The state of the NHS laid bare in one video... Pinderfields General Hospital, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

[PeppaPigOinkOinkOink]

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Video posted outside Pinderfields General Hospital a couple of hours ago. No capacity in resus areas, no trollies to offload patients from ambulances. Which in turn means people in the community waiting hours and hours for emergency 999 calls.

People say health care professionals went into the job knowing what they was getting into.. not one nurse I know (or Dr or paramedic or HCA) went into their job knowing this would be their reality. This is why people are leaving, why people are striking. Its not just about pay, its about working conditions. Pay does play a part admittedly, the pay doesn't marry up with the level of responsibility, the level of stress, the level of upset caused by knowing you're going home after knowing not one patient has had your absolute best all day.. because its impossible to achieve.

This is the reality of the NHS 💔

@TrimTheTree

And your point is?

We have people dying in corridors in the most inhumane and undignified way possible but that’s ok because we can get free inhalers? Right.

Oh here we go. Cuba is the embodiment for aspiration now. Funny that, because no one fleds the US to illegally enter Cuba to avail the amazing healthcare. Whereas half of Florida is full of Cubans, and voting Republican to boot.

By the way, while you’re at it, please also tell us the virtues of Venezuelan system too. Maybe you could educate us on on North Korea’s triumphant standard of living and healthcare.

Honestly, when this is the low standards of knowledge and debate among the British population, there is no hope.

This. Everyone who voted Tory in the last ten years has blood on their hands. Or is extremely stupid.

Even if you genuinely believe that selling the NHS off piecemeal to Tory cronies would somehow make the healthcare system more efficient and raise standards, there's still no excuse for underfunding the current system to this extent

Right now I would take the Monster Raving Loony Party over the shower of fucking criminals currently running the Country.

Why do you think it doesn't need more money? Other countries spend far more per capita and have much better systems. Why should the UK somehow get a good service while spending so much less? How's about start by increasing spending to an equivalent level to other northern European countries and maintain for ten years. If we're still lagging behind then change the system.

By that logic we should be copying these successful countries you speak of. Why aren't we? Oh yes because their health services (although generally better than the NHS) are hugely more expensive both in tax and in individual contributions, and that's not a vote winner in the UK.

The bottom line is that there is no magic cheap but excellent system. All good systems need proper funding, which we don't have in the NHS. The details of exactly how the system is run probably don't make that.much difference. The amount of money is the thing that matters.

Some of these accounts from people working on the front line are eye opening, it sounds absolutely harrowing. I’m so sorry you’re all having to deal with this when I’m 100% sure that you all only went into doing what you do to help people. What you’re dealing with every day is literally life and death and I can’t imagine how stressful that must be in the current conditions, no wonder so many people are leaving. I don’t know what the solution is but I just hope it gets sorted soon ❤️

I wonder if the private healthcare systems have problems in being able to discharge medically fit (but physically/mentally frail) people from their wards. It would make such a difference in hospitals if there was a reasonable and doable care package in place within 24 hours of decision to discharge a patient. It leads to prolonged lengths of stay - a hospital bed isn't a good place to be when you are basically well and there is someone in desperate need for that bed.
As for a PP asking what planet I am on - I am never quite certain after a long NHS shift and a bus journey home

@fiftiesmum

It was me. I’ve spent many a year working for the NHS so I am now back on planet Earth. Thankfully. 🌎

Love all rich the people in this thread like 'yay we should move to a subsidised private model' as a solution for capacity issues like people are too thick to know that translates to 'the poor can't afford the partial fees for that system so they'll die leaving more capacity for us'.

Nurses work three 12 hour shifts per week, so have four days off, not one.

Nosyupnorth - no it's about those that can pay through their insurance do so, those that can't are subsidised by tax payers.

The details of exactly how the system is run probably don’t make a difference?

Still trying to figure out if that was a typo?

Do the Europeans and Australians? kill their poor this way? Ok, then.

Experienced this hospital multiple times over the last year due to a high risk pregnancy and NiCU stay for my son,... the care and conditions are terrible! It's a new hospital- they have fancy things like being offered snacks 3 times a day as an inpatient and being offered your bedsheets changing twice a day but often miss out basic health/welfare checks and medical care.

Poor old Clav c&p's some irrelevant nonsense and every body ignores the post. That's how it ends Clav that's how it ends.....

That quite simply doesn’t happen in Australia. If anything the poor people get far better care because the Rich ones don’t go for the partially funded Medicare option. If you’ve got private health care you use it and therefore make room for those that gone contribute anything at all. I will agree that the American model appears to be shit though.

