To think the NHS isn’t fit for purpose?

[BrendaBubbles]

There’s a story on Mail Online right now about a woman with breathing difficulties who was left on hold for hours with her GP who died during the call. There have been a lot of stories recently about people with cancer that wasn’t picked up due to resource limits and a DH of a friend of mine has been told there is a six month waiting list for an MRI.

I know the people in the NHS are true gold but despite record amounts of money the service is getting worse. It was also in the news earlier that the number of people seen at A&E within four hours was 95% in 2010 and has fallen to 67% now and I’m sure we’ve all felt this when we’ve attended ourselves.

It’s clearly not just about money but is the NHS even fit for purpose now when people are dying through simple negligence and lack of reasonable diagnosis and in person access to GPs?

Underfunded and overused! It wasn't designed for the sheer amount of people that use it.

The NHS is colossally badly managed.
I’m just a regular user (in a way) but the amount of pointless appointments that I’ve attended with consultants for my DD that could (and often now are) conducted more effectively by phone/Zoom etc not to mention the amount of unsuitable medical food that’s been trialled (with a month’s worth delivery coming to me at one time), that even unopened they can’t take back, just poured down the sink.
The plastic waste.
The fucking useless morons that run Complaints Departments and the amount of time spent and wasted on (I can attest to this part) covering up problems- it’d be quicker and easier to dispense with the top heavy management and create proper teams of medics/midwives etc. What’s the point in employing IT champions/HR staff who only exist to misinform the public and various other things I can comment on but who don’t hear fucking clue about the law…
Underfunded sure - for the sheer volume of people requesting services.
When you see the show Ambulance and you get idiots calling for an ambulance because a fog jumped on their bed.. I mean it’s almost a lesson this failing country needs to learn… if you misuse it, you lose it.

We have a perfect storm of an underfunded and mismanaged service trying to cope with people who have been disempowered as regards to looking after their own health so they abdicate all responsibility and expect the NHS to cure everything for them

Dog not fog 🤣

And as @IvorHughJarrs said more eloquently than I did ..

The NHS has looked after my family so well for so long.

I've noticed over the last 10 years a massive decline. Before Covid the Tories were running it into the ground, slowly. Covid has caused it to collapse - or been the blame for it collapsing. I'm in no doubt that it's our government that wants the NHS to collapse - hence it being fit for no purpose now.

The NHS was a beautiful thing. People took it for granted. They voted Tory. That's why it's fit for no purpose now and soon to be gone.

The mythical bloated management and administration just isn’t true. If you look at comparisons of how much is spent on such departments in other countries we’re on the low scale.

Likewise the UK spends less tax per capita than most developed countries.

Labour began to improve the funding situation. By the time Labour left power the NHS had turned a corner and waiting lists were at a sensible level. That’s not to say it was perfect, and some aspects remained inadequate following the previous 18 years of Tory underfunding.

This is so true. I'm unfortunate to have had to use the NHS quite a bit for most of my life - for a chronic condition. Waiting lists improved significantly under labour and declined again when the Tories got back in. It's got worse over the last 10 years - visibly.

I've clapped for the NHS and most people who work in it are wonderful. However I've seen a different side. Without going into detail I had an investigative procedure under GA and the surgeon made a mess of it and am still having pain nearly a Yr later. Difficult proving negligence but lots of thing were lied about and I've been in an awful state. Psychologically I'll never be the same. Dr's can close ranks and I can't NOT KNOW that Dr's can do this. OK, they're under enormous pressure - - - hence mistakes are made and then covered up. I'm now on a waiting list for counselling. I took overdose and been given an emergency number but told it could take 8 months!! for counselling appt. Yes the NHS is in a hell of a state.

AND SO AM I!!

Labour began to improve the funding situation. By the time Labour left power the NHS had turned a corner and waiting lists were at a sensible level.

In my area this is completely untrue. Labour closed many local hospitals and left us with just 1 central one. It caused huge issues and an increase in deaths as waiting times to get an ambulance and get to the central hospital was about an hour. That hospital does not cope at all due to the patients travelling. Since Labour went we have some of our old service back. Not all but some.

Also under Labour what the money was wasted on was disgusting. My mum was in charge of her ward and she refused to accept certain things that money was spent on - thousands spent on entertainment instead of resources and patient care.

Oh dear Helensweet - I'm sorry.

I think modern medicine can be shit. We put so much faith in it. I try to avoid it as much as possible.

But with your story - perhaps the surgeon was exhausted and overworked - all part of the overall problem. I'm not trying to excuse what has happened to you.

And now not being able to get a counselling appointment - we are experiencing the same here with one of my children and I know so so many other people are too - probably millions.

But it's not the NHS's fault. It's our governments. They have bled it dry over the last 10 years. They want it to collapse now.

