To ask you to help save our NHS - last chance

[larks35]

I'm probably breaking some rules here but:

Dear friends across Britain,

The battle to save the NHS is now entering its final hours. David Cameron and Andrew Lansley seem determined to drag Britain's most famous institution to its grave, but if we now stand together we can get the House of Lords to stop this bill in its tracks.

Public outrage is gripping the country as the Prime Minister persists with a bill that would dismantle the NHS and open the field to private companies. The government refuses to publish its internal report on the risks of the reforms, one reason among many why thousands of health professionals and many politicians oppose the changes. If we now build a massive outcry we can sway our last line of defence the House of Lords to save the NHS.

Let?s call on the undecided members in the House of Lords to keep the knives off our NHS and ensure we can all read the official risk report -- sign here and circulate. Our voices will ramp up the pressure as we deliver our petition when we reach key milestones between now and Monday:

www.avaaz.org/en/last_chance_to_save_the_nhs/?tta

The coalition promised no top-down reorganisation of the National Health Service. Yet it's brought in a bill that threatens to turn large chunks of the NHS over on a plate to private health care companies and cost-cutting consultants, threatening a tidal wave of privatisation that will leave our health system expensive and fragmented, with many of us getting only low-quality care. Citizens are outraged -- according to the latest polls, over half of us want the new bill to be scrapped.

Public opposition has already delayed the bill and forced several amendments, but the government is refusing to halt the reforms, wrongly insisting that opponents are just a minority group of disgruntled health care professionals and political opponents. The fight for the NHS now depends on the 200 members of the House of Lords who don't belong to a political party. They aren't used to public scrutiny, so if we target them now, we can win and ensure that any reforms of our precious health service are done in concert with health professionals and patients.

We only have until Monday to tip the balance. The recommendation to delay the debate until after the risk register has been released will throw the NHS a lifeline and allow us all to see the likely impact of this bill. Sign the petition, and send widely.

www.avaaz.org/en/last_chance_to_save_the_nhs/?tta

Britain is proud of the NHS, which has saved countless lives and won admirers across the world. Let?s act now and ensure our health care system stays free for all.

With hope,

Sam, Antonia, Alex, Alice, Jamie, Ricken and the rest of the Avaaz team

YABU.

More left-wing bollocks.

Reforms are needed.

Shelley- yes reforms certainly are needed, in parliament even more than the nhs! Privatisation is not the way to go with the nhs. We need to get rid of the pen pushers. There are targets, but then for each target there are people who check the target. And people who check that the people who check the targets are checking it correctly. There are whole departments whose sole job consists of massaging numbers so that it appears that targets are being met. It's insanity. When people are kept waiting in a&e, it tells me that they need more staff not a target to make them work harder. When people are on waiting lists for months we need more drs and nursing staff to treat them not a target to meet. The number of management staff in the nhs is ridiculous! Too many passenegers and not enough people rowing the boat!

You don't need parliament to make the reforms Shelly

The NHS is top heavy and needs reform.

The most ridiculous thing I ever saw when in clinical practice was when the trust I worked for employed a "pillow manager". Previously if a patient wanted an extra pillow I would simply walk to the ward next door, and borrow one from them. If they didn't have any I would go back and say "sorry I can't find one, you'll have to make do with the 9 you already have" or some such thing.

But following the advent of the "pillow manager" who was a band 6, a grade above a qualified nurse, I would phone him, he would phone around the wards to locate a pillow, send a porter to collect it and bring it to our ward and if they weren't any spare, fill out an incident form! And the patient still didnt get a pillow. You couldn't make it up!

Multiply this by the hospitals in the country times the unnecessary managers and you have a massive amount of money! The private sector would not put up with such inefficiency.

The private sector would not put up with such inefficiency Is efficiency measured in the private sector and scrutinised to the same extent as the public sector?

The NHS is top heavy and needs reform How do you know? The Tories told you?

The NHS comes out as one of the top performing health services in the world on a £ for £ comparison.

How patronising, the Tories havent told me anything, i have come to my own conclusion after years of practice in acute and primary trusts.

When you have got more managers than nurses, when you have three nurses on a ward of 28 patients and the managers still introduce ever more paperwork which takes nurses off the ward when it is already overstretched. When the wards are running in the goodwill of nursing staff who work through breaks and stay over their hours, I would not call this top performing. What is more it is unsustainable.

I agree that reform is needed (I work in the public sector and look at many organisations) but don't believe that the NHS is crap and needs complete overhaul as being spun.

YANBU, reform is needed but could be done in other ways. BUT you are being unrealistic if you think the Bill won't be granted Royal Ascent.

The trouble is with an increasing elderly population, many beds are blocked as elderly people cannot be discharged as it would be unsafe for them to go home. The elderly also require a high degree of care sometimes needing two members of staff.

Using a systems approach the government reforms to the NHS are not going to work unless they look at other areas simultaneously such as looking after our elderly either in the community or providing good quality residential care.

I agree Rhino.

I think the NHS should adapt to the population and demographics regularly as opposed to wholesale yet silo approach.

Just got my letter about redundancies at the NHS hospital I work in. Am frontline nursing staff.

