Gransnet forums

News & politics

Looks like it could soon be 'RIP the NHS'?

(285 Posts)
AlieOxon Fri 26-Aug-16 12:27:43

Big cuts in prospect in the news and no consultation until the autumn....

obieone Sat 27-Aug-16 09:24:41

I think if people are serious about the NHS problem, political point scoring needs to be kept out of things. That way, posters and people who normally stay out of all things political so they dont get caught up in any flak, will become involved too.

Sheer numbers of people concerned may just win this.

Jackthelad Sat 27-Aug-16 09:17:30

I am told repeatedly by politicians of all colours that the NHS is wonderful and will always be there giving free treatment at the point of service. Slowly I find it more and more difficult to find a point of service and if I do the waiting time gets so long I am either cured or close to death before I receive any attention and then it is often perfunctory. Quite recently I had a perforated gall bladder and was sent home to wait 10 to 12 weeks before they would consider its removal. I felt so ill I found the cash and went private. Done and dusted within days. Put anything in the hands of politicians red white or blue and they will screw it up.

alchemillamollis Sat 27-Aug-16 00:38:42

grin LumpySpacedPrincess.

daphnedill Sat 27-Aug-16 00:28:30

You can't believe everything a bus tells you!

LumpySpacedPrincess Fri 26-Aug-16 23:15:55

I forget, still waiting for my unicorn to come in the post. Feeling The Control Though. Feels a bit like a damp cucumber but hey ho, £350 million pumped into the the NHS, it's gonna be great...

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 22:35:02

Get it right, LSP, £350 million a week!

LumpySpacedPrincess Fri 26-Aug-16 22:33:34

Don't be ridiculous, we have £350 million more to fund the NHS.

A bus told me so it must be true.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 22:33:13

Yes, Tanith, it had. The reason the Labour party did that was to reduce the waiting lists.
No way can you say that this present Labour party is the same as the Tories as far as the NHS is concerned.
No waqy are they as bad as each other.
The labour party set up the NHS.
You have been treated all of your lives under an NHS which was free at the point of use for anyone who needed to use it.
Probably the reason you are still alive is because of the free use of the NHS, so do not say both parties are the same.
My grandfather died because his wife could not afford the medication he needed to keep him alive.
Before you say it, Ana, yes, I've said this before. It does not stop it from being true.

Ana Fri 26-Aug-16 22:10:26

Under a Labour government. The two major parties seem to be as bad as each other!

tanith Fri 26-Aug-16 21:56:56

I retired from the NHS 10yrs ago and the break up of it had already begun with parts of the services being privatised, in fact even before that when I had my first THR it was carried out in a private hospital where my NHS hospital were farming out some of their joint replacement surgeries.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 21:34:11

Thanks, Iam64.

Brexit and NHS? By the time we brexit, there won't be an NHS. Maybe they knew that...Hunt and Stevens did.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 21:31:15

If you like wry smiles, you should read the Friday Surgery on NHAP.

nhap.org/friday-surgery/

Iam64 Fri 26-Aug-16 21:29:28

What about the Brexit promise to spend millions currently going to the EU on the NHS? Oh yes, they said the day after the vote they hadn't meant it, or even said it.

Thanks for the petition link, signed and shared.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 21:17:42

nhap.org/17027-2/

£30 billion mentioned on here, Jess.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 20:55:40

What they are doing is breaking it up so it is no longer an NHS.
The term National has no meaning, as all areas are competing against each other.
The NHA can challenge them providing enough people get behind it. It is organised by health professionals.

Jess, the £22 billion efficiency savings, which really means getting rid of staff, as that is the greatest part of the NHS, was from £30 billion in the first place.

daphnedill Fri 26-Aug-16 19:17:40

I agree absolutely, Jess, which is why an effective opposition is absolutely essential. We need somebody who can pick up on what's going on, challenge the government every step of the way and keep the public informed.

JessM Fri 26-Aug-16 19:10:03

At the last election Cameron made throwaway remarks about £22billion "efficiency savings" while in the next breath he was saying he was finding an extra £8billion. That is a cut of £14billion but sadly none of the other parties took him to task over it. At the same time "demand" has started to rise steadily because of the age profile of the population.
Of course it could be managed a bit better - but when they complain about "bed blocking" which is the major problem, it has been made worse by the combination of cutting LA funding and creating a system that treats home based 'care' as a market with elderly and disabled people having to manage their own budgets etc. No end to the crazy desire (and Blair had it as well) to marketise everything.

daphnedill Fri 26-Aug-16 19:03:38

The whole thing seems ridiculous. There are so many sub-organisations within the NHS and they don't represent local interests at all. I live on the very furthest tip of North West Essex and most people use a hospital in Cambridgeshire, which is outside the STP's remit. Resources tend to be directed to the areas of greatest population and many services have been centralised away from the local area. West Essex has now been tagged on to Hertfordshire, even though there are no links with services such as social care.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 18:26:47

Interesting letter - a new hospital and no beds. Saves them closing wards.

Just found out about mine, daphne.
He was asking Osborne for more money - in fact asking him where the promised money had gone, but he's from Hartlepool and Teesside. The year before he had a vote of no confidence in him from the councillors, so he must have been doing the government's job properly then.

daphnedill Fri 26-Aug-16 17:56:56

Heck!

Even Grant Shapps has accused her of not delivering on promises shock angry

www.shapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Letter-to-East-North-Herts-CCG-CEO-Beverley-Flowers.docx.

daphnedill Fri 26-Aug-16 17:49:04

Somebody called Beverley Flowers (just looked it up).

www.england.nhs.uk/2016/03/leaders-confirmed/

She hasn't asked me what I think about anything.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 17:10:04

When the NHS was split up into various parts, organised through CCGs, we were told it was because competition would be good for the NHS.
These STPs are all based on collaboration. However, as they are so hidden and secretive, we do not know who is collaborating with whom.

Each STP has a single person in charge of it.
Does anyone know who is in charge of theirs?

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 17:05:17

www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2016/08/nhs-financial-health

Figures from the King's Fund on transformation plans, daphne.
The NHSE is £1.85 billion in debt and the plans this year will cost £1.8 billion.
Looks like a no-brainer to me.
Stop the reorganisation and give the money to the NHS?

Switzerland spends 13% of GDP on its health service.
UK spends 9% and it's decreasing.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 16:49:11

fullfact.org/health/accident-and-emergency-attendances-and-performance/

This is why the NHSE wants to get rid of targets.
Since September 2014, waiting time targets in A&E have only been met in one month.

durhamjen Fri 26-Aug-16 16:44:33

So as you said earlier lazigirl, time to join something to stop it, and riot if necessary.

Before the new NHSE came into being the NHS refused to publish the risk plan. If it had, it probably would not have gone through.
Now there is a risk plan for seven day NHS, which has been published.

www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2016/aug/26/jeremy-hunt-can-not-bully-his-plans-for-a-seven-day-nhs-through

However it wasn't the department of health that released the risk assessment; it had to be leaked, to show that the policy will not work.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/23/the-guardian-view-on-the-seven-day-nhs-the-figures-dont-add-up