The state of the NHS right now is terrifying

[Faciadipasta]

I am feeling genuinely scared for us as a country health care wise. I was reading today about a chap who died of internal bleeding while his family were kept on hold to 999 for 10 minutes as nobody even answered the phone.
Then there are all the people who die while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, because they are all lined up.outside the hospitals unable to offload their patients.
People can't see a GP at all, so there are bound to be loads who are dying of things that could have been prevented if they'd been seen. Waits at A and E are enormous and they don't even have enough chairs so people with serious injuries or illnesses are having to just sit on the floors in the corridors.
We're actually starting to feel like one of those warzone countries that you see on the news and it is scaring me shitless.
I mean even in the US you wouldn't just be left to die because there was nobody to answer the phone although admittedly you'd probably end up bankrupt for paying back the care, but at least you wouldn't be dead!
I personally feel like we have no care, no safety net. And it's scary.
Will it get better? What can be done?

So really you are saying NI should go up . However personally I would want the structure and waste looked at in a lot of detail before I would be happy with that . I could tell you some horrific stories regarding waste in one particular trust.

This might be an unpopular opinion but a free NHS is probably not sustainable unless funding is increased dramatically.

Most European countries have an NHS but you pay set fees for services like a GP appointment, A&E visit or day surgery. A GP appointment might cost you something like £30, if you can't pay on the day the bill will be sent in the post and you have 30 days to pay. When my sister had her babies she received a bill of about 300 euros each time, but she was given something like 3 months to pay it. People know they have to pay and no one complains about it. There's a charge limit after which all care is free.

Also, pharmaciest are grossly under used imo. A pharmacist can help with majority of minor ailments without needing an appointment or waiting. I always try to consult a pharmacist before trying to get a GP appointment.

On a personal note, we signed up for private health insurance this year and I'm so glad we've got it. As a mum I feel reassured knowing I can easily speak to someone 24/7 without waiting and get GP appointments for the same day. That said, our NHS GP practice has been absolutely amazing for our children so really can't fault them.

@CaronPoivre

You're EOC aren't you?

The narrative of your posts implies that road staff are deliberately putting people at risk.

You are wrong.

Completely agree with this. The UK is full of people who take absolutely no responsibility for their own health. I know one morbidly obese person and one smoker and drinker who have already and will continue to cost the NHS a fortune in operations and procedures and who have shown no signs of wanting to change their lifestyle. The country is full of them.

People always say, we need a European system

But they also always say, I'm not willing to pay more tax!

You do realise that a European system will cost you more?

This is the crux of it. Its got a lot of money going in to it, but the actual model for the NHS needs to change.

You’re not wrong. I should have gone to drs for post natal depression and problems with bleeding because I was finding it challenging enough to get appointments for my baby and she was the priority (I’m all okay now).

My parents elderly neighbours were recently taken to hospital - one for a head injury and both because they got covid and were struggling to breathe. Waited hours for an ambulance and when they arrived they got annoyed that a neighbour had stayed with them to look after them (both literally couldn’t move because of breathlessness). The last I’d heard that after 2 days in hospital they still didn’t have beds. It’s terrifying.

This. Sibling used to be a doctor and he said the amount of money that just gets wasted is shocking. Part of why they quit in the end

EOC? No. Not in an ambulance trust at all. I’m not wrong. Crews are choosing not to use a slightly more distant but quieter emergency department. I’m not sure they are fully thinking through the implications of that though.

It’s a real issue with organisational culture when there is such overt conflict between two essential parts of the service though.

And yet far less than other models quoted. The NHS objectively one of the most efficient services in the world. It is being failed rather than failing. There is huge amounts going in but not as much as in other countries.

Thing is, we know what would happen with a "French" system. We can't afford to separately means test. So, everyone not receiving UC or another benefit would have to either pay health insurance or 30% of the cost. In France, the average cost is 40 euro per person per month. I know a lot of families who don't have that.

Dentistry is part funded and I've got 2 missing teeth as a result of the 2008 crash where I didn't have £200 or whatever it was to pay for crowns.

The NHS has NEVER balanced its books, not since the very beginning. The original national insurance contributions simply weren’t enough, and we now have this behemoth that is trying to be all things to all people.
They say the sign of madness is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome, but that’s what we’re doing with NHS. Reform really is needed. If more money is to go into it then it will have some from increased taxes or some form of copayment.

