Do non NHS people realise how bad it is at the moment?

[DoyouknowJo]

I had to justify to my managers manager why I needed to spend £7 on stationery. Stationery. Some biros, some staples and a box of envelopes.

One of my colleagues chairs broke and she was told to apply to charitable funds to get a new one.

Everything is held together with sticky tape and blu tac (literally and figuratively)

We have four members of admin staff bunched into a desk meant for two, because there is no money to pay IT to put a new port in on their desks.

Waste toner cartridges are on lockdown. If yours is full you should take a scalpel, cut the seal open, empty it and then stick it back together and put it back in the printer. Don't worry about all your printing then being covered in smudgy ink. We're broke ya know.

And some fucking idiot turned up to A&E today...because their arm has been hurting for two months and they are off on holiday tomorrow and could we sort it please.

I'm thinking of starting an anonymous instagram account to get all this crap out.

Jesus some pp are so judgemental and, I'm sorry to say, reflect the current tory voters. The people who blame the people working their arses off in public services and expect them not to be paid fucking sick leave!!!! As long as you're alright hey?

The state of public services is horrendous and shocking. What is more shocking is that people are now going to vote in Boris, then probably the Conservative at the next election. I can't comprehend it? It's just people in their middle class bubble who have no idea about the reality of life for many people, or just not giving a shit because, hey they're OK.

I pray soon people will gain some perspective and there will be a change.

ginger I'm a practice nurse.
Your patients would be lucky to get an appointment with me because I'm fully booked for the next six weeks. Whether all of those will show or not is another matter --they won't.
And the GP's don't like us doing dressings as the practice isn't rewarded financially for that. They should be going to a treatment room or dressings clinic, if they can find one! Insufficient staff to run those too!

Not quiet the same OP, as I’m a Veterinary nurse, but I had someone ring 7 minutes before closing demanding an emergency appointment because her dog sneezed once earlier that morning. Otherwise absolutely fine.
Difference is I can say ‘this is not an emergency I’ll make you appointment’ ... obviously I know you can’t do that in A&E.
I would love resources and money to be redirected appropriately - but with time wasters and date I say it attention seekers, it gets used where not entirely necessary.
I feel your frustrations.

It's the same in education re. stationery. We have a minimal stationery budget then I've been topping up glue sticks/whiteboard pens etc myself. I bet MPs don't have to pay for their own stationery.

As for health tourism, research has shown that it is a tiny fraction of NHS costs. If the government really wants to deal with it as an issue, then we need ID cards like most other countries have, but the British public seem opposed to the idea.

18 years in the NHS and I have never known it so bad. Everything is cut to the bone. We have inadequate office space after our previous premises was sold off to private developers. I have a car boot full of resources as we have nowhere to store them at work. I have made and purchased most of said resources myself as there is no budget for them to be provided. It's bloody awful.

Yes we are on our knees but there are massive savings that could be made. It wouldn't sort the problem out but it would make a difference
The savings that could be made by people not abusing the system are clear and unarguable but the NHS is also throwing money away in areas that patients and front line staff dont see.
My DH is an e-learning developer and in the last five years has had two seperate six month contracts with the NHS developing (as part of a sizable team) e-learning training roll outs, both of which were eventually ditched for whatever reasons (I dont know the reasons). Both those contracts involved employing developers, trainers, project managers etc as well as all the software and agency fees etc etc etc. All wasted.

The following is a longish quotation from a top economist. Forgive the length but it is revelant:-

“There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.”

Milton Friedman, in a Fox News interview in May 2004”

Not only is the NHS a case of spending other people’s money on other people, and thereby getting the worst value possible for taxpayers, but the managerial model brought in by Tony Blair snd New Labour compounded the problem by adding a non medical, bureaucratic layer of management which added massively to costs without resulting in clinical benefits.

Many medics and managers seized the opportunity afforded by semi privatisation to make £millions from the public purse.

Add an out of control population with its corresponding higher birth rate, health tourism, expensive advances in medicine and medical practices and own goals such as the new pension limits which have caused senior medics to semi- retire and other public blunders and one can see that the NHS is not fixable.

My experience of it is that the hotel facilities are fifth rate but the medical care is excellent.

I agree, some think of A&E as a GP surgery. Makes me really cross.

NHS needs to change to save money, still sending appt letters for example. I know not everyone is on email, but the vast majority are.

And as usual the management earning massive salaries, people at the grassroots earning a pittance and haven’t even go the tools they need to do their job.

I have been taking a very expensive drug, I have had to stop due to side affects. I know the drug costs the NHS £56.00 per tablet I have 2 full boxes I’ve been trying to give back to the hospital as they can be used by someone else. I have been told to wait and they will close my account down with the company who delivers them and they will collect them off me. It’s been two months and I’m still waiting, I doubt they will ever be collected and reused.

Deep breath, keep going.

I work in a cash-rich trust, but having been made redundant from a very poor trust previously, the legacy of that stays with me. Our trust will frequently splash out on events, conferences etc which all include providing lunch. We print our own pens with the logo on them. There are picnic tables and giant outdoor games for people to "de-stress". Honestly, I was shocked. I have tried to speak to management about making more cost effective choices - booking conferences after lunch so there is no expectation to provide it. Invite reps who normally bring pens and snacks. Rather than sending staff on away days (who most hate attending anyway), circulate a staff survey. I've gone from having to buy my own pens, post it notes and providing tea/coffee when I had visitors to a meeting, to now being able to provide them with herbal tea. It's ridiculous!