NHS is clearly underfunded. That’s a main reason why it’s being mismanaged and has waste. Read the comparative studies looking at NHS versus rest of Europe. It’s glaringly obvious that the NHS is on a shoe string budget. But governments keep thinking that if they hire a private consultancy firm to push “efficiencies” they can avoid raising taxes or cutting costs to fund it properly. So many bad “cost saving” ideas have crippled the NHS like the PFI initiative they did a decade ago, it’s biting back now like anyone would half a brain could see it would.

@BrendaBubbles

There’s a story on Mail Online right now about a woman with breathing difficulties who was left on hold for hours with her GP who died during the call. There have been a lot of stories recently about people with cancer that wasn’t picked up due to resource limits and a DH of a friend of mine has been told there is a six month waiting list for an MRI.

I know the people in the NHS are true gold but despite record amounts of money the service is getting worse. It was also in the news earlier that the number of people seen at A&E within four hours was 95% in 2010 and has fallen to 67% now and I’m sure we’ve all felt this when we’ve attended ourselves.

It’s clearly not just about money but is the NHS even fit for purpose now when people are dying through simple negligence and lack of reasonable diagnosis and in person access to GPs?

Tory shill

There are loads of parts of the NHS which are horribly overstretched.

However, there are also parts which are doing an incredible job. I've been undergoing cancer treatment this year; my diagnosis was very fast and my treatment has been excellent.

The surgeon, who was very young, actually told me it was only the 6th procedure, fibroid removal, he'd done. I found out 5 months later, he'd not removed the whole fibroid but it was incomplete resection. This was only found out because I'd sent for my medical records. Yes both parties are responsible for the mess, I feel, and managers paid far too much, plus too many of them. I feel so very angry. Drs do need to own up to mistakes though. I understand they don't want to leave themselves open for patients to sue but most patients just want to be put right again.

Labour began to improve the funding situation. By the time Labour left power the NHS had turned a corner and waiting lists were at a sensible level. That’s not to say it was perfect, and some aspects remained inadequate following the previous 18 years of Tory underfunding.

Labour agreed to PFI which are now sucking the NHS dry.

Oh, look - a Guardian (non-Tory supporting paper) link!

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/12/nhs-hospital-trusts-to-pay-out-further-55bn-under-pfi-scheme

Tory shill

Silly comment. It’s the Tories who have mismanaged it. The NHS has more money in real terms than ever and results are going down. The people who work in the NHS are good so who is to blame? Tories.

I’m on my knees with exhaustion after two 12.5 hour shifts the past two days with two 12.5 hour night shifts in the week and one 12.5 hour day shift to go tomorrow. My colleagues on on their knees. I have never known a time like it in my years as a doctor - the pressure has been sustained for so long now and the winter is going to be hell on earth.

Why the hell do I keep doing this day in day out? I left medicine and came back because I love what I do and I love looking after my patients. But this is breaking me. And I’m not alone.

We can’t do more. This isn’t our fault, but somehow the blame gets thrown at us rather than the government as people keep voting for them.

Posts like this make me genuinely wonder why I am so often ruining my life for this.

How can the NHS ever work with an evergrowing supply of people doing paperwork (Aren't the govt planning on creating more management positions, I'm sure I saw an article about that recently?) & a decreasing supply of actual medical staff expected to not only try to heal sick people but also pander to people wanting plastic surgery for non medical reasons or treatments for things like IVF which are non essential when you have a healthcare system in crisis?

I'm not blaming the doctors, nurses, janitorial staff or people like hospital porters, kitchen staff etc... who do the real work.
I have nothing but respect for them.

It's the leeches in middle management who seem to be sucking what little life there is out of the seriously underfunded system.
They do things like pay out to companies for stupid schemes they don't need, or decide to redesign posters & leaflets, or have meetings about meetings about what to put in the footer of your email instead of doing anything to help the actual staff working on keeping people alive.

All this while the govt seriously underfunds the NHS.
There is no money or need for a new stupid poster. Pay a cleaner instead, or get the nurses a new kettle or anything that might actually do some good.

Yanbu. GPs need to get back to actually SEEING patients face to face. It’s a fucking joke.

@BrendaBubbles

Tory shill

Silly comment. It’s the Tories who have mismanaged it. The NHS has more money in real terms than ever and results are going down. The people who work in the NHS are good so who is to blame? Tories.

Yes but the U.K. population is also higher than it has ever been and the NHS funding in inflation adjusted real terms is lower on per person basis than it was twenty years ago. Of course results are going down, the NHS is underfunded for the population it serves and has been for a long time. And it’s not Tories did it or Labour did it, they have both been making very bad decisions regarding the NHS. The U.K. governments are to blame.

@FangsForTheMemory

The government has been defunding the NHS for a decade in order to get people like YOU to think it is not fit for purpose so that when they sell it off - which they are doing, bit by bit - there will be no outcry.

Every time I see a thread like this started, I assume the OP is a Tory shill. If you're not, don't play into their hands.

This is exactly what I was going to.try and say. Thank you for being better at explaining this than me!

YANBU

There’s a story on Mail Online right now

And that's where you lost all credibility. Honestly, if you are using the mail as a source of news you should be banned from voting for at least 5 years.