Should NHS staff get prioritised treatment by the NHS

[mids2019]

Should NHS staff get prioritised treatment by the NHS.

The logic is that by facilitating recovery of NHS staff as a priority you actually make the whole system more efficient by reducing absence levels. To some extent this already happens with staff being allowed access to cancelled public appointments and there has been a hidden culture of serving or retired medical staff moving a little up the waiting list as a recognition of their service (but like a staff discount in retail I guess)

is this a good idea and should the NHS be more open about it?

Not officially, it has to be clinical need or it all breaks down.

We seem to be quite happy with a culture of private sector perks where someone in say retail gets a staff discount, an employee gets comely shares as a bonus, or free food in certain restauraunts. Would it aid in recruitment to the NHS if staff got speedier care? Private healthcare is given as a bonus for may industries so would it make sense for NHS staff who are relatively poorly paid to benefit from an internal treatment route?

I think the argument that having for and healthy NHS staff generally is good for the workforce and therefore for the country as a whole.

Yes. Most jobs have some perks.

Also fast tracking for friends and family on occasion

I don’t believe you have any evidence of this. Maybe in days of yore when appointments were booked straight into a diary by secretaries but it isn’t actually possible any more. Unless you count very informal stuff where advice is given at the equivalent of the water cooler.

Getting “bumped up” theatre lists, formally booked clinics etc is not a thing except in people’s imagination or with the benefit of rose coloured goggles.

No. NHS staff should be better paid but you can't give a fast track to NHS care that is paid for by the taxpayer. Private companies can do what they want in terms of perks, but public services can not. You would undermine public support for those services if they were not fairly distributed (however limited the amount being distirbuted just now - thanks Tories).

I've worked for the NHS for 20 years and have never been aware of staff bypassing the system. I'm currently waiting for an urgent review- I've been waiting since June. I rang last week to chase it up, to be told they don't know how long the waiting list is, just that its been referred as urgent. So definitely no queue skipping here.

I do feel NHS should offer Benenden. Healthcare

I assume most of doctors Private.

I’ve witnessed it with current staff a decade or so ago and retired staff last year.

It does happen.
A friend would have died if she hadn't been prioritised due to her job.
I believe clinical staff should be. Admin etc. No.
The NHS is one of the biggest employers in the world, there's just too many people for unrestricted fast track

No. And no-one should. That's the point of socialised healthcare. Everyone has equal access to it.

If you can afford it and happy to pay extra then go private. Pay for your VIP lane.

@AnyFucker one occasion in November - the husband of a secretary in a particular clinic shoehorned in and saw the consultant that day. Immediate referral to the particular treatment he needed.

There's loads more but I won't bore you with it.

Not really the same thing, but I worked in abortion care for bpas years ago. They most certainly 'slotted in' a staff member for a next day surgical just because she was staff

@watchfulwishes

The NHS is supported by the tax payer but doesn't any institution support its staff in any reasonable way possible? For example army medics are principally for the army (makes sense). If we have front line staff that could be supported to aid the population generally does it not make sense to expedite any necessary treament.

Trusts have occupational health services which can make recommendations for things like physiotherapy which is given by in trust staff. Counselling and mental health support is given to exclusively trust staff. Flu and COVID jabs are readily freely available to staff. Why not extend this?

Yes, might increase recruitment as would be a desirable perk, hah.

No, and I have had priority treatment inadvertently facilitated by my husband (consultant). I thought it was appalling. It’s unspoken pure communism.

My MIL was last to arrive and first to be seen in an overcrowded waiting room in a cancer clinic because of DH. It absolutely stinks.

Just get the whole thing off it’s arse, never mind prioritizing the million-odd people on the payroll.

Right or wrong, it happens all the time. All kinds of NHS staff and their families often jump the queue. When it is a member of my team who is expedited for treatment I am over the moon that I will get them back sooner. Providing, for example, painkilling spinal injections, helps keep people at work. This type of treatment doesn't usually take a slot that a regular patient would take but is done as an 'extra' with goodwill of teams staying late etc

No, they shouldn't. It would go against the guiding principles of the NHS - a comprehensive service, available to all.

No. Only difference I have ever seen is the way in which a HCP relates/talks to someone if they become aware of an individuals background as a HCP.(language used and an assumption of knowledge that can work against them) Never known of anyone getting fast track care in my 40+ years employed in NHS

I disagree. The nhs is the largest employer out there. Thousands , indeed hundreds of thousands can be jumping the Q , pushing those on waiting lists back, you know the ones with the same problems as those nhs staff, who also can’t go into work, and only get SSP. The knock on impact being they can’t pay bills for longer, are off work for longer pay less tax( which reduces the amount the Government get to pay for the nhs)

no one deserves to jump Qs

I think lots of trusts have some kind of physiotherapy and mental health support for staff available. But more at mindfulness type level than psychiatric support to try and keep staff in work. I'm not sure why that seems more ok to me than speedier access to surgeries.

I could in theory manipulate waiting lists to bump people up in my clinics but it isn't ethical, isn't allowed and assume would be disciplinary material if I did it and someone complained

No I don't think that's workable due to the sheer size of the NHS.

To those posters saying that a 1 hour operation could get a nurse back on the wards, that would work in a small system but it's a bit like only dealing with the new emails coming into your inbox rather than the things that have been sitting on your to do list for a while. Fine if you're just getting a few emails but you could easily fill a day with new emails/one hour staff operations while your to do list is getting no shorter.

fkn idiot 🙄

I have been fast-tracked for an op by a surgeon who personally chose to do this 'as you don't get any other perks working here'

It did work v well for the NHS as I was having loads of time off sick and was entirely sorted by the op, so I could actually get on with my job and my patients stopped missing out.

On the other hand once 'being fasttracked as a colleague' meant I got sent a letter with a bit of useless self-management advice and discharged without being seen. Ended up paying privately for a proper opinion.

Friends and family - forget it. DH was left to go half-blind due to numerous delays.

After personally having to give up my entire career to date because there's no medical treatment available for a treatable condition, I'm certain we already have doctors and nurses potentially out of a job because they can't get treatment.

A friend of mine is a senior surgeon with more than 20 years experience.

A few months ago he went to hospital with textbook appendicitis symptoms.

He sat in chairs.

2 hours after he arrived the pain got a lot worse very suddenly. (This is when his appendix ruptured.)

A couple of hours after that (still in chairs) he started feeling really ill.

Went and explained at reception that he was a surgeon and fairly certain his appendix had now ruptured. They told him to wait and they couldn’t prioritise him because he was a doctor.

Throughout the night asked for help many times explaining his symptoms and how and why he was now pretty certain his bowel had also ruptured.

11 hours after he arrived and 9 hours after his appendix (and bowel) ruptured he phoned his wife (who was at home with their young child) and stated that he needed help here because he couldn’t advocate any more.

His wife (also a doctor) basically contacted every doctor she knew until she managed to get a surgeon at that hospital down to see him.

Operation then happened very fast.

Apparently he was about an hour away from needing an intensive care bed, needed a week in hospital and 4 weeks off work.

Had he been operated on immediately then he would have been discharged the next day and back at work after a week.

Had he not had a wife who managed to find a suitable surgeon then it would have either been intensive care or death.

Not sure what the moral of that is.