The NHS

Alea Yes, I do doubt that all the links come from 'friends' but that could be because my friends have far more interesting things to do than constantly search the Internet for links to send me! For 'worried' read 'concern' about the welfare of someone who appears to be spending their life wading through so many links all the time, it sounds such hard work when life has so much more to offer. 'Jealous' good heavens no! I have a life full of interesting things and people, not a narrow, blinkered viewpoint on life.

For heavens sake, Nonnie and Alea, if you have better things to do, then do them instead of sniping at me all the time.
I'd much rather you thought about the state of the NHS, like many of my friends do.
You do what you want to do, and let me get on with what I want to do.
How many doctors do you think have handed in their notices while you have been being petty?

DJ we are sniping? What do you call the things you have said to me? When you totally twist what I say, what is that? That is imo quite simply vindictive. Never have the grace to apologise. Beggars belief.

You have no idea what I think of the state of the NHS unless you read my post. How dare you decide what I think about and what I don't. Your arrogance is beyond belief.

No one is stopping you getting on with what you want to do so stop the accusations. You cannot read my mind so stop suggesting you can

No doctors have handed their notice in while I was being petty, how many while you are?

durhamjen, while I sympathise with your all-out advocacy of the NHS, I do feel that your assumptions about other posters' attitudes towards the Health Service smack of unwarranted superiority.

nhap.org/dr-clive-peedells-keynote-speech-to-the-nha-party-annual-conference-october-2015/

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/junior-doctors-who-marched-through-10327570

4000 junior doctors marching through Newcastle on Saturday.

Every time I look at this thread (and others on the political forum) I hope to read an actual opinion or point of view - I should know better by now if the last poster is durhamjen...

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/drug-firms-milking-nhs-hiking-6703165

Here's where NHS money goes.

It seems to me that the NHS is staffed by a lot of highly trained doctors, nurses, others working face-to-face with patients who do the best they can, and a lot of administrators and managers who aren't and don't, some of them at eye-watering salaries.

I'm sure a purchasing executive can explain why the NHS pays more for commonly prescribed drugs than we pay over the counter.

I'm sure a senior manager could explain why it made economic sense to embark on a building project which will cost the NHS more than the cost of the building which will then revert to the developers and never be owned by the NHS.

Or reduce the number of physiotherapists to a level where patients have to wait longer for an appointment than they did for an operation.

Or make it necessary for doctors and nurses to push beds and trolleys around rather than seeing patients.

Any of you out there?

Just seen that this thread has been revived. Nonnie your experience mirrors ours although sounds worse! I have no doubt that the doctors and nurses in the NHS are professionals who are working very hard. It's starved of funds and been continuously reorganised. It's becoming crazy. My MIL was referred to the Pain Management clinic at the local hospital in September as she is in constant pain from OA in her spine. When my DH spent another hour or do trying to chase this last week he was told it had been outsourced to a private hospital. We might get an appointment in a month's time? How much is the NHS paying for this appointment? I just don't believe this is cost effective.

My initial thread was about the emotional impact of this mess on people's lives, which I think is totally underestimated and not spoken about. We are now back expecting some news about surgery, unable to book anything as we don't know when it will be, concerned that it will clash with the birth of grandchild number three and expecting a call any time, any day. We have been living with this since early summer. I know many of you can relate much worse stories - but it makes me feel angry and powerless!

I am a huge supporter of the NHS but I don't see why having a nationally funded health service should mean such poor communication, organisation and making patients feel that their lives are on hold while they wait for treatment for such a long time.

We would have found it all easier to cope with if we had been told at the beginning how long the wait would be instead of putting off doing so much just in case! I also have an issue about just how many people it takes to do the tests. Blood pressure, height, weight etc could surely be done by one relatively junior person?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ttip-jeremy-corbyn-nigel-farage-nicola-sturgeon-and-natalie-bennett-sign-appeal-to-exempt-nhs-from-a6708156.html

Sounds like the Tories do not want the NHS to be exempt from TTIP, contrary to what they have been telling us.
Another sign of privatisation.

