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?

The NHS is terrible and as for the government trying to sell it off, they’ve just increased NI by 1.5 percent to dole out more billions to be mismanaged with no strings attached. Hardly the actions of privatisation. The NHS needs to be reformed along the lines of European health services, that’s the only thing that will improve it. No one else in Europe would put up with this shambles.

@Cocomarine

Enough with the “true gold” shite. Plenty of staff in the NHS are lazy jobsworths. A minority it’s true - and no more so than other workplaces - but can we just have a serious discussion about the NHS without romanticising all the staff?

Yes exactly

I am hiding these threads as they are usually started and or get piled on by Tory shills who want to whip up sentiment that the NHS is failing and there is no alternative but to sell it off. I suggest you do the same.

@BrendaBubbles

I don’t want a different system. By any data it was far better fifteen years ago so let’s start by merely getting back to that. What would that take? Maybe some more funding but I think mostly intelligent management and focus.

I agree with you on this. But don’t you see that lack of funding and constant political meddling are the root causes?

Lansley’s “reforms” were a predictable and predicted disaster which Simon Stevens spent his entire leadership (of NHSE) stealthily unpicking. Admin and non-clinical support functions have been stripped out as “bureaucracy”, and we wonder why the systems in place are inefficient and ineffective.

Again, propagating the Daily Hate’s viewpoint on this is playing into the hands of the government, softening us up for a US style system. And before anyone says “but European systems…”, these are not on offer and will not be on offer.

There are a few familiar names on this thread that like an nhs moan.

More than likely was a health care assistant or admin handing out notes or checking hands were gelled.

@Katyppp

Because they had name badges and job titles on them. Next question?

If it’s true, and they were actually employing registered nurses not HCAs to do all of this, then I am equally as shocked as you are.

@PomRuns oh OK. I must have misread the name badges. Silly me.

@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 ^

@Katyppp why not write to the chief exec with your experience ?

Some very familiar names on this thread who always seem to have had yet another negative nhs experience.
Often also found on the nhs pay threads too ..

There are multiple issues that keep being ignored. The population has expanded, build, build, build and we don't expand our public services to meet the needs of the population. I work in a hospital and we have had days with nearly 500 patient a day. We have a shortage of staff because no one acknowledges the effect the pressure and the last few years is having on staff. No one has a clue, aggression is up as is violence. Staff get it from above and the patients and I've never known it to be this bad. Each year is worse than the previous. No physical space for all the people needing help and not enough staff to cope with the numbers. The next issue is we don't want to accept that lifestyle has meant an increase in poor health. Obesity, smoking are having an impact on long term health. Then there is the fact that people want an instant fix, medicine often takes time but we want to be cured now and we don't know what is a genuine emergency. This poor lady seemingly had difficulty breathing but waited on the GP. Did no one with her realise that it was bad? That would be a hospital visit, no way a phone call. Yet people rush to A&E for a bout of D&V that's happened twice in a day. The NHS website is actually quite good at advising when to seek help. What we need is more room, more staff and perhaps a re-education to help people understand what the services are for.

Totally unfit for purpose. It's an embarrassment. I'm shocked everyone thinks it's underfunded. It has billions pumped into it but it haemorrhages money needlessly. Drugs chucked away, lazy staff, huge pensions, inefficient administration is just a start. It needs totally reforming but it'll take on a brave person to do it.

@Katyppp the problem I unless you know why they are there its a bit unfair to say its a waste. We have 3 staff at our door directing patients. One directs the huge queue to either covid.or non covid areas so that patients are in the safest area. The other takes vitals and bloods. Another calls the people who need to see patients which in itself is difficult. The other issue is that all of our staff are in scrubs and aren't actually all nurses. Many often are mistaken as nurses and aren't and I say that as someone not a nurse. I really wish that people could.work a shift in a hospital because it's awful. DH is a nurse and he has panic attacks now going in because it's never enough.

@Cocomarine

Enough with the “true gold” shite. Plenty of staff in the NHS are lazy jobsworths. A minority it’s true - and no more so than other workplaces - but can we just have a serious discussion about the NHS without romanticising all the staff?

