To ask what YOU would do to help save the NHS?

[TamiTayorismyparentingguru]

I don’t care if you’re an HCP or not, I don’t care who you vote for, I don’t care what you think about Brexit - all opinions welcome.

Opinions on practical suggestions on how to save the NHS only though.

Our local hospital is getting worse and worse with regards to staff shortages and waiting lists getting longer and longer. I will say that our GP is really great and we’ve never really had a problem with getting appointments etc, but as soon as you are referred to the hospital things go massively downhill. (We did have a GP misdiagnose/miss DH’s cancer which was pretty shit - but I wouldn’t say that was a particular problem with the system - more just one of those unfortunate things that happens, that really shouldn’t happen, but that are just a matter of course.)

The hospital is a different story though - wait lists for some departments are insane (current wait time for an initial cataracts appointment is 42 weeks and then up to 18m for treatment, paediatric dermatology is a min of 30weeks, paediatric podiatry is approx 30weeks also. I have been on a wait list for max fax for 14mths so far. I also had an 8week wait for an appointment at the breast clinic after seeing the GP with a noticeable lump.)

DH has also had to fight for every single appointment since his cancer treatment last year - instead of the 4-weekly appointments he’s meant to have had, most of his appointments have been 7-8 weeks apart and have been cancelled at the last minute (sometimes just an hour before) at least 4 times in the last year.

It’s awful and yet I do trust that the doctors, nurses, receptionists etc etc are all doing everything they possibly can.

What’s the solution?

Like a lot of others have said, stream line the process for people that are returning to see a specialist. My OH had keyhole surgery to repair /remove cartilage in his knee twice. Last year it started hurting badly again. So he goes the gp. They refer him for physio as thats what they do now. The physio refers him for an xray, then he sees him 4 weeks afterwards. Then he requests a scan. PH goes to the appointment. 4 weeks later (today) he sees the physio again. He gets referred to the bone people ( as we knew he would) as he needs another keyhole procedure to assess his cruciate ligament and see if its time for anew knee. Its taken 6 months, 5 various appointments just to get told what we already knew as the bone surgeon said it would happen!? makes NO SENSE!!! WHy couldn't he just request an appointment with the consultants team as a previous patient that they KNEW they would be seeing again within 3 years?

I think we should give free training for all potential NHS staff but say that they have to work within the NHS for 15 years after qualifying or repay the debt via student loans.

Get rid of all the extraneous managers with crazy salaries

Educate people to cope with having a cold without having to see a doctor and how to clean a cut and stick a plaster on it instead of going to A&E.
Oh yeah,....and young people don't drink more than you can handle so you don't end up unconscious on the streets or fighting and half killing yourself...That would be nice. NHS staff have enough to do without you fuckwit.

The biggest single cost in the NHS is the wage bill. There is currently more than one manager for every NHS bed. The CEO of a health Trust earns over £250K - considerably more than the bloody Prime Minister!
I’d sack entire levels of management in the NHS, and ban freelance management consultants, who charge millions and only save pennies after their supposed efficiency analysis.
I’d scrap the bureaucracy, the endlessly duplicated paperwork, the targets that bear no resemblance to clinical priority.
I’d give control back to the doctors. We used to run the NHS with an admin budget of just 5% of total. Now it’s done by “managers” it costs over 12% of budget.

Completely agree with TheOneWith. Plus...

Charge people who abuse the system and those who generally attract multiple health problems due to lifestyle choices. The NHS isn’t free for all, tax payers pay for it and yet a huge proportion of people use it without contributing or use it disproportionately due to self inflicted long term conditions.

Stop people profiting from the NHS, including some front line services, outside of the fee and salary they are paid to provide their services.

Stop paying expensive rent on buildings and utilise the massive supply chain more effectively. Standardise costs into services and stop a private company operating under the NHS banner.

I’d pay fairer wages (as I believe our NHS staff deserve to be paid more) and lessen the need for bank staff who cost a huge amount more than salaried staff (not that they necessarily receive this, the agencies do).

There is so much wastage it’s eye watering

Change the sick pay policy.
The amount of nhs staff that go off sick repeatedly and get full pay is unbelievable. I don’t know if it’s in all trusts but our local is 6 months full pay.
Charge for missed appointments. If the dentists can do it, the doctors can.

Patients have been TOLD to go to A and E when repeat scripts havent been done on time.

Im all for charging for missed appointments as long as it works both ways

Patients have been sitting in the waiting room and have had their appointments cancelled by text.

To put into perspective, walk in appointment to see a doctor in non EU country to receive medicine was £40 for less than 5 minutes treatment. Medicine not available at pharmacy. I do appreciate the NHS. I think the Government should also move towards more preventative health education and call people in for MOTs etc

Charge people who abuse the system and those who generally attract multiple health problems due to lifestyle choices. The NHS isn’t free for all, tax payers pay for it and yet a huge proportion of people use it without contributing or use it disproportionately due to self inflicted long term conditions.

I don't really agree with this. Where do you draw the line? Someone who has a motorbike accident is that a lifestyle choice? What about someone who breaks their back playing rugby?

