Should We Have Listened?

[Kromovaracun]

Back in November, Jim Mackey - the head of NHS Improvement, a government watchdog - warned that if the health service did not receive a sufficient cash injection in the budget, it would have to limit the care it provided in order to survive the winter.

It seems, now we're in January, that his prediction has come true - about 50,000 routine operations have been cancelled:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/02/nhs-hospitals-ordered-cancel-routine-operations-january/

https://www.itv.com/news/2018-01-03/nhs-cancel-operations-winter-pressure/

Should we have listened to Mackey back in November? Could this decision result in deaths? Is the government capable of running a health service as a health service?

[naomi24]

Doesn't this happen every winter? I've a feeling it does.

[erik2]

in our hospital 2 wards are now catering for morbidly obese people, taking up wards that should be catering for people who are really ill through no fault of their own !

[Kromovaracun]

//Doesn't this happen every winter? I've a feeling it does.//

Yes, it's a recurrent problem that we keep ignoring that will eventually get critical. Has the NHS ever had to cancel so many operations at once before just in order to cope with demand? Not to my knowledge. The problem is getting worse.

[ToraToraTora]

no, the NHS needs to be run properly cash is not the only factor.

[naomi24]

Perhaps if the NHS wasn’t so badly run – and so dreadfully abused - it would be better able to cope with the extra burdens that winter brings. Throwing boundless amounts of money at it is not the answer. It needs a complete and thorough overhaul.

[Kromovaracun]

There I think we can agree. As it stands the NHS is being used as a machine for transferring public money into private pockets.

[naomi24]

That's been going on for a very long time, Krom .... at least since the Labour government introduced PFI.

[Sqad]

At last...at last...even the doctors are admitting that parts of the NHS are third world operations, until now many folk, particularly ABers have been singing the praise of the NHS and abusing anyone who has the courage to criticise it.
This problem has existed for the best part of 30 years and has been ignored by preceding governments so as not to alienate the electorate..
This Government has stated that an extra £600,000 has been injected to deal with the impending winter crisis. Yes a small amount when one realises that the annual cost of the NHS is in the trillions.

The flu vaccine seems to be the wrong one for this particular strain of virus and Labour in 2007 gave the GP's more money for less hours.

I don't know the answer to this.

[Kromovaracun]

No argument from me, Naomi. Disastrous and corrupt policy.

[naomi24]

Absolutely!

[New Judge]

“…no, the NHS needs to be run properly cash is not the only factor.”

Indeed, 3Ts had hit the nail squarely on the head. The NHS does not suffer a shortage of funds. It suffers a chronic dose of bad (and considerably top-heavy) management. Fortunately I don’t have too many dealings with the service but the few that I do indicate to me that the people running it, at a cost of more than £100bn a year, would be hard pressed to successfully run a whelk stall. Couple this with the preposterous sums that GPs are being paid to operate what is essentially a “clearing house” to screen patients and keep them away from the people who know what they are doing, and it is easy to see where the dosh goes.

Add to this the fact that, as with every public service in the UK, it is being asked to deal with far too many people because the UK is vastly over-populated, and it is obvious that situations such as this will become more prevalent no matter how much money is thrown at the problem.

A radical re-think of health services in the UK is required. Far from being "the envy of the world" (which I believe it never has been) it is a seriously inadequate service. So long as people see it as "free" it will always be so and so long as politicians are scared witless to recommend the "P" (for privatised or payment) word it will remain so.

[mikey4444]

" The NHS is safe in our hands"

Really ?

[naomi24]

Mikey, I'm guessing you haven't read the posts here.

[mikey4444]

Yes Naomi....I have read the posts and they are mostly the same ones that are always posted, whenever the NHS is in crisis.

The Tories have been in power since 2010, so who else is to blame if we are now cancelling 10,000's of operations ?

Yes, the NHS could be better run........it can always be better run. But after such a long time, just when are the Tories going to hold their hands up and admit that this severe crisis is happening on their watch ?

[naomi24]

Mikey, the situation isn't new... even though you'd like it to be.

[betterheather]

It seems that everything repeats itself over and over again

[mikey4444]

Naomi....I am not suggesting that this present crisis is new.

But what I am saying is that the Tories have been in charge for nearly 8 years, and haven't done a damn thing to tackle the problems, however they are caused.

[naomi24]

Mikey, what would you suggest they do?

[mikey4444]

They could solve the immediate crisis but providing some more funds, as was requested by all the Health Professionals months ago. They warned that we have this crisis and here we are....its arrived.

And then they need to start reforming the NHS, as everybody has been asking for many years.

But something Mrs May could do tonight, is sack that grinning twit Hunt, who is sorry apparently.

[naomi24]

Mikey, funding has increased year on year and we have the same 'crisis' year on year. No matter how much money is thrown at it, nothing will change - no matter who's throwing it.