Saying that the Australian economy is a High wage one, so there’s just less poor people anyway.

In 2010 70% of us were satisfied with NHS care. There was a 48 hour target for GP appointments and waiting lists were at a historical low.

This.

I saw my GP with longstanding shoulder pain in Autumn 2010. Had an x-ray, and was referred to a consultant in November.

At the consultant appt 2 months later, he sent me for a scan which was done there and then, he looked at it, and decided I needed surgery. Had the op in early April, so all sorted in barely 6 months.

It was a completely different story 8 years later, when my knee pain became intolerable. The pathway for orthopaedics here now involves referral to a physio service, who royally piss you about refer patients on if they need surgery. It was a 6 month wait for a physio appt, then 4 months to see a senior physio as only they can refer on to a surgeon. Then Covid happened and held things up by about a year. I saw the surgeon in December 2020, and waited another 10 months for the operation. It took 3.5 years.

And I think I was lucky it wasn't longer. The surgeon was doing 2 NHS operations on the day he did private surgery, so mine was done at a private hospital.

Can’t say I noticed any improvement under Blair.

They threw money into reducing waiting lists, and allowed the NHS to use private hospitals for additional capacity.

I had an ENT operation in 2000, and the surgeon joked that Blair was keeping them very busy.

What the NHS needs is to wipe the slate clean with staff, systems and resources. There are, contrary to popular belief, many many people in jobs who shouldn't be there, are doing the bare minimum and covering their arses in the process.

We can't complain about lazy clinical staff because they're akin to demi-gods at the moment but there are more of these sat in high paying posts than people will admit to. Why? Because it's so hard to recruit so they take anyone who will take the post, no matter how good (or bad) they are at the job.

People really do need to start looking after themselves. Having the attitude of "oh it's just a bit of blood pressure I'll take a tablet" should no longer be tolerated. Maybe we need to start thinking radically and encouraging community exercise sessions like walking groups, go knock on for a neighbour at 1030 and drag them out for a daily walk. Or tai chi on the green at 2.

We also need to start recognising we can't save everyone. It's gut wrenching to lose loved ones at any age but we are prolonging life with really poor outcomes for what reason? Because we don't want to grieve? How selfish is that? It's not fair on our loved one and it's not fair on society either. We need to have difficult conversations about whether it's appropriate to do something just because we can or whether we actually should.

We significantly reduced our waiting lists in the cancer diagnostic unit I worked in, Labour put a lot of money into early diagnosis, and we launched the national bowel cancer screening program. We had suspected cancers seen within 1-2 weeks and routine appointments within 6 weeks. It was really motivating and gave a lot of job satisfaction.

Yeah needless to say the waiting lists are shockingly long now, and cancer targets are being routinely missed.

"Give over. The NHS has had its day. Sooner it’s privatised the better.|". Do you want to explain how it's been trashed in 12 years? Because it was performing well by international standards in 2010 - so clearly 'the system' hasn't 'had its day', or at least hadn't until the Conservatives got hold of it.

Also - do you want to explain how this 'privatisation' will happen? You're thinking that the private sector will lease out hospitals from the state, get rid of national pay scales, trash all the terms and conditions of NHS staff.

So we'll have the same buildings. The same staff - including the same shortage of staff. And somehow this will somehow make revolutionise the provision of healthcare in the UK?

Because the biggest problem we have is a shortage of clinical staff.

How do you suggest privatisation will address this, without increasing costs?

@izimbra

I don’t need to explain thanks. I never voted Tory. Have they destroyed it? Of course they have so there’s no point harping back to 2010.

I don’t claim to know the absolute logistical nightmare of privatisation, does anyone?? The whole thing is a colossal, complex beast and no one on Mumsnet has those answers. But the way it is currently is not fit for purpose. Something RADICAL needs to happen. Even charging for a GP appointment would be a good start to hopefully weed out some of the GP hobbyists who spend their lives there for incredibly minor ailments. A more European system would clearly be better than an American one.

Hopefully a new party could potentially change recruitment. Was a fucking disaster the moment they removed the nursing bursary. My mother and sister are both nurses and were able to train under labour. I believe a similar bursary system is possible but obviously not under these numpties.

The time has come for an apolitical national debate about the future of healthcare in this country. A cross-party group should run the delivery of an evolved/reimagined NHS so it's not a political football, nor an untouchable totem.

The current situation terrifies me. Surely we should be cared for better than this?