Is The Nhs On The Brink Of Extinction?

[Kromovaracun]

http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2014/jan/08/nhs-extinct-government-policy-privatisation

[woofgang]

no.

[jomifl]

No

[boxtops]

I hope not - but they can't keep on at the rate they've been going, it's not a bottomless financial pit.

[Gromit]

Privatisation crept in under Blair/Brown. Its accelerated under the coalition. Giving GPs (private companies working for the NHS) extended powers for running lcal health boards and privatisation is 80% complete.
The last system of NHS Trusts wasn't magnificent but I predict the GPs will mess up big time, but it will be several years before that comes home to roost.

It is what you would expect from the Tories. The LibDems should be ashamed for helping it happen. Labour must also take some blame gor oppositing it so feebly.

[woofgang]

Gromit, I was working in the NHS at the time, Labour started all this off!

[Gromit]

I know - that's why I said it.

Not to ention all the PFI contracts Labour awarded. Effectively making all the hospital buildings privately owned.

[jno]

I don't think there'll be a brink, it will more likely involve chipping away at it bit by bit (already started, as others have said). Then one day we'll wake up and say, hang on, couldn't you walk in and see your GP when you fell ill, once upon a time? Wasn't hospital treatment supposed to be free?

[baza]

I was born in a private nursing home just prior to the NHS starting, it was little used by me for years, now in old age I need it and have no complaints of the care that I get. The future , if the media is correct, looks bleak, too many bosses not enough workers.

[Jeza]

I see on the news all the time about how stretched the NHS is. I have visited hospital every day for the last 4 months. They don't appear stretched to me. The staff are always sitting about talking of what they did last night or at the weekend etc. Today for instance I asked for help in making Mic more comfortable, As I walked away they were still laughing and joking. I waited 15 minutes and went back and there were still 5 of them still laughing and joking. When I asked again for help they said we forgot. Do you know how hard it is to bite your tongue because I wonder if they would take it out on Mic once I had left.

[baza]

Jeza, sorry to hear that , however, do not bite your tongue, tell the staff to help, that is their job.
I once had an argument with an A and E doctor, she said she had been busy all shift dealing with patients, I pointed out to her that she should expect that given she was a doctor working in a hospital, the nurses backed me up.

[gness]

Sadly I have to agree with Jeza. If you spend months visiting hospital daily it really opens your eyes to...well just what Jeza has described.

There are too many bosses but too many workers not working also.

And yes, Jeza....when you don't bite your tongue some will take it out on the patient.

[naomi24]

It's not on the brink of extinction, but there's a lot that needs sorting out - not least poor management.

[pixie373]

I also agree with jeza. I worked in hospitals as part of nursing training and went back to care, because I'd never seen such lazy people!

[youngmafbog]

No it is not but things will have to change. Throwing money at it does not work as Gordon Brown showed so we need to find another approach. The Australian method seems to work well so perhaps we should look at that.

doctors in A&E do work long hours and are expected to perform 100%. Would you perform 100% if you worked 10 hours without even time to sit for a tea because that is what they do. Would you return 150 miles to work Boxing day because they were suddenly short staffed to that? This si true, may daughter is an A&E doctor. She is not lazy and that is a big insult to her and others.

My wife also works for the NHS in a different trust. One thing that seems common is that management have been allowed to build mini empire without control. There is far too much management overhead and most have no medical knowledge. The NHS actually needs a budget cut, but not for doctors and nurses but to trim the excessive fat off the Management.

The other big problem facing hospitals is the amount of elderly, both in an A&E capacity and bed occupation. We need to look at better nursing care to get them away from hospitals.

And lastly there is the big problem of immigration, many are not registered with a doctor so use A&E and a good proportion of them do not speak English so compounding the problem and cost (400 a day for an interpreter - yes that is true my wife settles the bills)

[mikey4444]

ymb..isn't the NHS reliant on foreign workers ?

[EDDIE51]

The lazy ones are those you see sitting round, the others are out of sight working, this gives a biased view.

[gness]

Too many sitting around, Eddie......I spent a good part of eleven years observing.

[whiskeryron]

I feel that governments in this country will not be satisfied until they have forced an American type system where everyone who can afford it pays medical insurance & the NHS can then quietly fade away leaving the very poor & defenseless to try & fend for themselves.

WR.

[Sqad]

\\\doctors in A&E do work long hours and are expected to perform 100%. Would you perform 100% if you worked 10 hours without even time to sit for a tea because that is what they do. Would you return 150 miles to work Boxing day because they were suddenly short staffed to that?\\

Yes, yes and yes.

What you have described has been the situation for Casualty doctors for the past 50 years, we loved it, we loved being called DR, as Casualty is mainly junior doctors and we were young.
That was what we wanted to be.....Doctors.

On the wards as Junior doctors we worked 100+hours a week.....the "Firm" consisted of the Consultant, Senior Registrar and Junior doctor and the "Firm" was always on duty for the patients of the "Firm."
Pay was poor, but it was a life that we all wanted and had worked for...long hours, operating until the early hours of the morning and then eggs and bacon in sister's office in the early hours of the morning.

I am sure your daughter is hard working and she is in a great profession (although, not being a sexist) I feel that women in Medicine should be restricted.

The NHS will always be the same....the cracks papered over......because the NHS is sacred to the UK populace.

[anneasquith]

'' I feel that women in medicine should be restricted '' I hope that's a joke sqad ? :)