@Tara336 you cannot re-use medication that has been dispensed. It's against the law.

NHS hospitals are ridiculously inefficient and also under-managed. The fact that they still use fax machines and most hospitals still don't have electronic prescribing systems says it all. GP practices are pretty efficient - probably because they are small businesses that have always focused on profit as well as patient care.

@isitsummeryet1 drug reps can't do pens any more, so you'll need to find other businesses to sponsor your meetings. Finance maybe.

Teacher22 Whilst PFIs cost dearly under the Blair government, it was Hunts reforms that really did the damage. CCGs are ludicrously inefficient and in many areas run out of money around month 9/10 so halt elective work and don’t pay trusts what is owed - so Trust gets into greater financial difficulties and ends up fined because they don’t meet targets around RTT. GPS continue to refer but Trusts can’t treat them.

There are a few Trusts that buck the financial trend and provide excellent care within budget but once in a downward spiral it’s hard to get back up.

It’s sad because good care actually costs less but you have to get to the point of being able to invest. One trust offers virtual outpatient appointments in some specialities and virtual fracture clinics. Saves everyone time and costs much less. Encourages staff and patients to keep to appointment time too.

I feel for you- it's shit.

Yet people continue to vote Tory because Corbyn is a bit scruffy.

If you vote for anyone other than Labour YOU ARE LETTING THIS HAPPEN.

That's the hard truth.

No other party can get the Tories out. None.

The NHS stops people dying. What the fuck is more important than that?

Minor head bumps on children - child running around playing with toys happy as Larry - I just wanted to get it checked

Yeah well you can blame 111 for that one as every time I have called them for DS they have without fail sent us to A&E.

f you can go shopping, you can visit the practice nurse to get your dressings changed.

My dad has a district nurse come out once a month. He has offered to go to a clinic but there isn’t one so it has to be done at home. He waits in all day because he knows it’s due and missing the appointment isn’t in his best interest but really doing it at home is a waste of everyone’s time

Er I don't give a shit if Corbyn is scruffy but as a Jewish woman I won't be voting Labour.

I won't vote tory either.

I do think at this point though a thank you is needed for the staff who do work so hard to keep things going while fighting against an ever increasing tide of bureaucracy and cut backs

Yet there is still a lot of waste. My mother was in a rehab ward recently, we had an appointment card through for a review from another hospital. I asked whether I should put the appointment off, but was told no, they would organise an ambulance to the other hospital - she can't walk. So they sent a privately funded ambulance with two ambulancemen to take her on her own. When it came to the appointment itself, they didn't examine her, and she couldn't answer any of the doctor's questions reliably due to her probable dementia. Fortunately I was there so I could answer and he could talk to me. She then went back to the original hospital in another ambulance and with two ambulance men. There was no need whatsoever for her to be at the appointment, and arranging the two ambulance trips must have cost a fortune. The whole thing could have been achieved by a phone call to the rehab hospital.

@ArgyMargy I was at an event in Middlesborough on Monday and they brought lots of pens. I've certainly restocked my stash, meaning I don't have to go to the NHS-funded stationary cupboard.

The “I don’t think it’s broken because it doesn’t really hurt and I can still walk on it but can you just check” people
I don't fully agree with this one. I once hurt my ankle so badly and kept walking on it because it was "painful but I could still walk on it"
At the end it was so swollen that I went to a private clinic and used my insurance to get an MRI and I had almost 3 ligaments broken. It took a long time to heal and I can never run again

Regarding wastage on stop-start projects: I work in a difference government department that is far less politically attractive than health and we have lots of these too. (Not to mention zero stationery budget).
It really doesn’t help that we have a steady stream of new ministers all with different views about how things should change, and all with different priorities. Both grayling and gove have come up with madcap schemes for my dept that have wasted resource and energy. So minister/secretary of state arrives, sets you off on a scheme, is reshuffled, next person needs to make their name so redirects you elsewhere and repeat ad infinitum. And at the same time you try to deliver the status quo too.

That being said, DH works in emergency services so we are very conscious of not taking life saving space (hence my ankle )

It's mismanagement and NHS managers and policy makers wasting public money. Do you know that NHS managers waste billions of pounds in dishing out lovely little 3rd-party contracts to their pals' start up companies? They waste billions of pounds by working with large contracting agencies (nurses and admin staff) where ordinary, some straight out of uni contractors get paid daily rates of 1.5K a day or more before tax?

It's true though too many people have no idea how to take care of their family's health. They bring along their whole flipping clan to A&E family day out, and many don't know how to eat healthily or don't keep fit.

More money should be invested in teaching people basic self-care for minor ailments, eating and cooking heartily on a budget, exercising needs to become less middle class, which it totally is now.

And NHS management needs to be overhauled. Stop wasting tax payers money by paying £££££££££££££££££££££££££££ each day to admin and IT contracting staff FGS.

Also we are still operating on an outdated victorian model of health care with large clunky hospitals and the clever doctor expected to fix you.

Somehow I think we haven't quite caught up with the 21st century in the NHS.

rant over