Why is the state of the NHS not a national emergency?

[Purpleturtle45]

Every day I read on here and in the news about the waits in A&E, cancelled surgeries, delayed treatments, literally costing people their lives. Why is this not a national emergency?

I keep on hearing a radio campaign about early bird detection, how your GP wants to see you as soon as you have any early cancer symptom for a better chance of a good outcome! I actually laughed out loud when I first heard that. What bullshit, first of all people seem to be robbed away from their GP at every turn and even if you do get referred it's a huge wait for diagnosis and treatment!

So many people signed off work with mental health conditions but unable to access treatments to help them and get them back to work. It all just makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Agree OP. Expectations have changed here so you don’t expect an ambulance to turn up with an hour etc. it’s ludicrous. CAMHS died here about 5 years ago and now no one seems to be all that worried about it. The middle classes just sort themselves out but kids with skint parents, what are they supposed to do? Axel Rudakabana ought to have been sectioned long before he was able to attack, but no CAMHS meant he wasn’t.

No on ever thinks they contribute to the crisis, yet the absolute amount of time wasters who book appointments (& who lie/exaggerate to do so to get around triage systems) or rock up at A&E, not to mention the amount of resources wasted on, largely, preventable diseases that need constant routine appointments/checks/medications is appalling.
The waste of money on overpaid management, yet the decline in standards, is also pretty sickening too.

It is an emergency.

Except no one call called it because no one knows how to deal with it apart from throwing more money at it, which never works.

But sometimes you need help and the Dr will assume that you need "more help" than you do to be on the safe side. I had an embolism under 12 months ago and my breathing is still an issue even walking short distances. I have pernicious anemia and suspect iron deficient anemia too but my GP decided I had to go to A&E, have an ECG and chest Xray. When I protested she said she would write on my notes that I was non compliant to medical advice (ergo would never be taken seriously again)! So off I went, wasted a day of my life and £ of everyone and now don't want to go back to the GP for the issue or any other. Once you have something serious they get stuck on that. I even said the Xray didn't catch the clot, the CT did (after 2 pointless xrays) but I guess it's my punishment whenever I have breathing issues I have to get radiated even though Xrays don't pick up embolisms. It's often just as frustrating for the people stuck in the system.

my recent experiences of the NHS has been really positive and that includes my parents’ very promptly and well dealt with cancer. When I’ve needed to see my GP I’ve been able to and we also have a minor injuries unit locally which is a god send.

It is largely absolutely terrible, but it’s also nothing new. Many of us live or have lived in areas of the UK where the NHS has always meant shitty staff, delayed diagnosis and a much maligned and feared local hospital.

Local NHS for us is still functioning, but I have also lived in a place where it was utterly dysfunctional even at the apex of the previous Labour government’s increased funding. The main problem seems to be that wildly dreadful employees at all levels cannot be got rid of and the rot sets in. For an extreme example, see the Blackpool stroke unit and the related unsolved rape/murder.

Absolutely agree with PP saying CAMHS is dead. I just tried to negotiate some intervention for a friend with possible schizophrenia and was given an pamphlet about a local mental health charity. This person is unmedicated and has never before seen a psychiatrist for assessment. The charity in question doesn't have any psychiatrists working for them and only offers basic CBT.

My last 2 GP appointments for physical rather than mental health issues also resulted in signposting to charities. The NHS is on its knees and doctors are using charities to shoulder the burden, but this is completely inappropriate and dangerous for patients in many cases.

i have touch wood good treatment from my gp
i dont see an emergency.
obviously more staff are needed,

Yabu. Why is everything a national emergency under a Labour government of a year but was fine for all the time before that under the Tories. Don't remember any calls for national emergencies during their tenure.

we thought labour would solve the nhs over night

more psychologists more nurses more doctors, and more jobs available to them!

Because I guess no one wants to admit that the current nhs model is no longer fit for purpose, screams of how it must not be privatised as though the only other model is the USA. There are too many people now requiring access to the NHS than it can physically cope with, and it is totally mismanaged and obviously underfunded. I don’t know the answers but it’s genuinely scary!

