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?

But old people spend is higher than "fatties" and that's ignoring that Venn Diagram overlap.
Would you say the same about dealing with Old people? You can't cure old.

Most appointment letters I get through the post are sent centrally from a place in Bath as has a BA postcode as returns address. Fine for anyone living around Bath, but not those who live further afield. Live about 140 miles away.

Agree totally with this.

Also invest more in social care so that hospitals don't become storage facilities for people who don't have healthy homes to return to.

More endometriosis centres
There are 3 local to me, all with wait lists of over a year. A friend told me wales has a 7 year wait
My consultant is off sick, the other is on mat leave so there is ONE consultant for the whole endo centre doing all the consults and operations
Meanwhile I'm clogging up a&e or a bed for pain management as they can't operate on me for months

I was replying to your post where you so verbally abused staff that security were going to be called, you were so angry that they refused to treat your son.... that you show no empathy to over worked staff who are sick to the back teeth of people who think their sprained ankle is far more important than than someone with severe injury or disease.

I ve been forgotten in AE triage, a polite comment to the receptionist and it was sorted, no need for raised voices.

One reason my DD left the NHS was due to rude passive aggressive overbearing patients and family members.

Run it as a business. The amount of money wasted is astounding. Each department needs a thorough review by a team of people with a business outlook. There needs to be more care for the elderly, they can keep everyone alive longer but there is little to help with the things needed as one gets older. It is an astronomical task but it needs to be done.

One thing when NHS first started in 1948, average life expectancy was 64 for men and 70 for women.

Now is 78 and 82,

NHS may have treatments and surgeries to reduce deaths in the first place but are suffering the consequences of people living longer and that has not helped them at all.

Also girls born between 2017-19 have a 1 in 3 chance of hitting 90.

Twenty years ago, you heard of very few people having grandparents living when they are in their 40s - unless they became parents at 19 and these children had children of their own when they were 19.

Why do you want to get rid of all the translators? They're necessary to make sure that patients understand procedures that they're being asked to consent to. I'm sure you'd agree it'd be unethical to carry out surgery on someone who hasn't had a full explanation of what needs to be done and why. Translators are very important.

Well no. There are other factors. Increased medical advantages mean that the cost of treatments and drugs keeps increasing Improved medical advances, including neo natal care, means more people are surviving with expensive conditions ( which has a huge impact on social care too). People are living longer which means they need medical treatment for longer.

We are also a very unfit and obese society, which is partly an individual responsibility, but also due to people living busy lives working full time and looking after kids with reduced support structures and increased workload ( kids don't run free range and entertain themselves anymore), as well factors to do with design of communities etc. Cancer rates are increasing for reasons no-one is quite sure of, with cancer rates now at a terrifying one in two instead of one in three. and many cancer rates increasing in younger age groups.

Kids are less fit and more overweight. I was genuinely shocked at the weekend when I was at an activity centre I sometimes go to, and there was a bunch of 10 year old boys there. Only one had the high level of physical capability and mastery over his body I would expect of kids that age and quite a few had poorer physical skills than me (and I am in my early 50s). All of those kids should have been able to kick my ass, no effort. These kids live in an affluent area surrounded by woods and nature and hills, but they aren't playing in that environment to acquire those skills or capability in the way kids were in my generation. Its actually quite concerning for what that means for future health of the country.

Just for starters:

• Re-nationalise the 'nolongernational' Health Service: NHS is now a misnomer! Get rid of Trusts, localised procurement and the post code lottery.
• Get rid of the middle tier of clip-board carrying administrative management many of whom achieve little more than creating a bullying culture.
• Those at the top should have had a minimum of 5 years clinical experience.
• The only 'administrator' to run a ward or a clinic should be clinical (ie, a good old-fashioned Matron)
• GPs: stop the generalised appointment system - clinics should be run on a-turn-up-and-sit-and-wait-your-turn-on-the-day, and appointments kept primarily for those needed follow-up treatment/consultations.
• A complete overhaul of the nursing / health care assistant system and anyone wanting to enter into any aspect of healthcare to undergo psychometric testing to ensure an empathetic and caring nature. A return to the 'nursing auxiliary', 'state enrolled nurse' and 'state registered nurse' system and anyone wanting to enter immediately into registered nursing to spend a minimum of 6 months both in an auxiliary and enrolled capacity - ie, a minimum of a year's 'foundation training' in 'proper' holistic caring.
• Geriatric wards/hospitals bed provision increased and nursing homes to be properly funded to stop 'bed blocking'.
• Mental health provision/hospitals to be properly funded and in-bed improved to support the failing 'care in the community' and the pressure on emergency services
• Hospice provision to be increased to stop bed blocking.

