NHS

I simply can't understand why people are not reacting. I am sure that the earnings about privatisation are not being taken seriously. They are getting bamboozled by the propaganda being put out about austerity and the " we are spendingmore " mantra.

My instinct is that it cant be too bad [apart from GP surguries] else people would be jumping up and down.

People don't realise how it's being privatised because it's being done so quietly and is slipping under the radar. Pushing the junior doctors into strike action is part of it. The government hoped that people would turn against the junior doctors and force them to settle. This didn't happen because most of us would rather not be treated by doctors who are mentally and physically exhausted. As for the seven day NHS both myself and my husband have been treated at the weekends and in the middle of the night. I even had a baby on Christmas Day. So, regardless of what the government say, the NHS is available 24/7 365 days of the year.

If the government want clinics to run on a Saturday and Sunday then they need to agree with the Consultants and increase the number of junior doctors, nurses and support staff to cover the extra hours.

For anyone who isn't worried about privatisation just look what happened when cleaning was put out to tender. Cleaners hours were cut and they didn't have time to clean as thoroughly as before. I remember a time when the wards were cleaned properly everyday. That included under the beds and wiping down the bedside cabinets. Now the cleaners do the bare minimum....not because they don't care but because they don't have enough time to do anymore.

We need a NHS watch that details what is happening in your particular Trust etc.

Since my mother has been a regular outpatient for eye problems, the treatment has been outsourced to a local private hospital, and is definitely not an improvement. Once what was done in the local NHS hospital and more than adequate - now the profit is ending up in someone's pocket. Likewise my DHs back treatment. I resent my taxes being used to line someone's pocket from profit, I want it to be ploughed back into the NHS.

This government is forcing HUGE NHS cuts - £2.3bn this year. With NO publicity - not a whisper in the news, and NHS bosses keeping very quiet since their STP plans have to show how they are 'improving' services!

North East London area (B&D, Havering, Redbridge, TH, Hackney, Newham) plan £185m cuts to services this year. At least one A&E service already scheduled to close so making extra long journeys to A&E. The hospital will lose all the back-up services, doctors won't want to work there, hospital will be run down ...

It's the same with the so called 24/7 GP system they keep talking about. I've seen GPs at all hours of the day and night. OK not necessarily from my practice but I still saw a doctor and received treatment and/or was sent to A and E. I don't feel I have to pay into an insurance (as advertised on TV) in order to get GP support.

Maybe those who voted for this government and those who have Conservative MPs should be writing to Cameron, Hunt and their MP warning them that this isn't acceptable and telling them they will not support the party if this goes ahead. (But I'm not holding my breath!)

Also, what happens in other public service sectors and in residential provision has a knock-on effect on the NHS. We have already seen this with the reduction in support for elderly and infirm people at home and the closing of residential care homes. We have also seen it with the lack of funding for mental health provision, particularly for young people. Last night it was also reported that because of grave shortages in prison staff, there has been a huge increase in prisoner-on-prisoner and prisoner-on-prison officer violence, and in the incidence of suicide and self-harm, which has meant that ambulances are being called out to a prison somewhere every 20 minutes.

There have been a lot of complaints on Gransnet about poor GP services—difficulty getting an appointment, for instance. (I have no complaints about that myself; there has not been an occasion when I couldn't get an appointment promptly for Minibags or myself. Oh, and the receptionists are really helpful).

This is at least the second time I've read about the NHS budget cuts by the government on Gransnet, so even if it isn't on TV news (I wouldn't know; no TV) the information is available from somewhere.

I've a recollection that the £2.3bn cut is over five years and that, as a percentage of the entire NHS budget it is quite small.

People voted this government in for a second term, so presumably they accept that cuts are inevitable and that's why they are "not reacting". Voting in a Tory government always means a reduction in spending. One presumes that's what people want.

I don't think all Conservative voters are rabidly anti public services. People choose the parties they do for a variety of reasons. Some do it out of habit, others believe in the trickle down theory, others support lower taxes and spending...I'm sure there are many more reasons. I'm certain many of them simply can't imagine that any government would undermine the NHS to the extent that it can no longer work.

