To wonder what's happened to the NHS?

I’m sorry you had a rubbish experience OP but at least the staff were kind.

By contrast I did an out of hours online triage for 111 recently and was called back within an hour and 2.5 hours after my initial triage I was in a beautiful modern clinic being diagnosed and prescribed appropriate medication. This was in the middle of the night.

There are so many disintegrating bits of the NHS but I truly think it’s an amazing service and am so grateful for it every day.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience but I just want to reassure others that I have had a spinal on two occasions in different hospitals and each time I felt nothing at all. Even tho the second time, the doctor doing it had assured me he had done loads and then someone else came in to supervise! It’s much better than a GA as there is less danger of breathing problems and have you have some residual pain relief after the operation

Agree - but would also add in poor management

You would be if you work in the public sector! Rubbing your hands with glee.

Is that all you're going to do on this thread - keep comparing everything to the Tories?

I think it went downhill when they put nurse/MW training into Uni’s, got rid of SEN’s, and gave auxiliary nurses more ‘nurse’ jobs but didn’t replace their position. I also remember the good old days of the ward cleaner, they had a set ward, took pride in their work, and the floors shone.

I sincerely hope labour don't try and dismantle unions. Personally I'm aware that trade unions are responsible for so many positive changes over the decades and am very thankful for them.

You can't just cherry pick your own personal experience to say how wonderful the system is. I've also been hugely appreciative on several recent occasions, of some fantastic staff. It doesn't mean they are representative of the model, as a whole.

Absolutely not true about the uptick in junior Dr strikes. One strike compared to numerous under Tory.

I totally agree with this.

Since Shipman and then the Liverpool Pathway scandals HCPs are frightened to not keep prolonging life for fear of complaint from angry relatives who want every possible treatment.

My DM has late stage vascular dementia (bedbound, doubly incontinent, doesnt know who she is let alone who anyone else is) yet she is still being treated with ABs for chest infections. I am trying to stop this except my DB falls into the 'angry relative' category.

My view is that post age 75 all treatment should be focused on immediate comfort rather than extending life. To this end I am going a bit further with an Advance Directive to say that if I am diagnosed as having permanently lost capacity I want all treatment to stop. I would far rather go a few years too early than a few years too late.

and sadly died so I’m not sure I’d actually begrudge them that; it’s what’s happening now that is disaster.

PPP and PPI were the brainchild of John Major's Conservative government, with the first contracts being signed in 1991. When Labour and Blair came to power in 1995 they inherited the contracts signed by Major which would have cost more in penalties to cancel than it cost to continue the projects.

These contracts are not financed through loans - that's the whole point of them. Private businesses build the facilities and charge the government for their use. The issues arise when people realise that although the use of PPI results in a short-term saving, in the long term these contracts are hugely expensive as the providers have proven to be far better at negotiating than the government and the civil servants.

It's always been crap..envy of the world my arse. Social insurance models are the way to go. Real funding has increased since 2010

They did work hard during Covid and they also had a blank cheque for overtime payments. More wasted money - under the Tories.

You're very selective in your blame. No blame for the 14 years of Tory government eh?

How rapidly? Since Burnham got in or just since Starmer?!

I’m afraid I’ve lost all sympathy with the staff. I haven’t been on or in award recently where I’ve seen staff doing much more than what I would consider to be the bare minimum. There’s been an awful lot of chatting, an awful lot of standing round and/or doing things two or three times that didn’t need doing in the first place.
The NHS is broken and the root of the problem is the staff attitude to their jobs. Sadly, many of them see it as a cash cow and don’t understand that it’s taxpayers money that they’re wasting when they stand around not doing an awful lot.
I’m sure they worked incredibly hard during Covid but that was years ago and we do really need to get back to some sort of standard that is acceptable and not a waste of money.

Did they offer you sedation with the spinal, OP?

I've had 2 procedures with spinal + sedation, and it was brilliant. I barely felt it going in and I was no more aware of what was going on than I was under GA. When I woke up, I felt bloody fantastic: no befuddled feeling and none of the nausea/vomiting I get with a GA. I just felt as though I'd had the best night's sleep ever and I was ravenously hungry.

