of them in a district general hospital - we genuinely reached the A&E target 98% of the time and there were periods when we had an empty waiting room. Frankly I’m getting very tired of people here rewriting history. Why?

It’s interesting when people talk about Labour not using private

PPP was and is the epitome of transferring tax payers’ money to private investors via huge mark ups

And off the gov books, incredible really that people get misty eyed about it. You wouldn’t about paying that much more for anything else

Nope they will scratch the surface maybe - a few platitudes and fling a few million at getting waiting lists down but I have no faith in Starmer or a Labour government- so much so I’ve left the UK for good as I can see the writing on the wall and don’t want any part of what is coming for the UK. Decades of underinvestment won’t be reversed and people who parrot what Labour did when they came to power last time are living a fantasy - we are so far from where we were then go where we are now l. Both DH and I were higher rate tax payers and neither could stomach paying into a failing system anymore when we got fuck all back - crumbling health, schools, water systems, bankrupt councils and shit local services due to cutbacks.

We won’t be doing PFI again anyway to provide a period of spend now pay way more later

Let's hope not @EasternStandard ... doubtless there'll be endless new "schemes" presented in the light of a second coming, but I don't see that being one of them

The NHS will do better under labour. It always has.
Plus I only have to look back to how the NHS was before the last 13 years of tory rule to know that. I worked for the NHS and have also been a very regular patient so have experienced it from both sides.
We are in such a poor state now that improvement will take time but I whole heartedly believe that labour can and will make the NHS better.
I watched Ambulance on BBC last night and the horrific waits for treatment for many people with chronic and acute illness is beyond belief in the 6th richest nation in the world.
But of course Mumsnet thinks the problem is all down to waste and inefficiency. 13 years of austerity and real time cuts have nothing to do with it.