I’m sure. I’m not knowledgable enough on the subject, just know the reasons why my sibling left. I don’t know what the answers are all I know is the current situation isn’t working and it’s very sad 😞

Instead of whining “political ideology” - which for the record goes BOTH ways, there needs to be serious thought/dialogue about where we go from here.

I have complex medical needs requiring equipment costing millions and medications I dread to think.

The NHS at conception was not designed for that. I imagine I’d have been told to take an aspirin and lie down.

But for every thread wanging on about the NHS there’s another wanging on about cost of living/bills.

you’re going to have to pick your poison.

Not entirely true and it varies by state.

But yes the nhs is fucked.

Big problems are (imho) social care massively underfunded; unreliable and short term funding for the NHS (can’t plan ahead for any length of time); lack of workforce planning since whenever. To solve one of them needs a time machine. We’re f*(%$d.

It is underfunded.

I know that I’ve cost more in NHS services than I’ve paid in. Two emergency C sections, HRT, two broken bones, GP appointments, flu and Covid vaccinations. Etc etc. Price that up in the USA and I would have been homeless years ago. Just look at how much travel insurance is for a two week holiday. We need to pay more taxes and pay for some of the advice services. Look at the huge number of people having hip, knee, heart surgery. That’s £1’000s of pounds. Should there be an age limit? We need a serious discussion about how much we are willing to pay in tax and what services we want at that price.

Well said!
Such tripe posted like it's fact.

Anyone who voted Tory is to blame for this.
NHS staff have been warning you for years about what was happening and you either ignored us / clapped 🙄or slagged us all off.
Any nurse with common sense is going to work in the private sector or getting a job away from the wards.
Im one of them.
You didn't LISTEN
Well it's come to roost!

I haven’t rung the doctors for years as could never get through (had to call at 8 and wait for up to an hr, the time I was meant to be commuting to work). But recently we moved from London to a less populated area and the difference has been stark. Last week I rang the doctors to make an appointment for something regarding my child. I got straight through to reception (no hold) and the receptionist said the doctor would call me that very afternoon! And they did. I did say it was non urgent. In London we’d have had a two week minimum wait for the doc to call back.

the other weekend my other child was ill, rang 111 who made an out of hrs appointment to see a GP 20 mins away. They then said to go to A&E where there was a paediatrics department. Triage there was 20 mins and then the child was seen (and it certainly wasn’t life or death, was a minor thing that did need treatment but not urgent).

so for me where we have moved to (less populated area) the NHS has worked well when we’ve needed it. Total difference to our overcrowded bit of London. That’s my limited experience anyway.

The NHS seems to be subsets of organisations within organisation after organisation. Deliberately complex and presumably some efficiencies would be found if you pulled it apart to look closely

I don’t doubt that is the reason they gave. I doubt the accuracy of their reasoning. Lots of nurses, junior doctors and even consultants have very little understanding of NHS funding. Why would they?

In France you pay according to your income. It is a very efficient, safe system. You can get a GP appt within 24 hours, scans, Xrays, blood tests all available very quickly, women's health services including post natal physio all good.
I think paying for decent health care is worthwhile, as long as there is a safety net for those who can't afford it.

Well I’ll be dead if it becomes payable. I can’t get travel insurance for my condition and my mortgage broker was unable to extend my life insurance to cover the entirety of the cost of our house. My life insurance only covers about 2/3 of the house cost, that’s how bad my condition it. I take 7 prescriptions every two months. At NHS rates, that’s around £70 but I know for a fact that just one of my tablets costs the NHS £600 for a months supply which I couldn’t afford. If it all goes private then I’ll really be stuck, as will plenty of people like me.

Which is what Sunak was gunning for all along.

Family member is a surgeon. They frequently find that they attend for a shift expecting to perform maybe three procedures, which they have thoroughly prepped for. Anaesthetist and theatre staff all in place. Then they are told that the surgery cant go ahead as the patient(s) haven't had all the necessary tests. Sometimes they may do only one, or even no, surgery at all.
My own DB was scheduled, after much waiting, for brain surgery on a Monday. On theFriday afternoon he had a call from the hospital asking him why he hadn’t had a pre-op. Asking him! They said it was urgent. He had not been given an appt and ended up being sent to a hospital more than an hour away where it could be done.