106 jobs going in our trust.

The Tories want to privatise the NHS , and wont stop till they do. When care services on the scale of the NHS would be run for a profit inevitably patient care would suffer.

Rhino Did no one think to work out how many extra pillows they could buy for the same price as a band 6 job - then they could have used the money to buy pillows and wouldn't have had a pillow crisis at all?

Bigbluebus - don't be silly, that would be far too simple - and obvious to most people!

YABU It desperately needs reform and is incapable of reforming itself. I work in the public sector. The waste and inefficiency is depressing.

YABU.

GP: Rude receptionists and a service that has deteriorated significantly over the last 15 years. Then I could make an appointment for the surgery nurse to take my bloods. Now I have to queue at a neighbouring surgery where their patients leap frog those from my surgery. Again the reception staff and dedicated phlebotomist think they are doing me a favour.

Childbirth: Birth 1: They missed the fact that ds was being strangled until my dh demanded a doctor come in to double check the monitor. I counted that throughout that pg and post partum period I saw 39 individuals and only one or two of them were able to communicate politely or pass on informed and accurate advice.

Hospital Care: Rude nurses, dirty wards, badly treated simple break to son's arm meant it had to be reset, inaccurate notes.

What irritates most is the way every assumption is that the patient is stupid. I have lost count of the number of times staff have been rude, inefficient, uncaring and disinterested.

Compare to DH's private GP - lovely chap - DH's appointments never take more than 5 minutes. If I collect a result for him the staff are pleasant.

Compare to our local private hospital where there seem to be fewer staff standing around doing nothing but who are almost without exception polite.

YABU - the NHS needs to change and to change fast. Most of all those who work for it need to be reminded that it is free at the point of delivery not free of charge. There have been many many occasions where I would have refused to pay a bill due to substandard care and substandard service had one been presented.

Change 1: all staff to look up from screen, smile and say please and thank you when speaking to a patient or a patient's carer. It isn't rocket science.

I've only had great experiences of the NHS. Births, appendectomy, DS1's life being saved after a car accident, FIL's cancer being treated, MIL's end of life care...

There are inefficiencies and improvements that could be made - as in any large organisation, but the current reforms will kill the NHS.

I have a mirena coil, it's due to be replaced soon, I don't have to worry about paying for that. In the US many women are no longer able to access adequate contraception due to costs. Do we really want that here?

Yes the NHS does need reforming, however as soon as people have to pay upfront for treatment I am sure attitudes will change. Look at America $15k to have your appendix removed, $100 upfront before a doctor will see you, A prescription costing $300 per month rather than the £8 odd we pay here. I for one am thankful that I live in a country that has a NHS, If the Tory's get their way and the NHS is privatised prepare to see stories of people dying of treatable diseases because they cannot afford the medication.

Marriedinwhite, your nhs experience could not be further from mine

Op YANBU and I have done it

marriedinwhite before the NHS, your son's arm would not have been set at all, unless you paid for it.
GPs receptionists have always been harrassed, shouted at, assaulted, sworn at, made unreasonable demands of- and hence a bit stressed and brisk. Have you ever tried that job?
Your neighbouring surgery IS doing you a favour- the alternative would be to go to the hospital. Phlebotomy is hosted by the surgery, done by hospital staff- not by surgery staff.
And for your GPs service having deteriorated- there is a nationwide shortage of GPs. The ones there are, are overstretched. And, as opposed to common opinion, paid less the market value would actually be, as the NHS dictates income- and certainly nowhere near what you are made to believe they earn by the Tories. Please also remember they are mostly self employed.

And more and more services that used to be hospital based are now done by your GP surgery- like thrombosis, skin infections, heart failure, diabetes etc etc etc. All of this will be done by GPs and nurses, so they don't have TIME to take your blood. It is not VITAL to have your blood taken by a highly trained nurse, it underuses trained staff- a phlebotomist can do so just as well at less expense to the NHS.
Talk about a sense of entitlement in some people!!

OldernotWiser47. I have to make an appointment to see my GP who then has to write the form out for me to have the blood test. It would take no longer for the GP to take the blood instead of writing up the form - he still has to make a note on my notes that he has done so. It doesn't make sense.

Also, in my experience, the shouting and harassment does not come form the patients. The last time I went to the doctor, the receptionist yelled across the surgery "there's a note on your records to say your smear's overdue, do you want to make an appointment whilst your here?" I'm sorry if I had to write my doctor a cheque, it would not on that occasion have been written.

Doctors in the UK are paid twice as much as doctors in France. I can only speak as I have found and what I have found has not been good. The doctors are good on the whole, but the support services around them are disgraceful.

I do take exception to your comments about entitlement. We pay very high taxes and we also have private health insurance. I would have been more than happy to have paid for my son's broken arm, but a&e treatment is not available in private hospitals. Well it is at the Cromwell but that wasn't where the ambulance took him.

It is a worry, there is all this talk of "Any Competant Provider" where GPs can commission a service from ACP provided they are qualified to provide the service.So could be private sector or could be a neighbouring health authority.
Many years ago, the HA where I worked contracted out to a Private Practioner.For various reasons, it didn't work and the contract was not renewed. But history may well repeat itself.