This.

When I worked for the NHS, some of the band 6 and over employees were the laziest fuckers I've ever worked with. So many nurses who would rather stand gossiping at the desk than tend to patients. They left that to the auxiliaries and students. So many sonographers sitting in their room messaging in the

Sorry. Messaging on their phones or dithering about for about half an hour between patients, leaving the locums to manage the lists. Similar with consultants

@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.

Agree with this

@SoloISland

If you think NHS is bad come out here to Ireland and try HSE!

I now only have token so-called medical are because they are trying to stop me taking them to court. A GP here did something truly unprofessional and dangerous to me that they are refusing to deal with the formal complaint I made as the dr concerned would get struck off, and they are desperately short of GP. HSE are in court almost monthly re negligence cases and have to pay out huge sums on compensation. Oh and my nearest hospital has been declared unsafe by the unions/ For some true horror stories look up Mayo News Mayo University Hospital Castlebar.

@SoloISland Yes, our health system here in Ireland is very far from perfect. I'm puzzled though as you seem to dislike Ireland and Irish people so much, that you have chosen to live here.

Funding has increased and is at record levels. The population has increased by several million, the proportion of elderly has increased and we lack the frontline staff to care for all of us.

@NantesElephant

I am hiding these threads as they are usually started and or get piled on by Tory shills who want to whip up sentiment that the NHS is failing and there is no alternative but to sell it off. I suggest you do the same.

Definitely

Katyppp they shouldn’t be using trained nurses to stand at the door asking people to gel hands. That is a waste of resources. I also think sending an old man to A and E for a blood transfusion was a bad idea, he should have been admitted straight to a ward. However I can totally see how staff may not have time to make or take phone calls. You really have to work on a busy understaffed hospital to get this.

I think perhaps the more pertinent question is what is (and what should be) the purpose of the NHS in the first place. I think that people expect it to cover everything (and the expectations placed on it widens every day) and it really wasn't set up to cover such a vast array of services. Nor does it have the funding to do so. I think there is an argument for a slimmed down NHS which can then allow it to concentrate its funding and resources into more essential services.

This. Excellent post.

It’s totally unrealistic to expect all the services at the price we’re paying for them.

So is there appetite to pay more? And if not, what should we prioritise?

Stopped reading after “Mail Online”.

YANBU.

It’s a fucking shit show.

I couldn’t get a 2 week cancer referral as the appointments didn’t exist anywhere in the region so I had to go private.

My autistic brother was left for 9 hours on a hospital waiting bench with no food or water because he had to transfer to another hospital (epilepsy and a head injury) but they wouldn’t let me take him the ten minute journey in the car!

I can’t get a GP appointment for my DD so tomorrow I’m going to have to go private for that too.

It’s a disgrace.

I think hiding treads you don't like, accusing posters of 'Tory shrill' (whatever that is) and defending bad bahavoir helps no-one at all.
Neither does excusing wastefulness and deifying all NHS staff.
As this thread shows, there are plenty of people not happy with the NHS yet they are shouted down every time.
@stairway, thanks for your sensible feedback. However I have to ask: if a patient is alone and unable to drive and his family can't find out when to collect him, what do you suggest?
Surely it is in everybody's interests to get him home ASAP? How can that happen if no-one knows?
Why can't one if the four staff on the door also call relatives to collect their family member? I can't imagine why this is not done and I can't think if another job - really - where staff are empowered to say they are too busy to do such a basic thing. And yet people on here would defend it. It is nonsense

So we can all mostly agree it’s in a terrible state but there’s no real solution. Throw more money at an inefficient system that lacks money, sell off pieces and it becomes even less usable, and its next to impossible to reform…

So basically we just put up with it, I assume, and this country slides further into the morass as everyone is so divided we can’t agree on any way forward? Fun!

I’ve had bad experiences in the NHS. However I know just how much the impact of continues cuts has and how draining it is. So of course you get problems. Furthermore the nhs touches almost everyone at home point in their life, be it birth/illness/death. That’s a lot of people!