Where it's an option, I'd always go for that again. I'm not sure I'd like epidural without sedation though, I think the noises and smells of surgery might be a bit unpleasant.

The NHS (even in its current state) is amazing.

Try going to the USA, where being tens of thousands of pounds in medical debt is almost the norm.

People in the UK don’t die because they can’t afford Insulin, or can’t afford Chemo.

The waiting list is the price we pay for a Universal Healthcare Service.

Mum had a stroke a couple of years ago, the ambulance was there in 30 minutes, She was taking to a regional centre of excellence and treated ny highly qualified professionals, using state of the art equipment, she was then transferred to a local hospital where she worked with physio, speech and langague etc - never once was money an issue in treatment.

Twice over the last 2 years I’ve been investigated for Cancer - both times seen be a Consultant, had an Op / Biopsy, and had my results in less than 12 weeks.

Childhood Vaccinations - anyone not able to afford them? Medication for children .. anyone unable to afford it ? (In other country’s children die of preventable / treatable illnesses every day)

I ring my GP and am anyways triaged on the same day.

The NHS isn’t filled with “middle managers doing nothing” it’s a helpful line trotted about by Goverments who don’t want to invest in the NHS. We have an aging population (and cuts to social care has meant more hospital admissions). We have people with complex conditions who probably would have died at a younger age, who need looking after. We have higher expectations (famous cases of £1.2m per injection), and we have drug companies who know they can demand that amount.

If I was involved in a serious accident I would not be left dying at the side of the road, emergency services would come and put me back together.

The NHS is amazing.

Sorry you had that experience. I had the opposite re GA where I wanted sedation and they insisted on GA for their medical reasons. They don’t do them lightly as they carry more risks, obviously.

I have very mixed experiences w the NHS. Seen some great consultants, others have been patronising and dismissive. A&E very hit and miss.

Last time I went (after a horrible incident), they were great w tests/treatment but communication was a bit rubbish.

Victim of its own success x underfunding x badly run. A tangle of many problems rather than a single one.

One of the hidden problems - people management, especially the management of management.

eg - with fixed wages and no bonuses for the majority of staff there is no tangible incentive to do a great job. Doing well wont get you extra money or a better job or even better job security. Doing badly is fine, it’s almost impossible to get fired.

eg - recruitment. Everything rests on the interview, your previous experience/proven achievements matter for nothing as long as they meet the minimum requirements for the job. Good interviewees do better, regardless of of actual proven ability.

I could go on.

Nonsense. Without immigration the population would be 12 million people smaller (also considering it was recently noted that half of immigrants live in poverty so are a net drain on the country). Without immigration there would be exactly the same number of specialty trainees but they would all be UK trained doctors who get to stay in the UK rather than being forced to emigrate. Without immigration the nurses and midwives who graduated last year in wales would have found employment. Ditto physiotherapists.

Without immigration the government might have been forced to negotiate with the classes that do the work earlier. Why on earth would anyone want to pay £10k a year tuition fees to work placements where they’re supposed to be supernumerary learners but are in fact essential hands-on on poorly staffed wards? And then graduate to find there’s no jobs because the government hired a load of foreigners on cheaper wages? The boomers who are predominantly being cared for would not pay to work! I know loads of perfectly good healthcare staff who will no longer consider progress onto nursing because it’s an impossible situation. The lack of progression and more demands on minimum wage then makes everyone constantly look around for jobs elsewhere. The churn between schools, nurseries and hospitals and a few in transport is remarkable at the moment.

I think a hell of a lot of staff walked out after Covid, between poor working conditions and what they saw then, and the government took the opportunity to hire a load more cheaper staff - certainly in my local hospital there was a big influx then.

I fear you are correct. What a shame.

Palantir could probably streamline bookings and also check on staffing absences etc and produce data useful for changes eg GPs working part time to avoid going into next tax bracket, I can see that people worry about privacy but once you are online and shopping isn’t your name, postcode, likes,dislikes etcetc out there anyway?