Why doesn't anyone have a proper plan for the NHS?

[letyouberight]

I say this as someone who works within the NHS as a registered professional. At work, it's total shit. We are so overwhelmed and stretched all the time, morale is in its boots, quality of service is naff and it's all just inefficient.

As a patient, I have recently been having an absolute nightmare trying to have a fairly minor procedure done which would actually relieve me of significant pain, reduce my time off work due to the issue and is literally a day-case procedure if that. I have seen 2 GPs who haven't listened so I have had to go back 3/4 times for the same problem. Then been told to see a specialist service whose waiting list is long.
I priced up going private and was told £2600, money I do not have.

I get it from the individual professionals' POV, as I also am medically trained and while I can see some aspects of care are individuals' faults, most of the problem is systemic.

Seriously, what are any of them proposing to do about it?! Reform, reform, reform- YES but HOW?!

Apologies if this is a bit ranty but I am honestly at breaking point with my work stress and health issues- both of which stem from the NHS.

Here's another drug that cost nearly £3 million.
BBC News - UK’s most expensive drug Libmeldy saved Teddi Shaw, but is too late for her sister
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64629680

These, of course, are very rare cases, but care for people costing over a million, it's that rare. Added the enormous about elderly healthcare cost and chronic conditions.

My point is that healthcare is expensive and most likely will use more than they pay for
Obviously I can't disagree with this, objectively is true that most of us use up more health care than the taxes we personally pay will cover. BUT lots of us work hard in ways that are poorly remunerated or not remunerated at all, just because you're not a higher earner and therefore a high taxpayer, that doesn't mean you have not contributed to society.

No Labour won't put up taxes by 400 a month but they should do in my opinion and that money should go straight to healthcare.

They should break down taxable income so people understand where there money is going. For example does trident offer good value for money when people can't get a dentist.

Healthcare needs to be redefined. What you can and cannot get for free needs review. Some people would prefer a hybrid system and not have a hike in tax. If older tax payers paid NI it would help. I’m older and I think we should as many are higher users.

Of course it is. There are an awful lot of lazy and entitled people in this country who literally seem to think money grows on trees or ‘the government gives it to me’.

Actually I'm going to disagree. I'm a similar age to you and have 'paid in' a similar length of time. Clearly, its not enough.

@Kendodd NI is not “paying in”!!! It’s a tax. It’s not insurance. Why should the better off think they have paid enough to get their benefits, pensions and NHS? Others are paying and they are often the ones supporting dc and have much greater financial constraints. The grey £ is doing pretty well. It could be reduced NI or start at £40,000 income. But it should be paid by retired folk.

I think you missed the thread above in the chain of quotes. First poster, nearing retirement age, said they had 'paid in' enough NI and should not have to continue paying in retirement (if income/earnings high enough)
Second poster agreed with her.
Third poster (me) disagreed and said it clearly wasn't enough.

I'm also nearing retirement age as well.

Sorry. I probably tagged wrong poster! It’s just that we still have people who think they have paid in for their old age. They haven’t. Everything they get is paid for by current tax payers. It’s just not right that some pay less when they use far more and can afford to pay the taxes required. However the grey vote matters! So we maintain triple lock and back off. I’m over retirement age!

IMO, which could be wrong, there are several problems. The first and biggest is that NHS was created for a population that was two-thirds of its current size. It provided very basic care in 1947, before antibiotics or cancer treatments and most people lived about 3-10 years post retirement. Now it's routine for people to live to 90, but they usually live with complex, chronic conditions that can be controlled but not cured. And so the bills soar.

Please, if a doctor gives me a diagnosis of a disease that will kill me in 10 years, or five, or one, I'd rather like them to press a handgun into my other hand as they do so. I don't want to be a burden on my DC. I'd rather the short cut to the exit. And I am old, or at least 67.

@Papyrophile You only have to read the account of the stay in hospital encountered by an elderly stroke victim in the Saturday Times last week to really want that gun! Or at least choice. I could have written similar about DM. The NHS is dreadful for the elderly. Uncaring, disjointed and woeful. It makes patients want to die. At least the relatives involved in the newspaper diary account got to speak to doctors and nurses. I managed no nurses and 3 different doctors one of whom was rude. My DD would back that up!

If anyone in their right mind thinks the elderly are well served in hospital they need to be visiting for a couple of months to really understand how bad it is. Or what a shambles it is regarding talking to social services for help. Never ever do I want that for me. Nor my family.

So, people like me who have been disabled and reliant on benefits for all our adult lives: would you like us to starve to death?

Sorry I misquoted.
I meant that for the poster who said if you haven't paid enough NI, you shouldn't get benefits or health care.

Most European countries have an insurance based health system where the state provides insurance for those unable to work (+ pensioners, students etc) who don't have an employer to provide. So no.