AIBU to be scared stuff about what will happen to the NHS if the Tories get in?

[BatleyTownswomensGuild]

Just that really, things are bad enough as they are.... My Mum died in an under-resourced NHS hospital. I have a friend battling cancer at the moment, FIL is waiting for surgery, SALT support for DS (who is ASD) is almost non-existent already.

I can't believe after 10 years of austerity the Tories are going to get another chance. I'm at the point that I'm lying awake at night worrying about this? AIBU?

scared stiff not 'scared stuff'. (Bloody autocorrect.)

Yes. But in fairness, you may not be old enough to remember the NHS in the 70s or earlier.

There never has been the mythical time people invoke for nostalgia or party political reasons.

Yes you're being ridiculous

You realise one of the worse performing NHS groups is the LABOUR run ones in Wales 🤷‍♀️

Oh, and despite it being bandied about as a soundbite, the UK hasn't actually undergone "austerity".

I'm far from a Tory, but I am an economist, so it infuriates me every time I hear "austerity" misused in this way.

Really - we will never solve the NHS, as it's a black hole for money, for a wide variety of both interconnected and completely unrelated reasons. Don't waste your emotional energy worrying about this.

YANBU for being worried about the NHS but I don’t think it’s all fair to blame the tories. There’s lots of reasons why the NHS isn’t as efficient as it should be and not all of them are down to the government. For example, the fact we have a big elderly population, people are living longer so co-morbidity is increasing and therefore people need more appointments etc. The fact that the NHS hands stuff like paracetamol out on prescription. visitors from outside the EU dodging the bills they accumulate while here.
Definitely YANBU for being worried but I don’t think it’s right to blame the tories for all of it. I’m an NHS physiotherapist and I will be voting Tory just as I have in the last couple of elections. From the chat in the staff room, it seems most of my colleagues will be doing the same.

I've needed the NHS more than ever this year.
It really is falling apart.
The Tories have run it into the ground and now only privatisation can save it.
You can't convince me it wasn't deliberate, I believe it will be privatised this next gov.
This next five years we will feel the effects of the capitalism but it will be too late.

I'm terrified too Batley

No. I'm lying awake too. I have friends in the US who have very little money. One has cancer; one has a number of other health problems. Their access to healthcare is severely limited - no preventative options, prohibitively expensive drugs, basic treatment only.
The impact on them is serious and worrying. I think we'd be foolish to imagine that the same wouldn't happen here if the Tories are elected.

Also you need to consider why austerity was put in place and the growth that our economy has undergone under a conservative government in the last 9 years.

As happened in 2010, Labour will take us back to spend, spend, spend and when this country is under a mountain of debt, the tories will be voted back in and will have absolutely no choice other than to make cuts to spending again in order to undo all the damage done by labour. Then once those cuts have been made, labour will cry ‘austerity!!!!’ Without actually looking at who is to blame. You can’t spend an obscene amount of money and then cry when cuts have to be made to stop the country being crippled by debt

TBH I don’t think anyone can fix the NHS. I’d prefer labour to Torres, but this Labour Party economic policies seem crazy in terms of the sheer amount of money for all the projects.

YANBU. I no longer have a specialist consultant for my (pretty major) chronic condition because they only have one specialist who is dealing with the illest people.
I cannot access MH support for my dd. We have access to private health insurance for this but even privately it is overwhelmed because there's so little NHS provision.

You realise one of the worse performing NHS groups is the LABOUR run ones in Wales

Funding for NHS was comes from Westminster. The devolved government allocates funding. A very difficult job when the Tories have slashed the budget year on year!

Wales not was

YABU. The NHS will never be fully privatised. Parliamentary democracy will not allow it. Cross party committees, and other interested parties, help set out the 10 year plan, and if you have a read, nowhere does it allow for private takeover of the NHS. The private services that are contracted out at the moment, at least the ones I have experienced, have been fantastic, I didn't pay for them, the NHS did, so still free at the point of delivery.

Certain parts of the NHS have always been privatised, some more successfuly than others, that's true, but it makes sense to contract services to the best, most efficient provider. Many of these so called "private" providers will be GP's, Charities and Practioner services anyway. They set up a local service, and contract with other local NHS partners.

