Just privatise the NHS

[user1237865]

Totally prepared to be told IABU but I've just got to the point where I think the NHS is so far gone it should be privatised.

Totally outing so I've Name changed. In NI we have 2 private hospitals but they don't do emergency's, they don't do ante natal care. Really they only provide you with an appointment with a consultant who will then decide in treatment which in most cases will happen on the NHS. If it's something like cataracts they'll do it but the private hospitals here don't do anything major. Perhaps the rest of the UK is the same. I'm not sure.

Today DSis was sent to A&E by the GP. DM and her have now been waiting 7 hours to be seen. While waiting another man collapsed and died in front of them. I think this is beyond ridiculous how can they let this happen?! If people were seen in a decent time frame this would be less likely.

FIL has terminal cancer again nowhere to treat him when he gets recurring sepsis so most times he sits on a chair (around ever 2 months) for 36 hours getting an IV in A&E before he's finally gets moved to a ward.

I paid for private ante natal care each time I was pregnant. It did give me appointments every 3 weeks and scans with a consultant but when it came to giving birth it was a time when the consultant was working a shift for the NHS thus using their resources and beds. Yes the care was probably therefore cheaper than had I been paying for my stay in hospital too but it isn't an option here.

The whole things a complete joke. Those willing to pay/ have insurance are still stuck blocking the NHS which in my opinion should be there for those that can't afford their own treatment or can't get insurance through their job.

Surely if a lot of it was private, pay would be better, meaning more people choosing it as a career (and not leaving) meaning people actually get proper care! Though so much of what I think could be wrong as I don't understand it all fully.

GPs don't make it difficult for patients to have a F2F appoint but just like Dentists, there simply isn't enough of them, so after a recent house building program nr me, the detailed requirement was for a team of 18 GPs, mix of FT and PT... they have 4.. thats all they can get, not 18 as required, to provide what you want but 4.. in sunny Cornwall.

As for the clap trap on GPs privatisation/free at the point of use/zero hours contracts...

Down to Government regulation and employment rights, not as Tories always try to do and blame Labour, this time Benn, desperate - just because someone starts pruning a tree, doesn't mean they have to keep going and cut it down.

10 years of NHS underfunding, which many on here voted for, has consequence.

Totally prepared to be told IABU but I've just got to the point where I think the NHS is so far gone it should be privatised

This has been the aim all along, I believe.

@Alexandra2001 Pre Covid I could see my GP within a few days, now I have to have an e consult and then might get an appointment within a further week, hopeless.

I've just booked a GP appointment and the first one available is in a month's time. Not GP bashing, I know they're working long hours but there's just too many people for the number of doctors.

Yes it’s this. We don’t have enough GPs pure and simple. Lots more are going to retire soon as well. It’s a National crisis.

I can’t get even a telephone appointment for 6 weeks.

Write to your MP about underfunded health service
about training more medical students
subsidising student loans
enhance GP pay, terms and conditions so it becomes a desirable job again

do the same for all the other missing healthcare professionals

Clearly part of the answer is to train more healthcare professionals, increase the number of training places (as long as there's sufficient supervision capacity -- which is also a problem) and to subsidise student loans. But this would need a corollary in that any HCP receiving funded training should be handcuffed to the NHS for the equivalent of a military short service commission for eight to 10 FTE years post-qualification.

And while many GPs in their 50s are retiring early, and accepting lower incomes until hitting 67, it doesn't relieve the stresses of the job. My BF was a FT GP but retired early as the stress affected their health.

Eighty hour weeks, including running the practice, take a heavy toll on mental and physical health.

Exactly.
The reason why, despite the many difficulties daily in working for the NHS, I will continue to have faith in what I do , and fight for it.

That’s not always helpful. They did it with physios in the early 2000s. Cohort below us were 60, we were 90, following us was 120.

No one thought to double the number of entry level posts and loads couldn’t get jobs and left the profession. There was still a shortage overall, as as the staff shortage had never been in entry level posts in the first place!

Well isn't that the whole point? Purposely underfund it and run it in to the ground so that the public will be happy when it gets sold off to line pockets?

Personally me and my family have had fantastic treatment from the NHS but I guess we've just been lucky.

I doubt it tbh. The lockdowns which devastated the economy were to ‘protect the NHS’. If they wanted it to collapse they would’ve let it collapse when covid was peaking.

This.

We should never privatise it.

Actually, @Sunnyqueen is dead on. Conservative government published a paper years ago detailing this as precise plan as the road to privatisation.

Yes @Leafy3 and @Sunnyqueen - this would seem to be current (unstated) policy, particularly given various business relationships and friendships between Tory cabinet members and CEOs of US healthcare companies.

Many of you are too young to remember the same strategy was used to privatise British Rail. And now we have a “private” railways system with shareholders whom we taxpayers subsidise ….

Confused about how making a profit would benefit patient care

Since 2010 govt has underfunded it. Yes, some increase recently but not enough to make up for the 9 years of lowest annual increases since its inception. Fund it better. Private profit model of healthcare would be grim and that is all that is on offer with this govt. I think the largest cause of bankruptcy in the US is medical bills.

So the energy and rail companies have both been privatised, how's that going for everyone?

50 in my cohort, the following was 45.

In my dept, there are nearly as many vacancies as there are physio's. You should see how insane the prioritisation has become due to the sheer volume of staff we are lacking.

AHP's are the forgotten healthcare workers. We are exhausted too!

If the NHS was private my dh would've died last week.

Why?

Because there is no way I'd have been able to afford for his treatment etc

Private hospitals make a profit and, for the ones I've used, patient care has been excellent. I'm guessing smaller companies aren't saddled with some of the bureaucracy of the NHS. They also have to compete for patients to some extent which no doubt improves standards.

Either way, many posters have described how the part public-private healthcare models in France and Germany offer a far better level of patient care.

Why look at the United States when we can look at Europe?

There's a mix of private and state funded healthcare in Europe we could learn from. They don't sanctify their health service and so are able to use both types very well.

The United States is NOT the only example of private healthcare.

The tories won’t support models like France or Germany though. They are aiming for a wretched US style model, that per $ spent has some of the worst health outcomes but makes private companies loads of money.