How would you fix the NHS?

[PinkFruitbat]

The Government is asking for ideas on how to fix the NHS.

https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/

What would you do to fix it?

Co payment such as France and Spain. Elderly only hospitals (sorry - cannot think of another word).

Stop the cottage industries within NHS Trusts.

No it was my refusal to leave until I'd logged a complaint that brought on the threat of the police. I was told there was no manager on site (which says it all) so I suggested they find one as the treatment of my son was unacceptable and refused to leave until I could speak to someone in authority. Again, you weren't there. How dare you infer that my behaviour was in any way unacceptable? That attitude is so typical of the NHS, 'no, it cant possibly be our fault, we're all perfect in the NHS dontcha know?'

The 'service' was for a 13 year old boy who'd broken his foot playing football at school and sat in a hospital in tears for nearly 8 hours with no pain relief. I wish I'd actually been abusive because the treatment there was quite frankly unacceptable. Now, I can see you're also a bully by the constant harassment of me which I would like you to please stop. And you have the audacity to refer to me as threatening?

I’d tax sugary products so high that it would become almost unaffordable to buy things like sugary cereals, chocolate bars, all junk foods in general.
The same with alcohol and fast food.
Agree with self referral to most specialties. Gp’s have enough to do to be spending time ticking boxes (for example checking that someone really needs a referral to breast clinic- if a lump is there 99% of patients will end up referred anyway).
I’d personally be happy to pay for GP appointments, just like we pay to see the dentist. Keep it free for people on benefits and young children.
Fine families who refuse to pick up their family members from hospitals and cause discharge delays.

Abolish it

Strip it and set up a more European based system, ring fence the money via taxes.

So far this year:

6 months for a referral to a urologist - repeated infections which have cause stretched bladder wall and ultimately now a prostate cancer diagnosis, 6 fucking months

5 hour wait in a&e to be told to go home and come back on Monday for a life threatening condition

A GP service which you cannot make an appointment with

I could go on and on repeated failure which led to the death of a loved one…then the big cover up

I have zero effort to try and save it - the nhs is too fractured and run by a bunch of arrogant entitled imbeciles

You can only wonder why he didn’t stay with the child so she could get her surgery?

@TigerRag PAs replacing practice nurses as well as GPs. Because practices get them for free under ARSS funding (my name for it).

I agree with this as someone who has worked on geriatric wards. It’s social care that needs to be sorted out, not hive off the elderly to another service where they will still need a hospital bed because they can’t be discharged for weeks. It won’t be any cheaper or quicker and will divert nursing staff from acute services.

Not sure how but reassess how elderly patients are cared for, stop investigating every new health problem with scans etc when the person is very old and has dementia.
Look at pain relief and quality of life for older people, over trying to diagnose and cure everything.
Stop operating on people who are unlikely to recover from the operation.

Give visas to anybody, from anywhere, willing to come and work in the NHS and social care.

Less likely, but it'd cheer me up.

Bill every politician & business owner who campaigned for Brexit for the £1.9 billion a year we've lost and are continuing to lose.

Wait until 2035, when the richest 200 families will own more wealth than the UK and just take it from them. They can live on benefits until they get back on their feet. A better fate than the many thousands that die every year because of "austerity"

From a patient point of view, I'd make it easier to actually seek and receive care.

More minor injury units.

Nurse practitioner led drop in sessions ( similar to the baby clinic, but for everyone else) . A gp on the premises for anything the np can't deal with.

You were threatened with Police action, not anything anyone in the NHS would do lightly, so who is really at fault here?

As to bullying and harassment, only one poster has attacked someones DD, who isn't even on the thread... and thats not me.

I can only speak as i find...

When my Mum had her stroke, she was allowed to die with min intervention, palliative only, despite some family members wanting her to be given invasive treatments, which would have only prolonged her suffering.
My Mum also worked in elderly care most of her later working life, she never saw demented patients given excessive treatments, quite simply is often wouldn't be possible even if you wanted them to have such treatments

There will always be a balance, is it wrong to give someone an extra 6 months of pain free time to be with their family? 3 months extra? 1 month? for loved person, that month is golden.

The trouble with asking the public is that they bring their personal biases into it.

Some of the posts on here about the older generation are awful.

You're right of course, the NHS was never intended to fund IVF treatments, cosmetic procedures or 'gender affirming' surgery. Perhaps these should be for private patients only.
And to the poster who suggested older people should be treated separately from younger patients - how does that work? We're individuals with our own medical needs, not one amorphous mass.

Another thing to look at is outpatient staffing. I've attended a number of different specialty outpatient clinics in France. There are no nurses at all, just a receptionist and maybe a couple of secretaries. If you go to any outpatient department in the UK there will be multiple nurses, all of whom will be a band 5 or above.

It cannot be fixed. Scrap it and start from scratch is the only way.

As I've said several times, you were not there. It was my tenacity to hold someone accountable that led to the (empty) threat, and actually around here it's a daily event as services are so dire. I also feel it relevant to mention that after I did complain, both my son and I received both a verbal and then a written apology from the Chief Exec and assurances that the members of staff involved would be investigated and if required face disciplinary action. The nurse involved no longer works at that unit. You have questioned my behaviour over several posts, you have no idea of which you speak and should really learn to keep your unfounded opinions to yourself. I was there, you were not. Now, again, leave me alone.

Pensions were supposed to last around 10 to 15 years. I think the life expectancy of a 65 year old in 1950s was 77. That's different from average life expectancy

I've never understood to purpose of band 5 nurses and HCAs in the same clinic, it seems like wasted resources.

Also - make wards nicer places. Make the disgusting food better and more nutritious. Make nurses kinder and caring. Some aren't nice at all. My FIL was terrified of going into hospital and tbh after seeing how he was treated and the conditions he was left in he was right to be. I wouldn't have treated a dog the way that the nurses treated him.

Nurses have stopped nursing, that's now the HCAs job. Nurses seem like another tier of doctors now.

Both nurses and hcas were pretty horrible. There were two nice ones. One left him laying in his own shit all night until I came into visit in the morning and found him sobbing with humiliation.

A nurse practitioner saved a relative. Relative couldn't get a gp appointment so googled and found a walk in centre not far away. She diagnosed his stroke as he walked in and got him into hospital in record time. Nurse practitioners are much better value than PAs.
I have used a walk in centre a few times in the past. I think we should have more of them.

Writing to your MP might be helpful

Brilliant post. Nothing is going to be a quick fix. But far too much is going on treating preventable conditions, and care for the Elderly needs separate resources/funding.
The initial set up of the NHS, just after coming out of the Second World War was an incredible feat, and the vast majority of people alive in this country today, in particular those who were born here, probably owe their lives and health to this. Sadly, what didn’t happen with successive governments was the planning and funding required as more people lived into a greater old age, and the more sedentary lifestyles and poor lifestyle choices that have overtaken a lot of the previous manual type jobs down the decades. I would love to see fags, booze and high sugar goods charged at a higher rate, then the taxes used to commit to the NHS, and boost any existing funding. Everyone would benefit.