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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think the NHS isn’t fit for purpose?

207 replies

SpicyJalfrezi · 05/09/2021 18:52

It is in no way a criticism of individuals who work for the NHS. It’s the system. It isn’t working at all. I don’t really understand why we aren’t facing this as a nation.

OP posts:
marmaladehound · 07/09/2021 19:34

@alreadytaken

The system worked fine when it was properly funded and had less government interference. Then the Tories decided to introduce daft "reforms" and deliberately run the NHS into the ground.

We dont need a new system, we need a change of government.

The problem with a new government other than the current options been pretty weak right now! Is that all governments, labours Blair included, only see the NHS through to a medium term at most. We either need to totally de politicise the running of the NHS so that long term planning can happen or have it managed cross party.

It really needs a radical overhaul. The system does not work for the needs of society in this day and age. Society has changed so much over the last 50 or so years, needs are just not the same. The NHS has not evolved well with these changes and management in the NHS constantly knee jerk reacts to every problem. There is very little long term planning within the NHS either. Working in it just feels like crisis management to crisis management and has done for years. It's just going to get a lot worse now.

Badbadbunny · 07/09/2021 19:50

@alreadytaken

The system worked fine when it was properly funded and had less government interference. Then the Tories decided to introduce daft "reforms" and deliberately run the NHS into the ground.

We dont need a new system, we need a change of government.

No, it really didn't. And it wasn't the Tories who started the daft reforms. Blair/Brown did a lot of damage in the noughties as they embraced and developed the artificial "internal market" in the NHS and the crazy GP contract changes. Despite Labour trebling the NHS spending, it was still a basketcase organisation.

I had a lot of dealings with it in the late 00's with my mother and father in law, different hospitals. The lack of organisation was ridiculous. FIL had been waiting months for a cancer operation, was prepped on the morning, and waited. By mid afternoon, the nurses did some ringing around to be told the cancer surgeon was on a course that week, planned for weeks in advance, but no one had thought to cancel the operation, despite the "admins" knowing he wasn't going to be there! Same with my mother, her "care" was a complete fiasco, she had an appointment at Manchester Christies for radiotherapy, turned up on time, only to be told it had been cancelled the week before - the cancellation letter came through her letterbox a couple of days later, postmarked the date of her cancelled treatment. Those are just a couple of incidents - there were many, many more, and that was cancer treatment which should take priority, but staff just didn't seem to care, just blaming "the system" etc.

So, no, it's been a basketcase for longer than the last decade of Tories. It was a basketcase during Labour's years of throwing money at it.

BungleandGeorge · 07/09/2021 20:05

At what point was NHS spending trebled?

OnlyTheLangOfTheTitberg · 07/09/2021 21:13

I don’t think anyone is unaware or doubts there are better systems than the US one that involve a comparatively small co-pay, like the Dutch or Belgian systems.

The problem is that the current crop of Tories don’t seem interested in the latter. They’ve made it quite clear a US-style sell off would be their preference, probably because it offers the most potential profit.

That’s why many posters jump to the worst case scenario, because that’s the one most likely to be on offer if privatisation of the NHS continues under the current administration. Not because it’s the only other option in the world.

Payproblems · 07/09/2021 21:34

Because we are not allowed to critise it like a strange stalin cult.

Payproblems · 07/09/2021 21:37

Bad bad bunny, it will always be a basket case until its lifted out of politics and stops being a football to bounce around.
Our hospital was dire under labour.

We need a crack team to asses the best things about all the health services and do it. Then chuck money at it.

Blossomtoes · 07/09/2021 22:00

And it wasn't the Tories who started the daft reforms. Blair/Brown did a lot of damage in the noughties as they embraced and developed the artificial "internal market" in the NHS and the crazy GP contract changes. Despite Labour trebling the NHS spending, it was still a basketcase organisation

Thatcher introduced the internal market, the Langley reforms in 2012 compounded them. The NHS improved massively under Blair, then Cameron impoverished it and threw all the progress away. Anecdote doesn’t trump statistics.

www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/field/field_publication_file/health-ten-years-labour-government-achievements-challenges-may2007.pdf

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