If you work in the NHS, how would you fix it?

[startingitallagain]

Or AIBU to think it can't be fixed and we're gradually slipping down the slope of eventually not having an NHS?

I do absolutely understand how many staff within the NHS are struggling to cope under the pressure, with many leaving due to their own mental/physical health issues that the job has caused.

This has been inspired by another thread where the poster can't get a GP appt for their father who has terminal cancer and can't keep food down (and hasn't been able to for a number of weeks). www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4708090-to-wonder-what-my-gp-surgery-is-actually-doing?page=1

With elderly parents myself and having to occasionally battle for them to get care, I find the prospect of getting older in this country quite terrifying, so much so I think I'd rather plan for euthanasia if I was facing end of life and no care!

Is it funding? Is it lack of staff? Would more money solve the issue? WWYD?
(As an aside I remember watching the documentary 'Can Gerry Robinson Fix the NHS?' a number of years back - made interesting viewing about the issues then!)

I guess all things are relative. Some people come from background where being in hospital is a luxury. We get prisoners fairly frequently and they will think of every reason to stay! Those who are elderly and lonely, quite like the hustle and bustle of a hospital and enjoy getting a hot meal when they have been nibbling snacks at home.

This☝️. If you live in a damp flat , with no heating, little food and no visitors.a 5 bed bay with NHS heating and plastic cups is 5 star. !

Agreed. The middle class patients tend to spend their stay complaining (some complaints include "the nurses do the drug round too early and I want to have a lie in" and "I was kept up all night (by the cardiac arrest in the next bed)").

Meanwhile the isolated, poor and vulnerable don't want to leave because it's the only time they feel warm, fed and cared for.

If you want tea in a mug bring your own mug. It's not the NHS B&B.

I don't remember a better NHS when labour were in power.

I remember it and I was working in it then. The first decade of this century was a halcyon period for the NHS. It was properly funded and relatively well managed. That was reflected in record short waiting times, quick GP appointments and 98% of A&E attendances turned round in less than four hours. Most NHS staff who remember it would sell their souls to see those days return.

I had 4 days in Hospital with a broken hip, i was treated really well, the tea was in normal cups, the food basic but tasty & staff (Cleaners, HCAs, Nurses, AHPs and Consultants) all spoke to me perfectly well.... but i suspect that might be because i don't look down on them as "woke lefties" nor am i rude.

Few years earlier.... mum was in hospital after a stroke.... again they did all they could and once moved to a community hospital for end of life care, they did all they could to make mum comfortable and keeping us informed, went way beyond their job role.

As far as i'm aware no one in our local NHS has contracted Diphtheria or been forced to sleep on a concrete floor so not sure what your comparison to Asylum seekers is all about.....

You ve obviously had a terrible christmas

Then why @Blossomtoes were the staff continually complaining about being overworked? The boy who cried wolf learnt an equally hard lesson.

GETTING RID OF THE TORIES WOULD BE AN AMAZING START! and yes I meant to shout it

6 months full pay and 6 months half pay. Why would anyone bother returning to work when they can have a year off ?

OH needs to be stringent and effective and sick pay sorted externally so that services can recruit to fill gaps.

This combined with proper benefits for those with genuine long term sickness.

@RosesAndHellebores I see your name frequently on threads about the NHS and you are so mean spirited to the point of it being personal with regards to the staff.
You seem to hate the NHS and those of us who work hard within the institution. Some of the comments on here are interesting, you just sound like a disgruntled telegraph reader with your accusations of lefty wokery (not helpful) and blunt refusal to acknowledge the conservatives have made a bloody mess of things. People are quite entitled to apportion blame on the tories precisely because they've been in power longer than any other party. And what's striking is that you will be able to work well into your 60s, still earning and no doubt able to pay for any kind of insurance scheme whereas some of us are physically knackered after 30 odd years caring for patients in a very stressful job.

I don’t remember that we were. Everyone I worked with was very grateful.

We have an aging sicker population. This needs to be addressed immediately.

Oh I see @Anotherusernameanotheday it's a privilege for me to have worked for 35 years plus and into my 60s but not for NHS staff? I imagine you think that only NHS staff work under stress. Who do you think pays the tax if it isn't the working public? I am sorry to disappoint but I have rarely seen NHS staff rushed off their feet. I have seen failure to diagnose, a birth so botched DS1 nearly died (when I was the only woman in labour) and my bladder repair was not available on the NHS in the super early noughties. Neither were the DC's grommets in 96 and 2000.

Regrettably I have witnessed more NHS staff being rude to members of the public rather than vice versa, I've nodded and smiled whilst told by nurses that people in the UK are so lucky to have a free NHS, quite unsolicited but always there's an opinion and the public are not supposed to respond. If one dares to say "actually it isn't free, one is told bossily that by the time one is 80 you'll have taken out more than you put in".

