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.

Just used that as an example, our trust had a team that just delivered diversity training, probably six/ eight people to tell you to be sure to address people as he/ she/ they/ people who bear children etc, and totally agree about the huge waste on drugs,once dispensed, even if it’s not opened and seals intact,it’s just binned if not used. DM died a few years ago, she’d been prescribed fortisip drinks over several months and we had literally a hundred tins , still boxed,that they told us to just pour down the drain ( and no we didn’t keep ordering them, that’s the amount they prescribed for a month)

Waiting lists are going down albeit slowly but they are going down.

That said I think the GP situation is dire and the supposed online system makes seeing a GP 10 times harder.

I think part of the problem is over-specialisation. From my recent experience, it all seems to be a game of pass-the-parcel where nobody ever treats you (because it's not their specialisation / they are too important to bother with this minor stuff). They refer you on, so that you become somebody else's problem.

The autism awareness across the NHS is dire, truly awful. Diversity training in this area needs to be improved and increased.

Just used that as an example, our trust had a team that just delivered diversity training, probably six/ eight people to tell you to be sure to address people as he/ she/ they/ people who bear children etc
Of course that's not the case! No, there are no hospitals in this country that employs 6, let alone 8 staff just to deliver diversity training. Are people really so naive to believe it!

I’d agree knowledge around some conditions needs improvement across the board and that is what diversity training should be doing, not the things it does

From my recent experience, it all seems to be a game of pass-the-parcel where nobody ever treats you (because it's not their specialisation / they are too important to bother with this minor stuff). They refer you on, so that you become somebody else's problem
This is true to some extent, but there is also a growing number of patients who expect medical remedies to what is a lifestyle problem. Not accepting that their problem is cause by being overweight, lack of exercise, poor diet, too much alcohol, poor sleep hygiene, and then blame the medical experts when they are told to make changes to their lifestyle because they are after a quick fix.

How to you think it should be dealt with?

Aren’t there, depends how big the trust is ,some to deliver the training, admin support, it soon adds up and you are making the assumption that all NHScare is delivered in hospital, it’s not, in mental health especially it’s significantly community based

The GP problem is a basic supply and demand. There are more people wanting an appointment than there are available even as GP’s continue to offer more appointments now than pre Covid.

all these pointless remarks about throwing money
change the narrative.
Employ more staff,
is that throwing money?
so annoying that useless remark

As I said, my experience is different.

What matters to me is what is happening to me, not some massaged statistics.

Any links to prove the drop
in waiting times are massaged?

Yes but as others have said, sorting the pennies and using very expensive resource to do it (let’s not forget, due to pensions nhs staff are highly expensive at every level) isn’t cost effective.

big organisations need leaders who take decisions and don’t get bogged down by the little stuff because they know it’s wasteful to tackle ie excess very cheap drugs vs say getting down the recruitment agent fees for the framework agencies.

This is really odd though because what impact does your experience make? Most people have had no experience of the NhS on the last 6 months, what use would it be to focus on their experience?

I'm not sure why are you picking on my HNS waiting list experience.

As I said, I don't trust the statistics because my experience is different. Are you trying to say that my experience with longer wait for appointments should not matter to me because statistics say waiting lists are falling?

Why are you denying what I have experienced?

It does to me.

I'm part of the big picture.

It's so complex though.

The NHS is massive, but there's too many separate divisions that don't marry up or communicate, and policies contradict each other, so people end up falling through the cracks.

Yes, too many managers. You might hear "one person used to be able to do all of this alone", that one person didn't have the same number of service users, and treatments weren't as complex. So some more managers are needed.

People don't want to take personal responsibility for lifestyle choices, and want the NHS to fix everything. Nor do they want to pay for anything ("I've paid through my taxes")

The aging population, and fewer family carers for the elderly.

Staff shortages. Who would want to go into the poorly paid positions that the NHS is crying out for?? The nurses, midwives, carers doing backbreaking work, with little respect and constant abuse from the public. Anyone with a public facing job is in the firing line,
subjected to abuse from service users and family members, who are quite- rightly, at the end of their tether and frustrated with the system. Staff burn out too quickly, and leave.

General poor pay and conditions. Not only are the staff on the ground subject to abuse, have rubbish pay for the responsibility (everything is the nurses fault/job/responsibility), they're well aware that those on more sociable hours, sitting in their offices are so much more highly paid than they are.

Just a few thoughts that popped in to my mind.

NHS is on its knees too many staff on long term sick, no budgets to employ newly qualified nurses, unpaid student nurses bridging gaps rather than being trained, far too many managers being paid a fortune to point out wards are unstaffed. It’s going to be a long road back to working. 2 years worth of newly qualified nurses who still haven’t managed to get a nursing job so are working in hospitality and retail with massive student debts that the interest is mounting up on.

A big shake up is needed and not convinced it’ll happen any time soon.

Aren’t there, depends how big the trust is ,some to deliver the training, admin support, it soon adds up and you are making the assumption that all NHScare is delivered in hospital, it’s not, in mental health especially it’s significantly community based
That poster said 6 to 8 staff to deliver training. I'm not saying there are no teams with that number of staff but they will be doing a lot more than just training and a bit of admin. Its quite insulting to insinuate it.

I think your political beliefs may be of relevance, OP. Since the last election and particularly in the last few months we’ve had numerous threads about why this or that problem should be elevated to the level of sn Official National Emergency.

Yet in my previous years on MumsNet, while Tory policies were causing these problems, I can recall no such threads. At most they would have been few and far between. I wonder why?

I completely agree that things are in a bad way, particularly the NHS. I feel terrible for PP who are experiencing longer wait times, but the general trend has been slowly positive.

Give this Government a chance. If you don’t like the result you can have your say in 2029. I gasp at the notion anyone believes the Tories, on whose 14 year watch this deterioration happened, or Reform, who are completely clueless, can do better.

As far as Reform go, just look to America where Donald Trump - hero to Nigel Farage - has stopped food stamp payments during the current government shutdown, the longest ever (the second longest was during Trump’s first term). People are literally beginning to starve and they are primarily in Republican states, as Dem states made quick payments while they could. (The money for payments exists in a reserve fund but Trump won’t touch it).

(The US Supreme Court just declined an emergency petition on this but urged a lower level appeals court to issue a ruling quickly.)

How many MumsNetters want a man who looks up to someone choosing to do this in charge of the NHS?

I don’t understand why the NHs sick policy is so generous, particularly when there are new staff desperate to take the vacancies.

its neigh on impossible to dismiss someone for sickness and people who have been on and off sick for years isn’t uncommon- in most other businesses they would’ve been dismissed.

Yes, I have to agree with this. I really do appreciate that it’s not the same everywhere, but I have an excellent GP practice, as was the last one before we moved. We have quite a collection of ailments between my husband , my disabled daughter and myself, including my mental health issues, and to be honest I can’t fault our treatment. My daughter’s cancer treatment was excellent also. It really shouldn’t vary though should it. We live fairly rurally, so possibly smaller practices means fewer people, plus our GP and the practice staff have got to know us as a family which is nice.
If only it was the same for everyone.

The tories wanted to make it so bad, people would accept privatisation. Then COVID got in the way of that narrative.

lol, it’s almost impossible to get a GP appointment. I’ve given up