As an ex nurse & a patient who has been massively let down repeatedly I have to say for too long the nhs has operated largely on intervening far far too late in the mistaken belief this is cheaper!
We’ve an appalling attitude to health/illness in this country
From presenteeism (which just spreads the infections more and means the sufferers take longer to return to full health)
To supposed primary care where patients are discouraged from seeing a nurse or gp until they’re extremely unwell. And even then if you’re a woman whatever is wrong with you may well be blamed on your mh (you’re “hysterical” “neurotic” rather than “actually sick”) - even if you have clear physical visual symptoms! This applies to children too indirectly if it’s mum takes them to the dr. My mother at one point discovered her visit to the dr when my sister was seriously ill as a child (later that DAY blue lighted to hospital) was recorded as “child healthy, mother neurotic” on my sisters medical record!
To gp surgeries being financially discouraged from referring patients to specialists even when it is clearly indicated clinically.
THIS is what needs to change.
We DO need better funding of the nhs but it does also need better organisation (there’s a lot of organisational and administrative waste and even corruption in the nhs) and a more preventive approach. (Which is how Germany generally handles things, indeed their enshrining this in govt acts is believed to have saved their health system and country a lot of money)
Annual check ups for all would be a start and I personally would like that to include not only checks for obvious things like diabetes, high blood pressure & cholesterol, but thorough checks on thyroid health, nutrient levels not just iron, ecg and checks for known cancer markers.
I would also like for patients to be able to reasonably self refer to specialists as happens in most other countries.
Myself and several loved ones have horrific experiences of being fobbed off for YEARS with clear symptoms of conditions and unable to access a specialist all that time
When we eventually DID get access to the relevant specialists the conditions were quickly diagnosed and treated. Those YEARS without a diagnosis not only caused distress and unnecessary continuing ill health, they also resulted in much time off work and sometimes being unable to work at all for months or years.
Blocking patients from accessing specialists I strongly believe is NOT saving the country, or the patients affected, any money at all!
A healthy, working population, paying taxes is far preferable for the health of the whole nation.
However, I will caution against holding Germany up as the perfect example. I have heard from people living there, working in health and social care that not all cv deaths are being recorded/reported as such, this is something their citizens are questioning.
I still think they’re doing better than us, but not as well as they’re claiming.
I too have heard from ex colleagues that bcg vaccination and vitamin d levels appear to be major factors in recovery from cv.
This erroneous idea that the tories are about saving money is disproven in many areas but particularly wrt healthcare and keeping people healthy enough to work.
They're more than quick to vilify and denigrate the long term sick unemployed but do bugger all to prevent people becoming too sick to work in the first place, nor do they employ positive, practical measures to help people return to work.
They just want us attacking each other rather than questioning and criticising them