I really hate the ‘stop all cosmetic surgery’ suggestions that are always put forward. So no help for burns victims? Babies born with cleft palate? I know there was that silly girl in the news who bragged about having a boob job - but she had tubular breasts, google image search that and imagine telling your daughter that she’s just being vain for wanting normal shaped breasts.

No cosmetic surgery or voluntary non-medical procedures (gender reassignment!)

Not referring to gender reassignment, which I don’t know much about, but cosmetic surgery is extremely rare on the NHS and is only given in the most extreme cases.

Josie Cunningham, who has spent a large amount of her time bringing the NHS into disrepute by gloating about her free surgery was actually one of these extreme cases. She had a medical condition which meant that her body could not produce any breast tissue at all. She wasn’t just flat chested or had small boobs, she had 0% breast tissue. It’s a very distressing condition especially for teenage girls and can impact badly on their mental health and self esteem. Frequently in that sort of case the thinking would be that the operation would actually save on long term mental healthcare their condition might otherwise leave them needing.

But rather than being grateful Josie has dragged the NHS’s name through the mud and made it much more difficult for people coming up behind her to get treatment.

Some things like skin removal and breast reduction get unfairly lumped in with this as ‘cosmetic’ and people are turned down even though they might be in considerable pain and distress from the condition.

So saying ‘get rid of plastic surgery’ wouldn’t make significant savings and if it did you wouldn’t just be cutting services for people who fancied bigger boobs or a shorter nose, often it would be cut from people needing it to alleviate pain and distress.

The wait for an ENT referral is 20 weeks but patients have found that the surgery has not actually done the referral when they should have . Its not been done.

The NHS relies on a percentage of missed appointments and all this “missed appointments last month cost us £££” is bullshit and purposely used to cover up the inefficiencies all over the shop.

I have never ever been to a NHS medical appointment that started on time.

X post warthog, but yes same. It was definitely 0% though, not tubular.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Sack tbe hige number of admin staff, sack the management staff. Stop working with commissions and what have you.

The only thing you need for a system like this to work properly, is one state body to approve complete or partial repayment of drugs and procedures (which is made up of various stakeholder parties, like the ministry, but also physicians and patient organisations), subsidised health insurance (as you have now in NI) and no limitation to doctors establishing themselves. The only thing they'd need is a degree and maybe a compulsory membership of their professional association.

This way, patients would be free to choose who they go to, they wouldn't have to wait until they're either dead or cured and bad GPs wouldn't stand a chance because patients would be able to ditch them. Hospitals would not face so much underfunding either, because they would be paid for the procedures they do. And, last but not least, local GPs would be able to organise their own OOH service, so pressures on A&E would decrease.

You could do this either with a free at the point of service or pay-back scheme. Free does tend to make you think less about going though.

Another example, I tried to avoid going to the doctor and used an online pharmacy to try to obtain a prescription. The answer came back suggesting that I make appointment with my doctor which I did and I obtained some medicine. Surely, pharmacys could be used more widely, because I had to return to doctors to obtain multiple prescriptions. Obviously, it would depend on the illness as to what the pharmacy could provide support for

Not read the full thread but I think anonymous donations after surgery or child birth or whatever. So if you can give £100 you should and if you are skint, no one will know.

YY Warthog the internalized misogyny is coming out now. Women are still fighting for treatment for endometriosis or to even be belived yet money went into research so that Viagra can now be sold over the counter.

I would charge to use the NHS - I live in a country where it’s chargable, we don’t have a free healthcare system and because of this we pay a lower tax rate. Missed hospital/drs appointments. Pay rises for staff, might entice them if they didn’t have to work 29 hours a day. No cosmetic surgery on the nhs.

*I’d sack 90% of the admin and clerical staff and start again.

I’d change the sick leave/sick pay policy as it’s currently abused by loads of staff.

I’d get rid of a whole layer of middle management and loads of “project manager” jobs.*

This. 15 years in the NHS here and this is the big money waster.

Card payment points, people given opportunity to pay towards their treatment if they feel able.........anonymously managed by separate agency to avoid any care influence! Not sure about the ethics, but I bet people would be willing.

Standardise products and equipment across the board (not necessarily the cheapest though).

Charge for missed hospital appointments

Employ more frontline staff (prevention is better than cure)

Refundable charge for GP/Dentist appointments

Stop meetings about meetings about meetings. If you need to justify your role in this way then you are surplus to requirements.

Slim down management structures and systems. Put the money into patient care.

I visited Cuba a year ago. I believe as a country they train the highest number of doctors. I believe the training is free. The doctors work locally or abroad, although I believe that there is some controversy about wages for those who work abroad due to their home country politics. My point is that if Cuba can train lots of doctors, why can't NHS

I'd like to make people aware of just how much their treatment was costing the NHS - perhaps each time you received treatment you could also receive a statement showing how much you would have paid.
I'm forever hearing "I've paid into the system so I expect to get something back" - for most of us we take far more out than we ever pay in.