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?

PFI was started by John Major (Conservatives), but also massivley expanded by Gordon Brown (Labour).
It is cheaper to raise money by issuing Government Bonds, but PFI somehow disguises the amount of debt.
Some of our Victorian Hospitals were (and are) in need of being rebuilt, but somehow often the new hospital will have fewer beds! This can partly be explained by new treatments, such as keyhole surgery, which has a shorter recovery time, but also in many other areas, patients are only in for day surgery.
But I also notice that Pregnant women are now expected to arrive at hospital more or less shortly before giving birth, and discharged a few hours after the birth (provided all went well).
However, the shorter time in hospital is counteracted by a larger population, and people living longer (with more health concerns).
There are many areas where I think the NHS shows some inefficiency, but emergency care is usually very good.
Dismantling the NHS would be political suicide, and I do not think the Conservatives would do so.

Dismantling the NHS would be political suicide, and I do not think the Conservatives would do so

They’re doing it right now. The Guardian link above is based on Dept of Health figures.

I remember plenty of people dying in hospital when Labour was in charge. YABVU

I remember plenty of people dying in hospital when Labour was in charge

Breaking news - hospitals are full of very sick patients, plenty of people will always die in them, whatever colour of government we have.

Plenty of people dying in hospitals?
I know the labour party have an ambitious agenda but I dont think 'stopping death' was part of it.

Imagine very sick, frail elderly people dying.
For accuracy of content rather than anecdote the in hospital mortality rate has worsened since 2011. David Cameron took over number 10 in 2010.

The overall age-standardised mortality rate in England has generally been declining (improving) in recent decades for both males and females. However, the rate of improvement was much smaller between 2011 and 2017 than in earlier periods, particularly the first decade of the 2000s which had the greatest rate of improvement in the period examined (1970s onwards).
The provisional age-standardised mortality rate for January to March 2018 was the highest since the first quarter of 2009. The rate for April to June 2018 was higher than the same quarter in 2017.

I think people assume it will be one deal and the NHS is a single entity.
Much of what we currently consider to be ‘The NHS’ is already privately owned or provided. GPs are usually private businesses. Much elective surgery is carried our in the independent sector. Many healthcare services are owned by companies like MSI, Priory, Virgin or Care UK. This includes community hospitals, GPs, prison healthcare, sexual health services, termination services, podiatry, dermatology services, mental health services etc.

The issue will be rationing barely disguised as safety. BMI is already used as an excuse to ration surgery with people told a BMI of over 30 makes surgery unsafe.This is rubbish, of course. Anaesthetics are very, very safe in U.K. Fewer than 1:17, 000 people die from anaesthetic related problems. Obesity isn’t a strong feature of those that do.
It’s simply rationing to ensure costs are lowered.
What will happen is increased rationing forcing more people into independent sector. Then we’ll be told independent sector is more popular and the way forward. Those who don’t meet the admission criteria will be denied treatment.
The independent sector usually only has a junior doctor around overnight and at weekends - often an agency junior doctor on a short term contract from overseas. There are rarely critical care facilities and those who become unwell are transferred to NHS. The NHS trusts already suffer from elective surgery being outsourced and reducing their funding.It will worsen.

And that, people, should scare you. I’ve criticised @CherryPavlova more than once for over optimistic views on health and social care, her insistence that the ideal is reality. If she’s warning you, listen to her. Those two posts are the most significant on this thread.

Thank you Cherry.

For accuracy of content rather than anecdote the in hospital mortality rate has worsened since 2011. David Cameron took over number 10 in 2010.

Your cut off date is too arbitrary - the in hospital mortality rate improved between 2009/10 and 2013/14 - page 2:

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/8/2/e017195.full.pdf

Do you have an up to date chart?

*Your cut off date is too arbitrary - the in hospital mortality rate improved between 2009/10 and 2013/14 - page 2:

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/8/2/e017195.full.pdf

Do you have an up to date chart?*

So in one out of nine years of Tory government (09/10 ended in April 2010, a month before the Tories took power) the hospital mortality rate improved. Your evidence supports the opposite view to yours @Clarinova.

Alsohuman
Did you look at the chart on page 2 of my link?

I’ll dig out a current chart later - laptop shut now.

Bloomburger
And whilst you're all slagging the Torres for running it into the ground, have a look at the PFI initiatives put in place by labour. What fucking idiot looked at those figures and thought they'd be a good idea?

War criminal Blair was the fucking idiot in 2006 who invited private companies into the NHS. www.theguardian.com/society/2006/feb/16/health.politics (I chose The Guardian because I know that lefties on here won't believe anything written in any other newspaper).

Cleaning was one of the first services to be contracted out in the National Health Service (NHS) in the 1980s. Cleaning is manual and low‐skilled work that is not considered a core part of health care provision. However, during the 1990s, there was an increased incidence of hospital‐acquired infections, such as methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). This had an impact on the quality of patient care and the costs of treatment in the acute sector, with an estimated 300,000 cases in the NHS each year costing over £1 billion. An international study has since established links between cleaning quality and hospital‐acquired infections. The contracting out of cleaning services in the NHS therefore provides an interesting context in which to test the theory of quality shading.

www.ohe.org/news/cheap-and-dirty-effect-contracting-out-cleaning-efficiency-and-effectiveness

Private companies entered the NHS under Thatcher if we’re going to be strictly accurate - to appalling effect. The results of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing were false economy in both health and financial terms.