AIBU to get a bit fucked off at having to protect the NHS?

[Santaclauswhosthat]

This is a healthcare system I've paid into all my life. I don't think everyone who works in it is a hero and the vast majority of them aren't underpaid. It's ranked 16th in the world and has the worst cancer outcomes for any developed country. It's not very good. Nonetheless it's the only healthcare system open to me right now. But I can't access it. My operation had been cancelled and I can't get a consultant appointment. The GPs aren't seeing patients face to face. I've already had one tumour removed that was on the turn. I'm worried that I may have another. I have no way of finding out if this is the case. A family member has already died of covid 19 after being denied treatment for three days during which repeated calls to the ambulance service were made whereupon his mother was told she should only ring again if his lips turned blue. He is dead. Right now. The NHS didn't protect him. It isn't protecting me either. What is the point of the NHS, exactly? Most clinics are closed or running at half mast. GPs aren't seeing anyone. NHS staff get shopping hours and free food and fuck knows what else and we are all dying protecting them.

No Popcorn, I don't think that hv was chewing gum but I've come across CAMHS, A&E and outpatient nurses who have. Not what one expects from post graduate professionals dealing with theor stakeholders but perhaps you think that is both professional and acceptable. I don't.

It’s the fucking Tories. If they hadn’t underfunded the NHS for 12 years they’d be in a better position to treat people who aren’t blue.

Apols should have been @Popc0rn Do you think it's professional for post grad professional nursing staff to chew gum. I don't and the older I get the more I'm inclined to tell them if they must chew to keep their gob shut whilst chewing. It's rather interesting if a professional person expects to be regarded as a professional if they know no better than that. Personally I expect professionals to have basic manners - don't you?

NHS staff themselves don't think they're heroes. The ones I know just see themselves as people doing a job. All the heroes crap comes from the press.

No., it is not the Tories to blame at all and thank goodness we have a Tory Government in charge now too., However I would like to see a radical change to the NHS and paring it back with people being more accountable for their own causes of illness for example obesity, drinking, drugs etc.

Stakeholders 😂

Yeah xenia, you're too fat so we're not going to fix your broken leg. To save heros like you from paying taxes. Fuck off.

I don't know any NHS workers who think think the are heroes. The only ones I know using the very busy shopping hour are those on 8-8 shifts after which the shops are mostly shut, and the GP practice I work in IS seeing patients face to face although all need to be triaged by phone first to minimize risk to the other patients from 1) each other and 2) the staff of which many have been off with covid symptoms and were probably shedding pre symptoms - two have been severely ill and hospitalized. We also adapting to completely new ways and methods of working with next to no training with in high risk environments while short staffed. We have to make the same difficult decisions in a 5 minute phone conversation we would usually make in a 10 minute face to face one, hating every minute of it. I am having 40 + patient contacts / day plus everything else we usually do, plus everything covid based too. So yup..
That's me feeling important and twiddling my thumbs all day...

Yep @kingofkings stakeholders, patients, their carers, loved ones, customers, clients. You know the people for whom the National Health SERVICE exists.

But I agree the NHS on the whole is in a mess, and there are many many problems but scathing sweeping attacks on people who have very little say in the causation of these problems isn't fair or helpful.

So a nurse was kate a quarter of a fucking century ago get over it

I don't think that was the point being made but let's hope none have been later for the first appointment of the day since

@acquiescence exactly what I wanted to write. Most people's monthly NI wouldn't cover one night in hospital. No we're not heroes , but we've had years of underfunding and it makes me mad now they're throwing money at it. I'll be interested to see what we go back to afterwards, in the winter when noro virus and flu hit.
OP , I see you've had a shit time , and I am sorry

Still though, criticisms are levelled at either frontline workers or politicians. It’s unlike any other organisation in that questions are never asked of the managers. What are they there for if not to improve their service? Why are panels of them from across the NHS not being brought together and being made to work together to seek strategies to avoid waste and improve outcomes? And then why aren’t they being held to account?

The OP here is understandably furious and grieving, and the situation with Covid is just horrible. But her anger is being directed at people who go to work to try to cure people, who work many hours of unpaid overtime just to keep the whole thing ticking over, cover additional shifts because there are staff shortages and lately have gone into work without adequate PPE.

My husband is an ITU doctor, they’ve just lost a colleague, the entire department is in bits. They are frightened for their lives because the viral load they are exposed to usually means they have a pretty bad version of it. They’re worried about bringing it back to their families who in turn are scared about what might happen. They aren’t heroes, just normal people struggling through a situation that could break them. The mental health issues that will arise because of this pandemic are going to be big.

Be angry at the right people, not the people trying their hardest to mop this up. We had the likes of the Cheltenham Races literally days before lockdown, a berk PM sending out the message that shaking everyone’s hands in the Covid ward was fine, we locked down late, testing has been an absolute catastrophic failure, hospitals are running out of vital supplies to treat Covid patients.

I’m spitting mad, but the last people I’d be angry at are the NHS staff.

@thecatsabsentcojones I sympathise. Not happened to me as far as I know, but one of my friends is a CAMHS nurse and he lost one of his colleagues recently.

Yes well when I do my ward rounds in the morning I will inform them that they are now stakeholders and we are their er what again?

What a joke.

@PenfoldsFive a lot of people do blame mismanagement. Thankfully procurement is finally being centralised so there will be savings and hopefully a more streamlined process. Hopefully there will be some proc staff remaining at a more local level though for off the shelf purchases etc otherwise it will likely be hard to access and longer from request to delivery.

The only joke is that another human is arrogant enough to refer to themself as kingofkings. Enjoy your round caring for your fee paying customers tomorrow. I hope you've enjoyed your rest on MNet today. I have. Back to work tomorrow - must keep the show on the road for another 12 hour day.

@kingofkings you realise stakeholder doesn't have to mean someone with a monetary interest, right? It includes people with a vested interest in something, so of course service users (amongst other people) are stakeholders, and not actually anything to do with paying money in (although most do of course).

Ridiculous thing to say. It's easy to put people down and try to stir things up on an anonymous forum isn't it?
This is our work and vocation, we care. We work hard. We save lives quite literally.
It's not the same as business and management.
We treat patients who are human beings and the general public don't own the NHS and have any control over or entitlement to its workers by paying general govt taxes.

Be angry at the Government for failing the NHS.

It has to be managed and whilst you don't like it or appear to accept it, the NHS is funded by the people for the people and the people are sick of being expected to be grateful for sub-optimal standards. Some of us expect it to be managed well. Some of us have been around for three score years and have witnessed the gross deterioration of basic standards of service.

You just seem full of hatred and venom toward all of these ' postgraduate professionals' to be honest. I don't think that's really balanced or fair.

What evidence is there that going to Cheltenham races caused any spread of the virus? We went every day and I’m so glad I did. It was the last bit of normality in my life. I simply don’t accept this one event was a mistake when mass transit systems in all cities were still operating the following week.

Actually, the minute any organisation spends money, offers services and procures goods, it’s a business. All it doesn’t do is make money but it should work within its budget. To expect continual input of funds without question is not a sustainable position.

I have attached the Kings Fund graph on NHS funding since 2008/09. It’s increased from £110 billion to over £140 billion. By my pretty average maths that’s a 33% increase in spending over this period. That is waaaay beyond the increase in wages in that time. It’s perfectly reasonable to ask if this is value for money and the NHS hasn’t been starved of funds. It possibly hasn’t spent the funds wisely.