To wonder what's happened to the NHS?

Decades of abuse and underfunding which really started with Thatcher but in more recent times the "Austerity" from David Cameron onwards.
Turning it around is like steering a supertanker but much, much slower.
Not expecting to see major improvement for another 5-10 years no matter what is done by government.
I had NHS surgery two weeks ago (hip replacement) and felt so unsafe that it will be a cold day in hell that I do so again unless absolutely life threatening with no other choice.
I am a retired nurse and was appalled at the "care" and the lack of communication.

My local A and E (rough seaside town) is hell on earth. Waiting times are often over 24 hours with people who are sick and elderly just led to chairs. Hundreds of people crammed in there, security guards day and night. So bad that I have put off going for ages and today got taken to another A and E in another part of the country and oh my god the difference. They were apologising for a wait time of up to two hours. I was out within three having had one, ecg, chest x ray,, blood tests, results of all of that, seen a doctor twice and left the pharmacy with prescriptions. Wouldn’t Eve man have been triaged where I live in that time.

Not really the point of the thread and appreciate my area has challenges this area didn’t have but .. the difference was insane

it's the same in canada, death by 1000 cuts.
the patients are sicker the work load is much heavier than 50 years ago, each person is on so many more medications it take much longer to triple check and administer.
much less staff and certainly student hours and volunteers are not as numerous as when i graduated. untrained as some were (new students and volunteers) they were still a pair of extra hands or a pair of eyes.
all the extra kit, the iv and dressing "systems" etc. all very expensive
but so much is mismanaged the burden of modern documentation means the nurses spend more time writing up "notes" than actually providing hands on care.
it's really sad as it's not how i imagined health care would evolve.

No nothing like it. The health care system in the US is amazing BUT you pay through the nose with insurance and everything has a cost.

Yes and few want to say the unsaid truth that in many areas of the NHS, workers from abroad are preferred by chaotic and at some times Machiavellian senior management who just want a compliant workforce (if we Google whistleblower punishment in NHS, case after case after case will come up in reports). People whose visa depends on their job, who have no back up if their rent isn't paid and family not fed are far more vulnerable, they depend on the job and cannot stand up for their rights or challenge management about dangerous or inefficient systems without risking losing their job and their visa.

NHS is an absolute cash cow for numerous suppliers and the focus on patient care is lost. It is held hostage by a lanyard class who spend too much of their working hours going from conference to conference talking about their imagined achievements and being sold to at those conferences by management consultants, IT firms, equipment suppliers etc etc.

As someone who also leans left, I dont think anybody remotely left of centre will get the press onside

Positive press isnt for someone who goes against the interests of Murdoch and Co

Which means he's given up something - imo its the NHS

2 newly qualified Doctors that our son knows couldn't get jobs in the UK, one now works in Malta, the other in Jersey.

Thank you for pointing out the screamingly obvious 🙄

It's important to know what kind of reaction it was and how they stabilised it. For example, was it a rash that disappeared? Was it a blip in heart rate that was very easy to correct? Was it something huge and problematic that she was never told about?

There are all kinds of bits of information that the OP needs to know for the future

And some of this will be about the NHS and their risk assessment. Hence them pushing her to not have a GA.

Interesting take. I think (as a left leaning person) that Starmer is a poor communicator and misread the mood of thw country and a way to express his (not very coherent) plan. Whereas Andy has strong convictions and is a good, engaging, relatable speaker.

But not Blair who saddled the NHS with hugely expensive PPP loans the NHS are still paying off?

The NHS is not under funded - it is very badly run. Huge amounts of money is wasted. It is not just middle managers either - if they weren’t there then front line staff would be taken away from patient care. I think a lot is the fall out from the way it was set up with the inducements needed to bring private practitioners on board. The import of foreign staff rather than training Uk staff (and employing Uk trained staff) is also a huge issue. Last year nearly half of UK trained newly qualified doctors were left unemployed. Hundreds of Nigerian nurses were recently found to have fraudulent qualifications and they won’t be the only ones. Plus there is the very commonly reported issue with poorly spoken English.

As an example of the rot that is NHS senior management - just look at the way they ware determined to break the law on women’s right to safety, privacy and dignity.

Ageing population: under 20% are over 65 which is 24th in Europe. Spare a thought for the Italians at 24%.
I have generally good experiences of the NHS but I tend to pick and choose due to private healthcare. But I did have a situation recently where I went to my NHS GP who had a ten minutes slot to go through some concerns I had in relation to my health . I didn’t feel like he explored the issue I raised enough with me so I subsequently went private and had a whole hour with a GP which was wonderful.
I think the French system is better personally but I do appreciate the NHS in general. It’s inefficient, but being free at point of use, for those without insurance it’s amazing. The poor in America have it far worse.

She was obviously given a GA before where she had a bad reaction- she was unconscious at the time but it was noted that she had a bad reaction to it. She therefore wouldn't know unless told! That is my understanding anyway!

I think that Starmer got bad press from day 1, despite it not being so bad during the election

Andy has had amazing press coverage - THE TIMES were praising him

Which means he has sold out something for that press coverage. In my opinion, its the NHS

I reckon starmer pushed back, hence the negative press causing him to have to step down.

Really not! Explain about Burnham.

Burnham has been in power for 5 minutes, if you want to blame politicians, you should be all the Tory prime ministers under their last 11 year mandate. I would put the blame primarily in Cameron’s privatisation policies, Boris chroniesm and corruption and Teresa May’s hostilities. You may also want to blame Liz Truss who in a single stupid movement made mortgages unaffordable for huge swathes of the population or even Farage who never delivered the millions the NHS was going to get when we left the EU.

I’m also a DN - I feel we are constantly being expected to take on more and more patients with more and more complex conditions with no more resources - I feel they get the bare minimum as there is also the pressure and expectation to see more in the same amount of time

Influx or exodus? I tend to remember the NHS as a very well staffed multicultural enterprise powered by medical professionals from all around the world. But these professionals have been going back to their own countries since the conservatives promised a “hostile environment for immigrants”, so here you have it, a very understaffed NHS and additionally economically crippled since the Tories started privatisation.

Keep believing Reform and Tories shit, what is crippling this country is not immigrants but having a massive percentage of ageing retired population and a huge amount of people down with mental health issues. Those are the two groups soaking up most of the community services’ budgets.

The influx from the four corners of the world is the main reason the NHS hasn't collapsed altogether. Consistent underfunding has screwed it over.

I have private healthcare through work, if I ever move companies to somewhere that doesn’t offer it I will pay for it myself. The care you receive compared to the nhs is absolutely unbelievable. Quite sad really.

defunded - typo.

defunded - typo

I feel the rest of the post is self explanatory.

For me it's the logistics that are an issue too. U ask about an appointment, you are then passed on to various people who valiantly try and help.but you are told that it's beyond their control- not their dept. It's so frustrating. Also, how is it that when you move from.one part of the country to the other, that your new surgery cannot access your records' ridiculous. We have an individual number. How much money is wasted doing repeat tests etc? The management of the systems is a joke. It could be more efficient if this was dealt with. Hope u are soon recovered OP.

Underfunded for the last 15 years. Plus too much emphasis on middle management rather than frontline staff. Brexit didn't help.

I know so many who work in NHS - they all have similar stories.

@Chefpig you had a bad response? , I can't help thinking if you didn't know you had a bad response, did you really have one? What did they say about it? I understand if you don't want to say.

@Backwardsbinn I didn't get that either