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?

I’m old enough (just) to remember 70’s healthcare too and it was far better then. My parents who were definitely old enough say so too

But in the 1970s the NHS wasn't paying for all of the things it does now. The population was smaller. Life expectancy was shorter. There was less obesity and long term conditions like diabetes. We didn't try to keep babies born at 22 weeks alive. The NHS wasn't paying for gym for the obese, sex change operations and IVS.

The NHS was meant to deliver healthcare free at the point of delivery but I doubt Beveridge founding the NHS post WW2 was envisioning the enormous oversized organisation it is now.

OP Don't lie awake worrying. Or spend that time actually doing something about it like research into the reality, writing to your local candidates, volunteering. Speaking on local radio writing to your local newspaper. Don't just whimper, do something.

The NHS is to UK politics what gun control is the the US - it's political dynamite

@BingoLittlesUncle - I agree, and I'd take that further. You can't have a sensible conversation in the UK about the NHS, and you can't have a sensible conversation in the US about gun control.

@Practicalmagico

Well said !

@whiteroseredrose I totally agree with you , the country was a very different place then ..
we all need to take some responsibility for protecting the nhs and not draining it dry . I barely go to the doctors favouring the chemist and paying for medication before I absolutely need help and I think a lot of people could do the same frankly .
I also only buy cheaper brands and check the numbers in the back to see if it's the same medication . It's not difficult to be frugal and take care of yourself really

I work in a two tier health system - private and public systems in parallel.

If people think a public health system is a money pit, inefficient, unsafe.....God help you when you find out how a private system
works.

Just a small (possibly nit picky point). Possibly sex change operations and gyms for the obese aren't the best use of resources. But 'trying to keep babies born at 22wks alive' - what exactly is so wrong with that? I was born at 25wks in 1995, and thanks to NHS intervention I survived and thrived. I had no complications at all and I'm now a healthy and normal 24year old. I don't think saving prem babies is a waste of resources

Im retraining to be part of the NHS and it has been in debt since it started giving free glasses and dentures...since the start.
However, i firmly beleive the tories wantbit gone....they seem to think that the disease is the fault of the individual so the individual must pay.
We must spend, spend, spend if we want public services...and where is the magic money tree? Tax the rich more.

Yabu - the nhs was bloody awful under labour!

Yes agree with bingoslittleuncle about the gun control analogy.

The only way the NHS will improve is if we (the public and the media) stop treating it like a sacred cow and shrieking hysterically every time something is suggested other than pouring more trillions of pounds in to it.

It's never going to happen to at the moment but if the Labour Party ever swings back to a more moderate Blairite form I think the parties should work on a cross party solution of true reform which all sign up to.

The fact is, at the moment, many of us are going to die unnecessarily or earlier than we should compared to if we lived in another part of the world because of failures in the NHS.

I am more afraid of the whole country under labour than i am the nhs under conservatives

But it was the Labour government who massively expanded PFI (under Brown), and saddled hospitals with massive debt.
I think PFI was originally introduced by Major but massively expanded by Brown, first as chancellor and then as PM.
The reason is something to do with hiding debt in some way

The NHS, far from a black hole, gets far fewer resources and lower funding than most of the systems in the developed world.

The rest of us are worried about the entire bloody country if the Communist twat Corbyn gets anywhere close to power. So, hey ho.

@milveycrohn it's not hiding debt at such, but like a very, very, very expensive lease- so the cost when you initiate it isn't much, but it eats into your spend every year as you are still paying for it.