I genuinely don't believe the NHS's issues are due to the Conservatives. They would be evident whichever party were in power and possibly worse.

In my experience NHS staff treat everyone the same regardless of class, race, colour, belief, sexual orientation, etc. They treat everyone like scum. I'm sorry if that's not what you believe but it's my experience. In my view if the customer service were better we wouldn't need all the EDI Directors because most of the issues would be dealt with by exercising basic courtesy. If the NHS is rude to me I can't claim racism, or homophobia or disability but there are plenty who can and the risks need to be minimised by the data and "Initiatives". Sexism however is rife and too often it's female on female.

I remember it @Blossomtoes - Kingston and St George's in SW London. GP's were moaning too.

This is certainly a major issue, the levels of staff off on long term sick are incredibly high. There is little incentive to rush back to work if you are receiving full pay. SIL went back to work for a short period after maternity leave and is now off sick because financially 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay is better financially than working and paying for childcare.

Recollections obviously vary. Since you don’t remember the Rolls Royce NHS we had under the last Labour government I suspect your memory might be unreliable.

Hu,ge portions of the population, not just the elderly, have no access to computers or emails

Many still require a paper letter to show their employers in order to have time off

It is beyond frustrating, when people call to change appointments that they can't get to or haven't attended because the letter arrived too late.

Many people have mobile phones, but only use them to make phone calls - they are utterly confused by texts, don't trust them and certainly can't access the internet on them, as they only pay for minutes not data.

The data supports my recollection.

www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/summary-high-performing-nhs-progress-review-1997-2010-ruth-thorlby-jo-maybin-kings-fund-april-2010_0.pdf

@RosesAndHellebores you are part of the problem. You come across as an entitled blundering idiot. NHS staff are not in a customer service role. We are not supposed to just smile & tell the customer that they’re always right, because a lot of the time they aren’t. I have been verbally abused more times than I can count by entitled members of the public that think they can demand services that they don’t require. I am sorry you had a terrible birthing experience, I can relate but just because you haven’t personally experienced members of the public being rude to nhs staff doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

In many trusts, 6 months/6 months is only available to people who have worked at least 6 years, although differing hospital trusts do it differently.

Although I have worked for the NHS for 12 years, I only worked for one particular trust for less than 2 years.

When I went off sick with busted ligaments in my leg, I was entitled to their minimum of 2 months full pay and then 2 months half pay.

Generous sick allowances tend to be for hospital acquired infections and injuries - Hep B requires nearly a year off in some cases

I got bitten by a patient requiring treatment. If work didn't want to pay me while I was off well that's another nail in the coffin for the NHS.

Not saying you shouldn't get paid - just not out of your services budget. This would allow for meaningful recruitment and stop the rest of the team suffering stress from picking up the work.

BMJ article about time wasted due to incompatible IT systems in NHS.
t.co/1uXKFP603O

Well we could charge the patients who can’t be discharged due to lack of social care the same as if they are in a care home.
No doubt that would set the bleeding hearts amok on the Daily Mail headlines but it’s this lack of will to bluddy do anything which is actually killing people as they can’t get the hospital care they need.

NO ONE will actually make a decision or do anything - the buck doesn’t stop anywhere.

Haven’t read the full thread. So apologies if this or similar has been mentioned.

I work in admin for a mental health trust.

Staff shortages on the acute inpatient wards are the biggest issue for our trust. Staff and patient safety is hugely compromised with staff shortages. We have extremely mentally unwell patients. We police arriving most days with members of the public to put them on a Section 136. There isn’t the beds. There isn’t adequate care available.

We are recruiting international nurses in order to fill up vacancies. Some countries, especially in the Middle East and Africa don’t have the education and training for mental health conditions. So they are having to be trained by our staff to NMC and NHS standards.

This can be seen as a good and bad thing. Good - more staff. Bad - using money on external training providers, universities.

Budgets are stretched. We have a lot roles with fancy titles that don’t do much practical work for the Trust as a whole that improves services to patients.

E.g Equality officers, Cultural leads, Freedom to speak up guardians, Marketing officers, press officers. Some may disagree with me.

I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing the NHS. Sadly.

Every Trust works differently. But every Trust will be experiencing the same issues.

The government should pay for nursing degrees. Student nurses and junior doctors should get paid for their placements. Pay should reflect the work clinical staff do. Staff should not be charged for parking at work. Designated staff car parks or park and ride buses should be provided.

I know there’ll be many more and I will read the thread from the beginning and have another think.

@Blossomtoes recollections may indeed vary but neither you nor I are the Queen. The point is around the definition of Rolls Royce Service and whether all those in the NHS know what that looks like. I hadn't realised you had worked at St Geoge's or Kingston or practiced in SW London. If you did we clearly haven't had the same experiences, if you didn't it's impossible for our recollections to vary.