NHS

I'm five foot three and weigh 52kg, same as when I was fifteen.

I don't need to know how many carbs or calories I "should" be eating daily. My body tells me when I'm hungry and when I've eaten enough and I know what constitutes a good diet. The figures are completely unnecessary.

Anything the government comes up with will make it sound like a nanny state. It does already the way it lectures us about what we should and shouldn't be eating. We might just have to lump that as the cost of people losing connection with their animal "body knowledge"—not having that natural communication between their appetites and their body that all other animals seem to keep.

Agreed :-D Unfortunately, many people weigh considerably more than they did when they were 15 and are often in denial about what they're eating, so do need to be shown/told what they they should be eating for their height and activity level.

PS. As you're quite little and your weight is stable, you're probably eating fewer than 200g of carbs. I only know this, because things did start to go wrong for me. My weight wasn't the problem, but I was diagnosed as diabetic in my late 30s, so have had to be very careful about what I eat.

I was in the doctors surgery on Tuesday and he asked me my weight and height. I replied in feet and inches/stones and pounds (which is how I feel most comfortable keeping track) the doctor looked at a chart on his wall in order to convert my statistics to metric and said "a sad state of the times when I have to remove the chart from the wall and turn it over a page in order to find your weight" .

I think that, as a species, we are probably approaching the obesity epidemic in the wrong way. I don't think that blaming individuals or the food industry is the way to go about change. I know, for instance, that certain medications can upset a person's metabolism so that the body/brain/appetite communication doesn't work properly. Also, I think that as a species we are unique in having, during the last century, begun to provide ourselves with a superabundance of food rather than having a constant struggle to produce enough to go round (there are still inequalities but they are a lot smaller than they used to be in local and global terms). I think there simply isn't a quick fix solution. We will have to develop, and possibly even evolve, ways of dealing with this "problem" of overabundance and our already evolved and natural cravings for sweet things and other things that give us temporary satisfactions.

Meanwhile, also in global terms, in spite of the obesity epidemic, life expectancy is rising so clearly we're getting better at staying alive even when we have health problems.

I'm a bit surprised by that doctor's comment, gillybob. For a start I don't think doctors should be squeamish about being factual when it comes to health consequences of obesity. Secondly, I think a GP worth his salt ought to be able to tell by a quick glance whether someone's weight needs to be "addressed". I wouldn't have thought yours did so why did he need to know? Probably just to tick a box.

life expectancy is rising so clearly we're getting better at staying alive even when we have health problems.

That's the problem! Well, it's a problem for the NHS (I don't suppose individuals see it in the same way), which is having to pay to keep people alive who would probably have died much younger 100 years ago.

I think maybe you got the wrong end of the stick thatbags (probably my very poor grammar). What I meant was that the front of the chart had higher weight/ height ratios and he had to turn it over to find mine. I am 5ft 6" and weigh 9 stone 10lb ( in old money) .

"System leadership is needed. Producing a STP is not just about writing a document, nor is
it a job that can be outsourced or delegated. Instead it involves five things: (i) local leaders
coming together as a team; (ii) developing a shared vision with the local community, which
also involves local government as appropriate; (iii) programming a coherent set of activities
to make it happen; (iv) execution against plan; and (v) learning and adapting. Where
collaborative and capable leadership can’t be found, NHS England and NHS Improvement
2
will need to help secure remedies through more joined-up and effective system oversight.
9.
Success also depends on having an open, engaging, and iterative process that harnesses
the energies of clinicians, patients, carers, citizens, and local community partners including
the independent and voluntary sectors, and local government through health and
wellbeing boards.
10.
As a truly place-based plan, the STPs must cover all areas of CCG and NHS England
commissioned activity including: (i) specialised services, where the planning will be led
from the 10 collaborative commissioning hubs; and (ii) primary medical care, and do so
from a local CCG perspective, irrespective of delegation arrangements. The STP must
also cover better integration with local authority services, including, but not limited to,
prevention and social care, reflecting local agreed health and wellbeing strategies."

