AIBU to ask if you believe that a labour government will go some way to fixing the NHS?

[TabithaTwitchel]

I'm not a labour voter but I could potentially be persuaded for obvious reasons right now

I'd like to believe a new government could do 'something' to stem the rot in the NHS. But I'm not convinced.

Do you think it will help?

@Rachel757677
Lazy GPs ffs! What a telling comment!
How's Tory HQ this morning ?

The evidence in Wales is not good, but here in Scotland it's a shitshow with Scooter boy Yusaf and the SNP unable to run a menodge. We see what the Tories are doing and in northern ireland it's even worse as until recently noone was on charge.

No one wants to make the decision of what needs to be cut or privately paid for by the public.

Privatising is definitely not the answer. That will set us on the road to a system like the U.S. Healthcare outcomes are absolutely awful in America. Once you start privatising it starts to escalate and the system becomes only about profit and cutting services.

We would end up with just as bad a system, similarly bad outcomes, less services, but with more money going to private companies.

Agree. Lack of state regulation/involvement is a key underlying principle of right wing /Tory politics. Of course they want to do away with the NHS - or at least leave a skeleton public health service for “the poor” with people paying for their own health care.

Add to that, the NHS is no longer fit for purpose. Bevin didn’t foresee (nor could anyone have) the development of expensive interventions to diagnose/treat illness and disease. Patented drugs which people want but cost a fortune. Acute stroke units which save lives but leave people disabled and needing care for the rest of their lives.

Robotic surgery, gamma knife radiation, biological agents, IVF, reconstructive and preventative surgery, genetic testing…..the list goes on.

We all want “the best” for ourselves and our loved ones but it comes at a cost. Advances in care mean people are living longer with chronic disease - your 80 year old granny who would have died from her stroke 30 years ago will now have a good chance of surviving and making it into a nursing home - being looked after by young Nigerian guys who don’t really give a damn and who cannot communicate with her. And she’ll sell her home to pay for the privilege.

She’ll be on probably about 5 drugs and if she gets dementia, these will be dispensed 3/4 times a day then thrown out because she’ll refuse to swallow them. May also be prescribed expensive high protein drinks because she won’t eat, which again will be poured away because she won’t drink them either. Ditto meals.

And don’t get me started on the high fluoride toothpaste at £14 a tube which will be wasted as granny won’t allow her teeth to be brushed.

As an HCP with more than 30 years experience across the NHS/private/education sector, sadly I believe that some form of private health on a mass scale is necessary to maintain some semblance of an NHS which can meet the fundamental needs of all. But not the steamroller way the Tories are doing it - an open and transparent managed introduction of paid for aspects of care.

I also genuinely believe that assisted dying needs to be accepted - not because the elderly/those with incurable conditions etc cost too much - but because the NHS has “saved” people who probably would have been better dying earlier. I don’t know of one single person who wouldn’t want control over their death yet we remain resistant to it.

It’s all a bit grim really.

The Labour government supports the nhs workforce plan, which brings in 10, 000 associate physicians. This is moving us to an American model where many of the so called medical experts we see are not at all, but have two years training instead of five. I think it's a shit system, but there you have it. From what I see, no party now will support the NHS as we have known it.

Expect a lot more posts on here complaining about "the doctor ", when it actually isn't.

Lazy indeed. Can never get my mum a face to face. Look at their car parking spaces and they are hardly there. It is the poor receptionists I feel sorry for. One of them at my mums surgery is leaving because she has had enough of the GPs laziness. Maybe your experience is different. Let us judge by our own experiences. Don’t give me any of that Tory nonsense either.

@Zonder - sorry my reply was overly simplistic on the rush out. We don't have enough money, we're still massively underfunded (I'm talking about my service) which I fight every day for. But it's incredibly hard to sound valid when we can't fill the vacancies we have (and ours in a well respected service) It's not an attractive job anymore (even in the services that are funded better) and it's incredibly emotionally demanding.

Right. So what do you think will happen then? Because it is extremely unlikely to be the Tories again and we do have a two party system in reality.

All this "they're all as bad as each other" stuff is over simplistic. Both sides may be bad in ways but they're not bad in the same ways so we have to pick our battles.

This with bells on.

That's not GP laziness. It's chronic underfunding. You're not going to get surgeries having more GP hours than they've funding for. That's the Tory nonsense in practice.

This narrative of money "given to mates", other than Michelle Mone, the rhetoric is bollocks frankly. Labour used the same private support for products and services as the Tories and will continue to do so. You cannot run a massive service like the NHS and not use the private sector. From pens to MRI's, to IT systems the NHS procurement system is massive. You know who makes most of the decisions for spend? NHS trusts, not "the government".

Its really not rocket science. There has been lots of fancy job roles in the NHS that have been created and not needed! Paying out in ££ in wages. NHS use agency of their own on top of other companies too. Why don't they address why they can't keep permanent staff? People can barely afford to live and those that can aren't doing that fantastically where they could afford to pay for private treatment.

The simple fact is, I’m happy to admit I’ve got no idea what will happen over the next few years. The only thing I’m certain of is that whoever is in charge is going to do a crap job of it.

I really don’t. I haven’t heard enough from them on how they’ll fix it.

it will be non popular policies I expect that will resolve problems so they won’t want to campaign on it. But I don’t trust them to do it. And I’m a Labour supporter - I’m just really disillusioned with politics right now.

ANY political party that seriously and honestly says how they will fix social care in this country would get my vote. It’s disgraceful how it keeps getting pushed under the carpet because no one wants to sort it.

This is how I feel.

this is a big problem for Labour right now.

Until labour can protect women's and girls rights to safety from men it doesn't even matter what their other policies are.
If a party can't answer what a woman is then they aren't going to be able to pass laws to keep our daughters safe.

No I dont. They will mostly like it fill it with MORE diversity managers bullshit.

Labour are TERRIBLE at managing money. Yes they spend a lot but leave the pot empty so que another 'austerity" decade when the tories get back in.

Honestly I could fucking cry at how bad our major parties are.

For the love of God, can’t we have a single thread about anything remotely political without someone piping up with this? Go and start a thread about it if you want to talk about it. This one doesn’t need yet another bunfight to derail it.

Its a valid point though. There is no point in thinking that Labour will save the NHS (it cant) when they are simultaniously dismantling womens rights.

I am not a tory by the way. Both parties are dragging us to hell - Labour will just get us there quicker

You've made some points that are excellent. I stopped reading your post mid way. I think you and others really need to watch the NHS programme that has been on TV recently you do realise that it was the FOREIGN people why we have a NHS today.... and the "young Nigerian". That is a very racist remark to make. Don't you want to address why "Foreign" people are left doing certain jobs? Or are you not willing to acknowledge the fact that a good percent of certain people are lazy?

Not really because until that is fixed there's no point in looking at any of the other discussions.
It's all just theoretical of "if this party was a viable option for women then could they help the NHS" which is then a pointless discussion until the situation blocking them being an option is fixed.

It was so much better under the last Labour government. So yes, I think would improve.

It's a valid point though. Reality is that many women won't vote for labour. They might vote for a party other than conservative if there is a suitable candidate (which will still have the same impact of allowing labour in because it splits the vote) but they wont vote directly for labour

You have to go with the least bad. And frankly I'm not sure there's ever been a government as bad as this one in living memory. Labour won't be perfect but they won't be Johnson and Sunak. Oh and I nearly forgot Truss.

I know one woman who won't vote labour because of this. And I've asked a lot of women friends. It's not like the Tories have looked after women.