Im 😳 reading this. It’s the use of language, but that is your choice of language and you are the one asking about national emergencies

but then you say:
“Every day I read on here and in the news about the waits in A&E, cancelled surgeries, delayed treatments, literally costing people their lives. Why is this not a national emergency?”

how can you possibly think that’s the criteria for declaring a national emergency?!? You need stats, forecasting, and impact assessments, which presumably the government do have.

when was the last time a national emergency was declared?!

Every day I read on here and in the news about the waits in A&E, cancelled surgeries, delayed treatments, literally costing people their lives.
People only report bad or extreme experience and this builds our perception.

My OH went to a normally very busy A&E Saturday lunchtime after a very bad fall. He was in and out, xrayed etc.. in less than an hour. You don't hear those stories.

Yes the NHS is struggling, like most healthcare services in the world, but comparatively, its still doing an amazing job at treating people and saving lives.

There is so much wastage in the NHS. An example- my father used to work for the NHS in their labs. They had old fashioned radiators that you couldnt adjust the heating on them. They were on full blast, top heat from Oct- March. Quite often during that period it was warm and sunny so to prevent them all from feeling boiling hot they would open all the windows. My dad requested multiple times for radiator controls to be put on so they wouldnt waste energy but was told it was too expensive.

Yet, heating entire buildings with all the windows open isn't expensive?

Just a small example of the stupidity/mismanagement

There is more to this though. It’s hard to get help for schizophrenia for sure, but what symptoms were they displaying? Also unless alerted to behaviour like psychosis in a public place or a private home with say, vulnerable people, a Gp would always expect an adult to seek their own health care

There have been some improvements and I do believe this is a priority for the government (for all its faults):

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2025/06/nhs-waiting-list-hits-two-year-low-as-staff-work-to-turn-the-tide/

But I also remember when the NHS was in a very good place in 2009, seeing some data which showed that people overwhelmingly had a very good NHS experience but all believed they’d been lucky and that the usual NHS experience was dreadful. If I was advising the government I’d point that out to them. They could bust a gut and even success on the NHS and get absolutely no credit for it.

Also - data is slow. The NHS figures in 2010 are at their best - post-austerity but pre-effects of austerity. Same if you put investment in.

What really is the solution, throwing money at it achieves nothing, I know some people who work in it will argue that all the senior managers/ diversity and equality training, etc etc are essential but are they. Worked my whole career in the NHS, DW still works in it, saw the layers of management increase exponentially, what one person used todo now seems to need four, in my own job I ran the team and saw patients for several years, then someone decided you needed a manager who just managed and an advanced practitioner to manage the clinical side, oversee and do the complex clinical stuff, so two people on what is now £50k plus doing the job one used to do, multiplied where I worked over probably 40 teams across the trust and you start to where the money vanishes. It needs a massive overhaul but will never happen

Labour have brought waiting lists down significantly. The NHS was abused by the Tories for 14 years. It will take time to get it back to where it was in the 90s but improvements are happening.
The worst thing anyone can do for the NHS now is vote for Reform / Tory and risk undoing everything again.

My dad works for the nhs and also has billions of examples but I do have to remember he knows nothing about budget, spend or value creation.

for example what even are radiator controls? If they’re that old they can’t have more modern technology fitted to them.

That's not my experience.

Waiting time for appointments for me have gone up in the last 18 months.

How much can they possibly spent on diversity training? 😂

conversely, when a cancer patient doesn’t attend chemo, their chemo has to be binned. Depending on type, it could’ve cost tens of thousands for that dose.

we throw everything at cancer- to the active detriment of other wards/ disciplines- and maybe we should start reviewing that

There is so much wastage in the NHS
There is always going to be some elements of wastage in huge organisations. The only way to manage and reduce it is by employing staff to do so...except that the nhs can't afford it. So it's a matter of balance. If the cost of waste is less that the cost of staff to manage it, its part of the business. The focus is on what can't be ignored and the big costs and easier things to fix.

The problem is that common people think that they know better how to fix the nhs than the expert who are educated and have years of experience understanding of the nhs economics. Having to prove to the common people that they really don't know what they are talking about is tiring and a waste of energy.

Too many other "National Emergencies" people argue should be focused on
... the state of the rivers
... prisoners being let out too early
... violent crime at all
... climate change
... historic sex crimes
... finances, rich people should pay more tax or scroungers should stop
... male violence against women (according to some MNers)
...