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?

I don't know what the alternative is. I wish I did. It makes me very sad indeed and hugely frustrated that an incompetent system can throw someone under the bus and ruin a promising career. And, before you say it, of course I have huge sympathy with the parents, particularly the mother who insisted on that fatal dose of enalapril.

Sally Clarke is desperately sad and the fact that Meadows walked away from that with nothing except his ego and reputation damaged is appalling. As is the system that relied on his evidence as an expert witness.

I believe the BG case to be just as much a miscarriage of justice.

I'd look at ways of streamlining the discharge procedure - so many people end up taking up a hospital bed for hours after they should have been out, because they're waiting for the pharmacy to dispense meds or for a doctor to sign off their discharge. Often this means an extra night, which means someone else has to wait for a bed.

blue The issue with the Dr BG case is that the consultant and hospital management should have also been in the dock. That's the miscarriage. She was totally in the wrong. I don't know if she should have been struck off but the managers who let the hospital be so short staffed should have been banned from a director role for at least 10 years. The consultant should probably have been struck off for lack of supervision.

In one breath you say she was totally in the wrong. In the next you say you don't know whether she should be struck off. If you believe the first, it logically follows that she should have lost her registration. I think you're wrong on both counts. Anyway, the case certainly illustrates the high level of responsibility held by quite junior members of the medical profession which is unmatched in any other profession.

And your telling someone their opinion is an irrelevance is the height of arrogance.

The reason the fatal dose of enalapril - the child was sitting up with a glass of juice 30 minutes before it was administered - wasn't part of the defence was, as a pp pointed out, to spare the parents.

You're very sparing and selective with your facts.

You have astonishing faith in the legal system. I don't share it. It isn't infallible and in this case i believe it got it spectacularly wrong.

Your posts have been selective with the evidence available, presumably in the hope that the other side of the debate is poorly informed. This appears to be a common legal tactic. The fact that leave to appeal was denied is particularly telling in this case. If the judges had such conviction that their decision was correct, why would they refuse the opportunity for it to be challenged?

We're never going to agree on this one. You think an individual let this child down. I think the hopelessly inadequate and incompetent system let him - and her - down.

The reason the fatal dose of enalapril - the child was sitting up with a glass of juice 30 minutes before it was administered - wasn't part of the defence was, as a pp pointed out, to spare the parents.

If it wasn't part of the defence then it must have been deemed irrelevant.

My ignorance of the legal system isn't astonishing at all, it's probably the same as most people's. I have no faith in it whatsoever. It fails people all the time. Nor, as you allege, do I have unfailing faith in doctors. I do think the stress under which many of them work is intolerable and it's nothing short of miraculous that scenarios such as this one don't happen more often.

My ignorance of the legal system isn't astonishing at all, it's probably the same as most people's. I have no faith in it whatsoever. It fails people all the time.

Just like the NHS then.

Missed appointments cost £160 - charge them.
Ibuprofen 17p boots costs Hospitals £8 - no px for it that goes for the likes of anusol etc
111 needs a massive overhaul, the amount of patients that get sent to a&e by 111 that really don’t need to be there, for example a patient 2 weeks ago with a paper cut!!
I’ve also had GP placements where patients moan that they can’t get an appointment for a min of 3 weeks (understandable) but in that same GP surgery I see the same patient 3-4 times in one week and seem to see them every week with MASSIVE non issues.
Also POCs need to be smoother, a patient can me MFD for days but cannot actually be discharged until their POC is in place, this is a huge issue and would help with the bed crisis massively also would half the failed discharges.

They’re what I would do first anyway I can think of plenty more though.

Is that still the case? I thought legal aid was virtually non existent now? Barristers don't exactly have a reputation for selflessness and the comparison isn't really a fair one, doctors work in a public sector monolith with structured pay scales; lawyers don't.

That is interesting. Do barristers doing legal aid work not subsidise it with high fees from private work, though?

Most barristers doing private work don't also do legal aid work. The specialist nature of law means that you don't get a spectrum of clients. Criminal work involves those accused of a crime, the vast majority of which are low income. Tort work tends to be individuals vs companies. I believe the legal aid changes were made to cut down on the issues in this sector. The implication has been that criminal law has been very negatively affected.

The pendulum has swung too far with legal aid. It was abused in the 90s and today it's been cut back too far for some areas of law, criminal law being the one area very negatively impacted.

That's unarguable and I agree with everything you've just said. That's profoundly depressing. It's a combination of factors I guess: everyone will have health issues at some time, whereas only a small minority will ever need a criminal barrister. The NHS is a public sector icon, while the legal profession is entirely in the private sector. At the end of the day defending criminals is never going to be a political imperative because it's not a vote winner. Very wrong but what can we do about it?

Actually Charge overseas health tourists , if they don't pay send the bill to the Country Embassy they originate from and pursue them relentlessly

Foxyliz .. they do.

In my trust anyway

when my (european) visitor broke a leg and needed an urgent operation, the hospital's overseas office clerk was waiting for us on the ward upon admission for the paperwork.