@CherryPavlova but it's still a black hole that needs actual reform rather than just money chucking at it. A few examples (just my opinion) An overhaul of entry to nursing to not lower standards at all, but to make it accessible to those who are capable but can't due to financial restrictions, for example; like the diploma which was abolished, and the bursary. Procurement is thankfully being centralised which will bring about real savings, what was efficient about each hospital buying their own equipment? Absolutely nothing. A rethink of the estate. The maternity ward in the hospital here is absolutely overloaded, whereas the stand alone unit does fewer than 5 births a month, but is obviously staffed and maintained which is a waste. There is an MLU on the hospital grounds as well, but it's not always 'open' due to a lack of staff. Some old hospitals which are no longer used and are more or less derelict now still havent been sold as people here keep protesting it. It will never be another hospital (a new one was built a few miles away), why not sell the land and reinvest the money. Make it more affordable for healthcare staff to live in London, a nurse for example, even with London weighting will never be in anything more than a houseshare without parental support or a partner who earns well, but the capital needs them. Build nurses accomodation maybe, and for goodness sake build some car parks. What other job would you be expected to pay a huge amount in parking everyday? If you work in a town centre perhaps, but these aren't as pricey as hospitals, and they are usually on a bus route; this would free up more spaces for visitors and patients which is a huge issue here.

The rest of us are worried about the entire bloody country if the Communist twat Corbyn gets anywhere close to power. So, hey ho.

Another Tory ploy too generate false concern over labour?

Another Tory ploy too generate false concern over labour?

Another momentum "activist" online? What a shocker!

Another momentum "activist" online? What a shocker!

I'm beginning to suspect they're all over MN.

The only way the NHS will improve is if we (the public and the media) stop treating it like a sacred cow and shrieking hysterically every time something is suggested other than pouring more trillions of pounds in to it

I agree. It's regrettable that all parties seem to have yielded to the cow in this election season rather than being honest about it.

I didn't realise I was an activist, thank you for letting me know Given the influx of anti-labour comments and how the tories have been behaving, I suspect they're all over MN.

Yanbu get voting tactically people and if tories get in get your health insurance sorted

Pomley. I don’t disagree with much you say - except diploma nurses. Good evidence to show graduate nurses results in better outcomes. I agree re bursaries.
I absolutely agree re indescribably poor estates that have had no investment in a decade. I’m not sure I agree re MLUs because they do give better outcomes more cheaply for properly assessed lower risk deliveries.

My own experience is different to the poster upthread re the NHS. My 94 year old but very sprightly father had an operation a month ago and was kept in hospital for a few days after. The ward staff and doctors were absolutely wonderful. I honestly couldn't fault them they were efficient and professional and nothing was too much trouble. They seemed very happy with their work. I went to find one of the nurses for another (cancer) patient who was getting agitated waiting for his pain relief and the nurse came back straight away to sort him out. I've never known them be such a strong efficient team. Even the doctors were pleasant and communicative. We were at the hospital last year for a month with my mum and they were very good then too, but not this exceptional. I compare and contrast that with my late uncles stay in 2005 whilst Labour were running the country, when he was practically ignored, his treatment was shocking - food and drink placed out of reach and everything above that - he nearly died a couple of times and frankly the ward staff couldn't have given a shit. Eventually we cortoned in and started running a shift system so he wasn't left in his own.

To be fair, the NHS is so enormous and sclerotic that it's entirely possibly for different people to have dramatically different experiences at the same time. I think there's a kind of cultural contagion where you get a critical mass of medics that are either good or bad and it goes from there.

The fact of the matter is that there's not a lot of accountability in the NHS and inevitably it will wind up rewarding the wrong kinds of behaviour.

What is not being discussed is the elephant in the room: social care. The NHS is picking up the pieces in a big way from the chronic underfunding of that service, not helped by the grant cuts to the councils. The Tories have not even bothered to address it in their manifesto: really disappointing as it's a damn sight cheaper to keep older people alive and active with the right care and accomodation than it would be to leave them in hospital.

Regarding the NHS, it need a lot of things, including better management, more money, some reform and much better staff training & provision. I don't think any party has got it right, but Labour's manifesto does not appear to be well-costed what the Tories are playing their usual smoke and mirrors trick by turning a 1,000 extra nurses into 18,000 thanks to double accounting. It's also amusing they have admitted they will bring in overseas staff, despite the Windrush scandal and their pledge to end the freedom of movement.