I am very aware this is different across the country, but locally we seem to have a really good service. My 92 year old mum gets amazing service. The number of referrals and tests she has is, actually, quite ridiculous. She got a cataract done in 2 weeks! I also got an arthroscopy in 4 weeks. GP services are under pressure locally, as is the A&E. Did you know that year on year, there has been a 40% increase in A&E admissions, entirely down to the elderly admissions? Something obviously need to change to cope with that, but it will not be towards critical care, but I believe will be more towards community based care.

@ThatssomebadhatHarry
The NHS is on its knees because it's paying for things it was never designed to do.
Can we all honestly say we HAVENT been one of the "worried well" that has used a GP or hospital for a minor ailment that common sense and a pharmacist could have resolved.

We've only got ourselves to blame - if we want it to fund IVF, abortions, sex changes, boob jobs, gastric bypass for the obese - the list goes on - then we should PAY MORE but then people complain about paying more national insurance contributions....something has to give

Blaming the Tories is just scapegoating during an election - the NHS wasn't great under Labour either - they bought in several
Policies which cost the NHS billions

Isn’t it well known that the NHS is a money pit? I don’t think any government with ‘solve’ it’s problems. I knew someone who worked on a never used, now defunct IT system that took years to implement and cost millions - huge waste of money.

Although the Conservatives signed up to the first PFI's, Labour absolutely ran with it and they are absolute money pits. The NHS needs a shake up, the people who work within it deserve better, as do the people who use it. But money is not spent efficiently, so many processes are pointless, and misuse by some people is just not sustainable. As technology progresses, which is great for medicine, so do the costs associated with it; but throwing more money into a black hole doesn't solve it. I don't think anyone would dare though, as it's seen as anti-NHS to suggest that things could and should be done better, when in fact it's the opposite.

People have quite short political memories but the NHS has been just as bad under Labour. Labour even said this week they'd be prepared to close schools and hospitals in solidarity with striking railway workers. Venezuela has experienced the suffering of that kind of politics and while no party is perfect, a Labour government at this time could be pretty dangerous.

I agree with you OP. I'm terrified of my children and grandchildren growing up with a system where insurance companies decide whether you are eligible for treatment and where you cannot access treatment or medication if you are poor. I think anyone who believes that the Conservatives are not planning to privatise the NHS is living in a dreamland. They have already sold off various parts of it to private companies while underfunding it so they can say other parts aren't financially viable and must be privatised.
Everyone talks about how Labour's plans aren't financially viable but what about the millions the Conservatives are wasting on Brexit and bailing out private companies, and letting millionaires get away with tax avoidance? If that money went into the NHS imagine what a difference it could make.

I work in the NHS and it's getting worse . Politically I don't know if anyone can save it in its current form. It needs to change, people's expectations of what it can do need to change. NHS hospitals aren't 5 star hotels and but some expect everything and more. It needs evaluating on what and how it treats, I don't know how or what is the answer or who can do it. But I know it won't be the Torys. They will continue to sell contracts off to private services as they have been.
Politically the uk is a mess and I have no faith in anyone anymore. The world is massively changing and so much is wrong but I don't trust any of those in charge to actually help us move forwards. Just petty arguments and squabbling when we need to work together.

Waiting lists are only going to get longer if doctors are only working 4 days a week.

Why does it have to be either the NHS, or the U.S. system? It's not a binary choice. What about the systems run in Belgium or France? I can vouch for the efficiency of the Belgian system.

same tired old tropes of blue are fiscally sensible, red are not. For heaven's sake, do some research before trotting out this nonsense.
The NHS is underfunded and badly managed. It's been used by all parties as a political football and has suffered badly for being so. It needs to be set up as an independent of government institution with the same principles but better and accountable management.
PS. I'm about as red as it gets!

Personally it's the social care I worry about, but in general we've had good experiences of the NHS.

Fairly sure labour started NHS privatisation with PFI - used private money to pay for new hospitals and now if I want to change a light bulb/turn heating on or off/get grass cut it is all outsourced for a ridiculous amount. The NHS is already privatised, it’s free to those who use it but lots of private companies running it

Sick of Labour going on about the NHS. The Tories aren’t going to privatise it. Why would they. It’s scaremongering and it’s getting old. Labour really need to change their record.
You should be scared at Labour. Look at the welsh NHS. Absolute shambles and Labour run it.