Humanitarian Crisis in UK

I'm not a fan of the Conservatives and this is just one example of why. The situation regarding health and social care is rapidly spinning out of control and is causing misery to many people.

Additionally, a couple of days ago there were news items about outsourced private ambulance services, and one in particular which was obviously intent on making as much profit as possible since it allegedly allowed only one hour's "blue light" driver training for new ambulance workers. Additionally, former and current employees said that many ambulance workers had very little paramedic knowledge and experience.

Been talking about this on the NHS thread, trisher.

www.healthcampaignstogether.com/

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/08/an-absolute-warzone-nhs-doctors-describe-their-week-in-ae

Corbyn has asked for a statement about it in the Commons tomorrow, but May hasn't agreed to it.

She's like the rest of them dj keeping quiet about the whole thing and hoping no-one notices. Interesting that no-one has leapt to the government's defence. Maybe the true impact of what they voted for is just dawning on some people.
Thanks for the links.

Imagine one hours training for a blue light call. It is quite dreadful and utterly alarming. This time last year both DH and myself had heart incidents, DH more serious than me, but looking at the procedure carried out prior to hospital admittance by the ambulance staff - it was ages before they even started driving back as they did so much. In fact DH unknowingly to us at the time was prepared for surgery (stents) and as a result he was met by theatre staff at the door and wheeled directly into theatre. The result being that no damage was found in his heart.

How can 1hrs training be remotely justified? We need to march!!!!!!!

Is the NHS safe with any other party? I doubt it. Cant see it myself.
Might it be safer with another party. Not sure about that either.

The Labour Party is committed to saving the NHS. The money is there but the Conservative Party choose to use it differently.

We are a rich country. We can afford the NHS, good education, support for the elderly/young/vulnerable etc. It's not a lack of money it's the spending choices that are made.

I wonder how much money the NHS really needs?

I wonder where this bottomless pit of money is and who is going to keep it constantly refilled?

As new medical techniques, operations, drugs, procedures etc. evolve, the NHS will require more and more money to fund them. Added to this the more successful these are, then the longer people live and even more money is called for.

I for one can not see any easy answer and it won't make a fig of difference who is in power. An ever increasing amount of money will still have to be found somewhere.

It is the spending choices in the NHS as well. Stories abound in our area, of huge wastage, one way or another. Bad contract choices, bad management, wasteful supply chain etc. The front line on the other hand is praised, well thought of, and commended.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2017/01/09/cutting-the-uk-hospital-bed-rate-looks-like-a-management-and-not-a-medical-consultant-objective/

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2017/01/09/jeremy-hunt-is-lying-data-shows-january-is-often-the-quietest-time-of-the-year-for-a-e-departments/

Worse than that, whitewave, for ambulance crews.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/08/ambulance-workers-say-new-cost-cutting-measure-risks-lives

@Ankers

By blaming bad contracts, management and a wasteful supply chain, you are behaving exactly like the people in Elegran's committee.

Rather than listening to 'stories', if you have real evidence of any of this, you should write to somebody in charge and suggest alternatives.

You are playing into the hands of demagogues.

I do have evidence. From people working there!
Their concerns are not listened to, and have not been listened to for a long time.
It is not my job to suggest alternatives!

I cannot sack whole departments! Scrutinise contracts more thoroughly! And nightnight watch so that supplies do not go wandering!

Sorry, but what you are suggesting daphnedill is off the mark to say the least.

And this is exactly why the populist "movement" if you want to call it that has got so important.

Abd calling people who want to try and fix these types of things names is not at all helpful.

By blaming bad contracts, management and a wasteful supply chain, you are behaving exactly like the people in Elegran's committee
You really think people have not done that??

Who is calling who names???

Hunt said "We actually spend a little bit more than the average for rich countries on our health services" on the Today programme.

Not according to this.

www.pgpf.org/sites/default/files/0006_health-care-oecd-full.gif

The proliferation of the word demagogue. The subject is being talked about on another thread as well.

gillybob you said it! so I don't need to.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/dentaid-third-world-charity-steps-in-to-help-britains-dental-crisis-a6803106.html

???? Nobody's called you a demagogue (not that it's a 'name' anyway).

Ankers, Have you thought of putting yourself forward for your local Patients' Panel? All CCGs have them. If you think you could do a more effective job than those appointed with the resources available or, at least, challenge and hold people to account, you really should let it be known.

There's a real contradiction here. I'm not getting at you, because it's commonplace. People have complaints and can sometimes see where things are going wrong for themselves. Unfortunately, different people see different things going wrong. A management team (or a committee) has to balance the views of all stakeholders and inevitably some people will be disappointed with decisions. By saying it's the 'job' of people in authority, people abdicate their role in decision making and then complain about the decisions people make.

In the UK, there is no reason why anybody can't become (or at least influence) one of the decision makers, but that involves putting one's head above the parapet and being shot down (not literally). You are a stakeholder in your local NHS. Even if there isn't a vacancy on the local panel, you could find out who is on it. There will be contact details online and you could contact them. They have a duty to consider your complaints and should give you reasons to justify decisions they make. You could also make Freedom of Information requests and scrutinise them.

That made me laugh dd (last paragraph 'not literally')

@dj

I didn't hear Hunt saying that, but Conservative HQ will have had a hand in it.

It's meaningless, unless he explains what he means by 'rich countries' (The top 5? Top 10? Top 20?)

How is he defining rich? (GDP? Wealth per capita?)

What does he mean by average? (Mean? Mode? Median?)

What does he mean by 'we'? (The state? The people as a whole via insurance companies or privately?)

That sentence will have been checked to make sure he's not telling downright lies, but he's not telling the truth either.

Ironically, one of the people who is prepared to put her head above the parapet is Sarah Wollaston, a Conservative MP. She also knows what she's talking about.