I think it's communication that is most at fault. As you say if you had an idea how long things would be you could carry on making arrangements etc. You also never know if you have been forgotten or you are just on a list somewhere. The number of times we have had to chase appointments and really felt we would never have got them if we hadn't done so. It feels like a simple admin problem in which the patient gets left out of the loop. The level of disruption to your lives is quite stressful and I don't think it is recognised.

All those pre admission appointments, extra scans, blood tests etc are all costing money too.

Nonnie you're absolutely right! I've had three non-emergency operations in the last two years. All the times, I went for pre-operative assessment an couple of weeks before and it was carried out by very junior staff supervised by one senior nurse, with a surgeon to be called on if needed. It took about an hour. Thing is, they don't do this in all hospitals. Why not?

The staff are in the main fine - the system is at fault. Successive government changes have lost sight of the idea of SERVICE (the clue is in the title - National Health Service) and are obsessed with political dogma that results in a cumbersome bureaucracy, too much paperwork, internal markets and a huge surfeit of window-dressing.

The whole nonsense of doctors not being allowed to refer patients to fellow doctors in the same health authority is bonkers in the extreme. When I first worked in hospitals I spent quite a time in the doctors' mess (with Baby No 1 in tow!) and it was common practice for a doc to arrive for lunch and have a quick word in the ear of a colleague and ask them to see Mrs So-and-so .... job done!

Debate about junior doctors at the moment.
Hunt has been called the best recruiting officer that the Australian health service has.
2000 junior doctors demonstrating in Leeds tonight.

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/paul-evans/nhs-privatisation-soars-500-in-last-year-finds-indepth-new-study

More up to date figures about the privatisation of the NHS.

Both my husband and I have much for which to thank the NHS. I believe in giving praise when it is deserved and being less judgemental when we consider ourselves to be "put out" . We should ask...how can we patients help to ease a system and be supportive of the staff that are under unrelenting stress.

Really good post soop.

Very good point, soop.

There is far too much argy-bargy going on in this world.

I agree soop
People are far too quick to criticise and blame rather than think about what they could do as an individual.
I've recently worked as a nurse in the NHS and while the patients were generally very appreciative the relatives were often anything but, with unrealistic demands and little comprehension of just how much pressure services were under. It was al 'Me, me, me'.
It would be useful to know what suggestions those who criticise have, that might help the situation.

I no longer work as a nurse.

I spent lots of time taking DS1 to hospital and was shocked at the nastiness of some people just because they had been kept waiting. No thought for the fact that the people treating them are under stress or the fact that they were being treated under the NHS. It's not perfect but it's better than lots of the alternatives.

Crun The NHS treats hundreds of thousands of patients. There are mistakes made and sometimes negligent or poor treatment - and that is of course never acceptable - but there appear to be just as many "horror" stories about private health care - and they're just the ones we know about.

For instance: Gail Buchanan underwent a comparatively minor spinal operation at a private hospital. Since then she has been in constant agony that has left her housebound, unemployed and dependent on strong painkillers. The hospital brushed off her complaints, as did the surgeon who carried out the operation. However, in a disciplinary hearing the surgeon admitted 13 out of 50 charges of misconduct over a series of botched operations. Other patients came forward saying that they, too, suffered after surgery by the same doctor.

The Daily Mail Online reported in May 2013:

"Just this month BMI Healthcare, which runs Ross Hall Hospital, agreed to suspend surgery at another hospital, in Surrey, after a damning report by the official watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC)."

"The NHS has said it will no longer refer patients to the Mount Alvernia in Guildford after a scathing assessment of the chaotic and dangerous conditions that led it to suspend children’s surgery. The hospital is marketed as a luxury facility using state-of-the-art surgical techniques."

"Experts say problems with surgery in the private sector go far wider than just these two hospitals. However, precise figures on the extent of the dangers are not available. In fact, there is a worrying lack of information."

"But if keeping track on safety and standards at private hospitals is a problem, when something does go wrong, patients may need emergency help from the NHS. Guy Forster, a clinical negligence solicitor at the law firm Penningtons, says he has had to deal with several such cases recently."

"If things go wrong, patients can face a further peril — the company that runs their facility may not have adequate insurance to compensate them for damages. Instead, it may legally shut itself down, then reappear as another, similar organisation. "