And as for admin, paperwork.
I have my list for the day.I have to write in times for Face-to-Face contacts, and travelling time.
And another form for the time I spend setting up, tidying up and writing out forms for Annual Checks to send out to GPs.

Then someone in an office correlates this data.

Only 22 years till I can retire. If I've not spontaneously combusted by then.

I have had bad and good experience with the NHS,

When I first diagnosed with my brain disorder, I was sent to one hospital (I never had a choice which hospital it was as it was an emergency) and the DR's there did a Lumber Puncture without numbing me first, it totally stung like fuck, the worst pain I have ever felt, especially as they hit every nerve in that area.

I had to go back a week later for a repeat Lumber PUncture, I was so nervous after the last one I kept tensing up, The Neuro numbed me then tried to do a LP but as I was tensing it hurt more. So the Neuro pinned me down and did a LP. My DP could hear me screaming out in pain down the corridor, there was nothing he could do to stop me being in pain. They stopped the LP as the ward manager thought I was making to much noise.

4 days later I had to go back (by this time I was losing my sight by just going from standing to sitting and vice versa) The tried the LP again, once again I couldn't handle it with fear, it took 15 attempts to try abd get a LP done. including pinning me down once again. They never got it done so I got introduced to my first neuro surgeon.

The neuro surgeon burst into the room and said "I'm xxxxx and I will be outting a shunt in tonight as you are going blind" I was petrified so I burst into tears and said "I can't let you do that tonight, I cant let you touch me"
So the surgeon sais "Ok you can go home tonight and come back tomorrow for surgery either tomorrow afternoon or Sunday"

I went home and arrived back the next day. Surgery went ahead on the Sunday all was fine and I went home on the Monday.

A few months later my symtoms returened and I was told they can't have as I have placed a shunt, it still working (al l without the surgeon seeing me) It took a year before anyone would see me, in that time I ended upo partially sighted.

I then got told I needed another LP. A surgeon tried and she couldn't get it done. So I was sedated, it never worked,. I was sent home.

A week later I was told I would be having a LP under General Anesthetic. It got done and it was showed I had very high pressure.

I was told I would need another surgery,

The surgery was planned for a few months later. In the mean time I was ina gony and losing more and more sight.

I went to my pre-op assesment and got told it would be another LP shunt and I would most likely need a new shunt placed a year later.

I was not ahppy and asked if the surgeon could take the old shunt out and just leave me to go blind as I am was going to go blind anyways.

I was told "NO"

I was told to go home and think of what I wanted. On the way home I ended up getting phone calls from my neuro who was begging me to go back in to hospital. For the next week I had phone calls constantly all day and night by lotas of DR's and Surgeons.

I finally agreed to go into hospital to discuss my options. I was told "If you fon't allow me to place a new LP shunt, I will send you home and allow you to be in pain, as the shunt will carry on coiling and not stop until it strangles your organs. If you alow me to put a new LP shunt in I will convert it to a VP shunt in a few weeks. " I had no choice but sign the concent forms.
I had surgery the day after.

2 hours after surgery I was back on the ward and I asked for some pain killers as my cuts were sore. I was tolf "your being unreasonable, you have already had 1 paracetamol you are getting no MORE, STOP COMPLAINING" this was by my surgeon.

I asked to see someone else, so the Surgeon put his hands in the air and as he brought them doen he caught my cannualas and dragged them out of my hands and my central line out of my neck was also dragged out. It hurt loads. I then burst into tears with the pain and the seeing the blood fly all over. I said " I want to go home"

The surgeon then left the ward and I met the Duty Surgeon and he tried to bribe me to stay, If I stayed I was allowed morphine. I said " I want to go home"

I finally got home 5 hours after surgery.

The next day the surgeon discharged me.

It took 4months of begging my GP to get me back to a new surgeon. As I was in a lot of pain and having loads of problems

I ended up changing Gp's. Then I got my new Surgeon.

The best thing I ever did.

I was diagnonsed with another illness that could have killed me if left untreated.

I had my 3rd and 4th Brain surgery in Novemeber,
I also found out that the old hospital could have done a LP under Xray. Just like my new surgeon. But they wouldnt.

There is times I would like the NHS to be changed then I think about my Surgeon now and all the help he is giving me. (My old Surgeon also does Private Clinics, my new Surgeon just does NHS) If it was not for my new Surgeon and the NHS I would have been dead now.

The NHS has bad and good points but I am so pleased we have a NHS.

Sorry about any spelling mistakes my illness is playing up and I cant see properly

I am concerned that the government is unwilling to publish the register of risks associated with this bill - clearly, they do not want the facts made public. And although reform may be necessary, I really don't think this is the way to do it. It will be a sad day for this country when the health service is privatised. :(

What was it that the Tories promised before the election? Oh yeah, no top-down reorganisation of the health service. Lying bastards.

Sadly, I think the bill will go through regardless, but I have signed. I have also emailed a couple of the undecided lords prior to the vote on Monday. I know I'm wasting my time, but at least I will feel that I tried.