I'm not a Conservative voter. I think this right wing, neo-fascist, elitest bunch of (expletive that rhymes with bankers) are hell bent on destroying the welfare state and reducing the working man to the mindset where he will accept any job at any rate of pay because the other option is to let his family and himself starve.

It shouldn't mean wholesale privatisation of the NHS. Not even Tories want that, surely.

999callfornhs.org.uk/footprints/4592357931

Whitewave, is this the link you want?
It covers all the groups, like NHA, Keep Our NHS Public (KONP).

999callfornhs.org.uk/999-network-map/4586656675

This is a map you can look at, and find out what is going on in your area.

nhap.org/the-anatomy-of-privatisation/united-health-of-america

This is what Simon Stevens did in the US. Then he came over here and took over the NHS.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36307661

This is the latest idea to downgrade the NHS.

Last week I went to see a doctor and a nurse, having had appointments to see both of them for a month. When I got there, the nurse was there, but there was no doctor. I had to go back two days later to see a different doctor.
The nurse was not allowed to talk to me about thyroxine, but she could about the medication to do with the more serious aortic problem.
Sorry, but I'd rather talk to a doctor about that as well. The nurse had no idea why I was on those tablets and had not heard of an aortic dissection. In fact she suggested I come off one of them, even though she did not know why I was on them.
I really do not want more nurse practitioners. I want doctors to be recognised for the training that they do.

nhap.org/hospital-ae-and-maternity-closures/
From 2010 to 2014. It does not include what has closed last year and early this year, although it does say which ones might have closed.

A nurse that has not heard of aortic dissection ? was she a qualified nurse or a HCA ?

Specialist nurses can be very knowledgeable in their own spheres and a great asset eg respiratory nurses or diabetic specialist nurses. They are often more available for phone call advice and such like.

When I have seen a nurse practioner one of them is very good but still had to get a Dr in for a particular problem. The other was a waste of my and her time as she went out of the room 3 times " to consult with colleagues ", she could not even give me a prescription without consulting about dosage. Now if offered an appt with her I decline and wait for a Dr. The other one is ok for routine matters but I had a wait of 27 days recently to see a Dr.

Our local health board has announced that it will no longer be sending patients to local private hospitals which they had been doing to reduce waiting times. Brilliant! Now they'll save money but waiting times will sky rocket! Who wins? Nobody

The point is that they want nurses not to be specialists, but to take over more from GPs, therby being generalists.

Harrigran, when I had my dissection, I was taken to an HDU at the Freeman.
The nurse there asked me where the stitches were so she could change the dressing, even though I had not had an operation.
Practice nurses are unlikely to come across dissections, as there are only about one a month in the whole of the North dealt with at the Freeman.
The only people I know who have had them are on a website.

They will not have the money, Jane10. Private hospitals charge more because they have to make a profit for their shareholders out of the NHS.
Have you looked at the link in the OP, to see about your area?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ttip-campaigners-and-trade-unions-applaud-tory-eurosceptics-for-joining-jeremy-corbyn-in-opposing-a7038141.html

To save the NHS from TTIP, they will produce an amendment to the queen's speech.

Sorry, mumofmadboys, I'm seriously unimpressed by the diabetic specialist nurse in my practice. All she ever does is follow official guidelines. She just doesn't have the knowledge to discuss side issues or to discuss related conditions. Appointments with her are a waste of time.

Specialist nurses can be very valuable indeed. I know that my OH has an excellent service from the PD nurse. He is a qualified doctor and would soon make his views known if she was talking rubbish. I had good service from a cardiac nurse specialist; and my friend has found her stoma nurse invaluable.

What we do not want are generalist nurses taking over the role of doctors as a cheap option. We cannot allow professional standards to fall.

Luckygirl, I had to stay a couple of days in a cardiac care unit and I was very impressed with the nurses. However, I guess they're working there every day and know what they're doing. My problem with the diabetic nurse who works in my GP practice is that it's only part of her job. I don't know how long or intensive her training was, but she really doesn't have the breadth of knowledge of a qualified doctor and can't stray from the NICE pathway.