Thumbs up for Streeting

Quite. And like the apparent u turn with digital id, I don’t believe he has actually dropped the idea, he is just going to introduce it more stealthily but he will end up making it compulsory in the long run.

😂

I agree. With an organisation as big as the NHS and how things work on a practical level the government can’t just click their fingers and magically sort out a major issue.

Labour’s repeated u turns and terrible policies, many not even on their manifesto is bad for stability and instability is bad for the coming.

If labour are serious about improving outcomes they really need to address the issue of middle managers in the NHS.

I was a clinician for 37 years and have watched the system become so top heavy that it will topple over soon.
"Quality improvement" initiatives, which involved our entire team having to write out long winded diagrams re how to solve a non existent or very minor issue, because our manager "Katie" needed to write it up for her Masters degree. A whole clinical team, out of action for several hours a month, just to help managers move on to the next rung of promotion.

I was the only clinician of my specialty in my team. I had long waiting lists of people desperate to access my service and yet, there I was, wasting time discussing how to improve things instead of being given the time to do my actual job.

Our trust also has team of band 7s, working on producing a file of community resources, despite all of this already having been invented years ago, in the form of the national and excellent "Hub of Hope" app.

A neighbouring Trust has converted a whole ward to being a " clinical research facility". It's been operational since 2019. To date not one piece of research has been published by them. Not one patient has been seen by them. It seems to be staffed by people who were redeployed there after long term sickness. To me it just seems like a huge waste of wages and a ward space, when patients are sleeping in corridors.

It's wasteful, it's frustrating, it's ridiculous and it needs sorting.

Please, please, Wes, sort this.

This rate of U-turns suggests they aren’t thinking about things though. They are announcing first and thinking later.

That squanders political capital, so they get less done overall.

Let’s say Starmer announces some policy you oppose, does interview rounds saying why he supports it, and all the benefits it will bring.

He takes a hit with you for his principles.

Now he U-turns. He doesn’t get much of that goodwill back from you. He’s already shown what he really supports.

Then Starmer announces some policy you support.

But he U-turns. He takes a hit with you again. You are probably more annoyed than if he had never mentioned it.

That’s why Labour is so unpopular. Every U-turn alienates both sides.

Just look at what is happening with vets. It's the same thing.

Can you explain what you mean by this? I thought vet practices were always private? And some have now been bought up by bigger companies. We never had NHS vets did we?

You sound like a charming totally unbiased individual.

To answer yours and other PPs question, I think much of the objection is to the things they are doing that either weren’t on the manifesto or are causing serious harm or expense. And the eye watering number of u turns creating instability and distress.

Off the top of my head:
Ramming the Assisted Dying Bill through Parliament despite serious issues with the legislation. Lord Falconer recently confirmed that being poor will be an eligible reason for assisted suicide.
Lammy’s inexplicable Chagos deal, not wanted by many Chagossians, meaning we’ll lose control of important territory and almost guaranteeing serious harm to the environment costing us £34 billion.
The destructive tax on farms and other family businesses.
Streeting ploughing ahead with the puberty blockers trial despite the fact that children can’t consent to being made sterile and having their health ruined for life and little effort being made to find the patients who have already gone through this medical intervention for a follow up before harming a new cohort of patients.
The destruction of the hospitality sector.
The failure of this government to correct its unlawful policies on single sex spaces and provisions despite the harm they are causing.
The complete failure to control the small boat immigrants as they promised at the election.
The increasingly apparent two tier policing - West Midlands Police admitting that they do what they are told by the Muslim extremists in the community under threat of violence and the blatantly different treatment of some groups compared to others.

There are many other serious issues with this government, they have little control over the civil servants, there are still activist teachers in schools etc. Some are admittedly inherited and Labour have made them worse, and some are brand new Labour created issues. They seem to have inherited a bad situation and made it worse.

Yes but every u turn costs money.Money that could be used to reduce those waiting lists even further

I hate to burst your bubble but what you are seeing currently is the effect of the planned increase in diagnostic centers which were ordered and set up by the previous government. The benefits of which we are seeing now they are up and running.

Beware as well of statistics and damn lies. The NHS has recently changed the way it reports these metrics. It has always been thus, but trusts manipulate data like devils to make themselves look good. There's also been a massive clean up of data for those waiting on multiple lists.

Or… the ship of state is like an oil tanker to change direction and streeting is fortunate with his timing in the top job. Or even (whisper it) he is benefiting from changes made by the previous government to the NHS, only seeing practical impact now…

I'm resigned to thinking that if I wanted cataract surgery, new hip or knee I would have to go privately or wait a very long time, especially as at over 65 it seems I'm not eligible for a new hip anyway if needed.

How many have actually been treated versus how many died or were kicked off or went private in desperation [like my mother had to]?

@5128gap
That's your opinion

Mine wasn't that urgent either, just what looked like another BCC, I gave up with an appointment and just using some old Efudix cream I still had on it. It would have been nice to have got an appointment though and maybe some new cream if needed rather than just have my self diagnosis. It went a bit scabby so old cream which was in date still works.

“The NHS is being dismantled”. Do you have any actual evidence for this? My experience of the last few weeks has been that the NHS in my area is working incredibly well.

I think the ones that are not paying the tax they should paying are way before the ones who won’t pay more!

So complain. Then they will know where the sticky bits still are.
I messaged the GP about a skin problem last Monday. Had a NP appointment on Friday and now have two creams to use. Not exactly urgent!

Its not an opinion though, is it? It's a silly remark belittling the OPs opinion, that's neither funny nor remotely original.
An opinion would be "No, I think you're completely wrong OP. Streeting has actually made the NHS worse because......"

They are doing it to themselves.

Time after time they’ve announced some move, talked about it for months taking all the political damage, then dropped it. Then onto the next one.

They take the popularity hit from both the opponents and supporters of the move, and don’t even reap whatever the supposed benefit was.

Most damagingly with the budget where it was that on steroids, but where the harm of the endless muddle is not just to the party’s popularity but to the country’s economy.

I don’t remember other Govs backpedaling like they have done -winter fuel, farmers, chickening out of benefit changes and I’m 70 years old.
Someone has to get tough and make bold decisions - they had their chance with a big majority and have blown it. Not that other parties look much better.

I’m with you, the hatred for Labour makes no sense. They’re doing pretty well considering the absolute shit show they took over.

You can blame Tories, you can blame Labour but the real culprits are the people who won’t pay more tax and vote for the ones that give winter fuel and demand more all the time from benefits