This doesn't mention weight. It's the NHSE's complete reorganisation of the NHS as in the five year forward plan.
This is what the NHA is asking about whether it is legal or not.

As a matter of interest, is there anyone on here who knew about this new reorganisation? It says patients, carers and citizens should be involved.

The secretary of state for health is still being asked to make a statement about it in the commons. He hasn't yet, as of Thursday. Caroline Lucas keeps asking him to.

Sounds as if I did get mixed up, gillybob. Nothing new there!

Daphne,my husband died when he was 65, so he's not a drain on the NHS. However if we had lived a century earlier, I would not have met him as he would have died from type one diabetes.
Apparently in 1851 the test for diabetes was tasting the urine. I wonder how many people did that!

This is funny. Apart from the serious bits. The bit that stood out for me was the fact that we now spend less than Greece on our health service, and we are expected to have even more efficiency savings.

nhap.org/the-friday-surgery-11/

"A GP and prominent political campaigner has called for the chief executive of Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust to resign after she suggested the NHS may have to start charging patients for its services.

Speaking on Radio Four last week, the trust’s CEO Susan Acott questioned the core NHS principle of universal healthcare free at the point of use after it was revealed the health service overspent its budget by a record £2.45 billion in 2015-16.

But Dr Paul Hobday, who has more than 30 years’ experience as a GP in Kent, said: “She should resign. We need managers who will whistleblow and stand up to the government.

“She is speaking out of line, when she is supposed to be managing the health service. Managers should be fighting for more resources from central taxation.” "

Anyone live in Kent?

www.nursingtimes.net/news/workforce/scale-of-nhs-staff-transfer-to-private-sector-revealed/7005029.article?blocktitle=Most-popular&contentID=-1

This has been well hidden.

The NHS seems to have been forgotten about in the EU referendum debacle.
Perhaps that was the government's intention. This is what is going to happen from now on.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/views/blogs/editors-blog/secret-plans-on-which-the-fate-of-the-nhs-rests/20031968.blog

This is why you have problems seeing a GP.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/practice-topics/employment/gp-vacancy-rates-at-highest-recorded-with-one-in-eight-positions-unfilled/20031836.article

Thanks for keeping STPs in spotlight dj. It's very concerning that this secretive major NHS plan is going on unnoticed in shadow of EU campaign. Most people I speak to have never heard of it, and I hadn't before reading about it on here.

Not a very catchy phrase, is it, Lazigirl, sustainability and transformation plans?
Not sticky toffee puddings, as it said at the end of the link.

gillybob- your GP is a bit slow on the up-take really ;) We went metric 45 years ago, lol.

I don't think that was Gillybob's point.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/hot-topics/stop-practice-closures/four-practices-set-to-close-leaving-10000-patients-displaced/20032017.article

This is in Brighton and Hove.

Nothing to do with GP surgeries, but a sincere bouquet to the NHS .
Broken?
Who says?
DH was showing all the symptoms of low Hb last weekend, fatigue, breathlessness, weakness, etc plus running a bit of a temperature, but nothing dramatic. As he was due for a heart procedure at the John Radcliffe on Wednesday, I was concerned
I rang the Planned Care Unit at our local hospital first thing on Monday (where he has a weekly blood test every Thursday, followed by 2 units of blood the next day if it has dropped as low as 8,) and explaining the circumstances, asked if they could fit him in for a blood test. No problem. The results came back a little over an hour later, his Hb was 8.4 so not really low enough for a transfusion, but with the heart procedure in mind, arranged for him to have his 2 units on Tuesday - that takes about 5 hours.
He was in the JR for 3 days and I cannot praise them highly enough.
Attentive, conscientious and friendly staff," centre of excellence" cutting edge technology, beautiful facilities, clean, peaceful comfortable accommodation, excellent communications and joined-up thinking especially as the procedure had to be aborted for a variety of reasons, not least DH's welfare under the anaesthetic.
So both at our local general hospital which provided an understanding and sympathetic response and was prepared to be flexible and at a centre of excellence we could not have asked for better. NHS!

Great to hear Alea. Too often we hear the negatives. Hope you're DH has the treatment he needs soon.