More policing in the number of people that attend appointments/A&E/visiting hours etc with the patient.

So why when I was allowed to see DM in a ward with DF - max 2 people per bed. was someone allowed to have 7 people round?

Better care for our elderly population would solve a lot. A&E only gets backed up because there’s no flow through the hospital. Most people in A&E do actually need to be there and are appropriately there (this has been a real shift in the last 10 years and the media message isn’t changing because it’s far more exciting than Mildred unable to be discharged do to lack of appropriate care).

As an NHS worker, I would get rid of the ridiculous need to order supplies through procurement and open up the ability to buy items (I'm talking about crockery, cutlery, bedding, tissues, wipes, pens, paper etc not medical supplies) from elsewhere. We needed some new lidded drinking beakers recently and the going price was more than £15 an item. The same beaker was 69p in Home Bargain. Someone, somewhere, is making an absolute fortune off the back of this.

I didn't verbally abuse anybody, tempting though it was, that was rather the point of my post.

Also, my son had a quiet word with the receptionist himself and was assured he had not been forgotten, even though in the end it was clear he was. He had, as it transpires, an actual broken foot, was in a huge amount of pain and of course could have suffered severe complications from his lack of treatment. As you were not there, I suggest that you keep your opinions to yourself. If your daughter has similar attitudes to you, then I'm sure that there will be a huge sigh of relief from the families of patients who are sick to the back teeth of incompetence, waste and staff who refuse to be accountable for their poor performance because they work for the NHS. If she can't hack the NHS then she'll have no hope in the private sector where people actually expect someone to do their job!

Procurement is a massive scam anyway, across all public services.

Make GPs work weekends like they used to and go back to family Drs who knew their patients and would visit in the dead of night rather than having to trail a sick child to an out of hours centre miles away

Completely agree @TheSnootiestFox The pressure that has been put on A&E by GPs not working out of hours is ridiculous. Problem is there are not enough GPs either and the government is scared of losing even more of them by making them work OOH

Tax alcohol a lot more.

I've no idea but I am very glad they are asking for opinions and not just crashing ahead with a single politician's idea of reform.

They try and do this and spend millions finding out what the stay could have told them in the beginning! Deloitte has been in many times and I’m yet to see actual change and any value that matches what’s spent on them coming in!

Because they cost a fortune. Having experienced health care in several other countries, not one offered me translation services.

Agree. I did not have a translator in France or Spain when I had (excellent) medical care. Also google AI does a good enough job.

I'm afraid this is just to make us feel that we have a say. And to take our minds off the budget

I'd be amazed if anything anyone says makes a difference.

I wonder if they will publish the results.

Waste !

My DH was prescribed some drugs at £10000 a month (sadly didn't work) but his last packet where delivered direct from the pharmacy to the hospice and handed to hospice staff who put them straight into a secure container. His scans showed the cancer wasn't responding to them so the doctor after discussing it with us stopped them. This packet had not been opened nor touched by anyone unofficial. When asked what would be done with them was told they'd be destroyed.

He then a few days later ended up in hospital in a coma. He wanted to die at home, the NHS was great (and free'd a bed) and got him home in 48 hours with hospital bed etc as we where getting everything together I asked if the hospital bed had bedding as ours would be too big (so needed to get a friend to grab some) the lovely nurse gave me 4 sets of sheets and blankets. He lived for 48 hours. When I tried to give them back washed and laundered (and only one set actually used) was told they couldn't have them back and to reuse or discard. I queried if I could give them straight to the laundry but no not allowed to. I popped them in a charity bag.

Every prescription should have the actual cost of it to make people aware of how much drugs actually are. Pet owners wince at the vets - a mix of mark up but we don't actually realise the price of some of the drugs.

It's a shame the survey has no room to incorporate any of the ideas people have spent time sharing here. As an earlier poster mentioned, it's a very directed questionnaire, which you know is just a tick box 'consultation' exercise before they do what they were always planning to.