Can the Tories be trusted with OUR National Health Service

djen
NHS complaints handling needs a makeover. It's still far too defensive and expensive.
The BBC have been doing quite a good job of covering the strains on the NHS.
Letter today from the RCS saying that there are so few beds in some places that surgeons are twiddling their thumbs.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38948255
This has been brewing for a while. I remember about 3 years ago a relative who isa chest consultant saying his hospital was getting badgered by the Department of Health to cut the number of beds. In the interests of "efficiency" of course.

Jen, I'm truly sorry for all you and your husband have been through, and while I do have doubts about Mr W's case i accept that all he says may be true. My only point, and please don't take it personally, is that medical practice the world over involves many mistakes, just the same as all other jobs, and those involved will often be reluctant to own up - especially given pressure from insurers. It's not specifically an NHS issue.

If you were shown the letters from the hospital about my husband you would think the same. He was told he hadn't said he was in pain. He was on a morphine drip!

The solicitor went through the letters and said it was a difficult case to prove, so we asked to take copies home and read through them. The solicitor then said that the only reason she had them was because she had said that she would not let them out of her office, so we said that was fine and we would read through everything in her office.
So she relented. We took copies home with us, a file over an inch thick, and pointed out all the anomalies to her when we next saw her. She then realised that the hospital wasn't telling the truth.

In Mr West's case he claimed he was told that he had weeks, possibly months, to live. That wasn't in any letter.
They did accept that it had been said.

"We acknowledge that in circumstances such as this whereby a diagnosis of cancer cannot be definitely confirmed, all possible alternative diagnosis should be considered. We recognise that clinicians should avoid giving life expectancy estimates to patients where the diagnosis is not confirmed."

Most people when they are told that probably give up. He didn't, probably because his wife was American? When it said that his wife was having treatment in America, that's what I assumed.

I don't see as many holes in the story as you do. I just see another person who has been messed around by the system.

I am sorry to hear about your husband djen.

I am sure there are lots of individual stories which are very distressing but this one is not a good example, it has too many unanswered questions and it all sounds very odd.

Has anyone been through the NHS negligence system, because I have with my husband.
They all cover up for each other. Surgeon wasn't prepared to back down and say sorry, and that he would make sure it wouldn't happen again. We decided to go to litigation when the independent woman in charge of the enquiry said she would ask the surgeon when she saw him on the golfcourse that afternoon.
Just before it went to court the hospital offered some money without admitting negligence, but said they would make sure their protocols were changed so it wouldn't happen to anyone else.

Sorry, Fitzy, another individual story that doesn't count in the big picture. The NHS is made up of lots of individual stories like that, though, lots of people let down by it, and even more now.
It shouldn't be expected that people who have lots of things wrong with them should be grateful for what is fixed and forget about the rest.

Mistakes happen everywhere but the strange thing is an inability to get a biopsy following a suspicious scan. But whatever the position this single story really isn't of any interest in terms of the general discussion.

it was here I found out that there was nothing wrong with my liver, but there was something seriously wrong with my heart.
But he went into hospital here with heart problems and they thought he had liver cancer when they did a scan.

And yet another 'not entirely true' news story.

Fitzy Jen
I think that Mr West's story is

In the letter shown to Somerset Live, sent to Mr West on May 22, 2013, Mr Hill writes: "The medical teams can only work with the information they have and feel that they made it clear throughout the discussions with you that their impression was possible liver cancer, but without a liver biopsy this could not be confirmed.

He also had heart problems which would make treatment difficult but it does not say that they refused a biopsy for confirmation.

He claims that:
"I phoned around and did a bit of googling but no one here in England would give me a biopsy – so I went to California – it was here I found out that there was nothing wrong with my liver, but there was something seriously wrong with my heart.^

I find it rather hard to believe that he was not offered a biopsy.
The fact that he was told he did not have liver cancer after he went to America but then shows a picture of himself lying on a sun lounger, thumbs up, holding a book saying 'Kicking Cancer's Ass' is strange and quite insulting to anyone who has or has had cancer and to the NHS staff treating them.

His present wife is receiving treatment for breast cancer in America - why?

Sorry, his story is full of holes and comes under the Nuttall heading of why spoil a good story with the truth.

He carried on claiming housing benefit, did not pay his rent while he was away and now is being evicted.

It all sounds rather strange, possibly an error on the part of a consultant who thought he may have liver cancer, but certainly not an example of the total failure of the NHS.

Jen I'm not sure what Mr W's story tells us. To mind it's just an example of clear medical negligence in th UK. As any US Dr or lawyer will tell you, they have plenty of that as well. I don't see that it has any bearing on our general discussion?

Have you told your neighbours about this, gangy?
I presume you are talking about the footprint, which the government will say nobody was interested in, not having told us about it.
It's only if you are concerned and involved in an NHS group that you tend to know about these things.
I have told a few neighbours, who will tell their friends and neighbours in the area.
One problem is that it is not possible to look at all the footprints in detail as they do not all have figures in them.

I have just completed a questionnaire as to future NHS healthcare in my county. There are obviously new plans afoot but these will take time to implement - what will happen in the interim?
I have complaints about the consultation document and questionnaire. I gather that they are only online - I live in an area with a high proportion of OAP's so that's not much good. Also, there was so much to read. Unfortunately there will be a very poor response to this. Perhaps this is the hope!

Not sorting one's own health out, as reportedly said by Mr West, is one of the reasons why the NHS is buckling. No one is happy to take a couple of paracetamol and wait to see what happens any more but go to the GP (or at least make appointments which they then fail to keep 'because it got better') or Urgent Care or A&E.

I know a bit about VAT, having had two catering businesses.
I have decided this year I can at last throw away all the files of receipts as I will no longer be chased by the tax people.

What's all this got to do with whether the Tories can be trusted on the NHS?
They couldn't be trusted on VAT.
They said they wouldn't put it up before the 2010 election, and they put it up in 2011.
Just shows they can't be trusted.

A box of assorted biscuits can be zero or standard rate VAT depending on the amount of chocolate coated biscuits. If it does not contain more than 15% standard rate chocolate coated biscuits, it is zero rated.
So poor people can get their chocolate fix there.
Another way is to buy jaffa cakes. In a court case, it was decided that jaffa cakes are a cake and not a chocolate coated biscuit, and are therefore zero rated.

Apologies, it looks much the same here anyway but in the interests of accuracy:
www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-of-vat-on-different-goods-and-services#food-and-drink-animals-animal-feed-plants-and-seeds

Yes, I would.
I certainly would not be travelling over to America for treatment unless other options had been explored here.
He could have paid for a private consultation here in fact, if he didn't trust the NHS.

Jalima, your link to VAT is Irish. Even you can make mistakes.

Mr West said: "I've become completely disillusioned with the NHS. When I was told I had weeks to live I thought 'bugger this' and I just went off to sort my health out on my own.

"I phoned around and did a bit of googling but no one here in England would give me a biopsy – so I went to California – it was here I found out that there was nothing wrong with my liver, but there was something seriously wrong with my heart.

"I'd been abandoned by the health service so I had to get treatment in the States. I gave away everything I had in the world to pay for the treatment."

He did try to get a second opinion here. I really don't think he can be blamed for what happened.

Jalima, if you'd been told by an NHS doctor that you had liver cancer, and only had months to live, would you go and ask another NHS doctor for a second opinion?

Yes, sorry, she didn't go there. I was only half watching Lucy Worsley - another side to the story. India was about exploitation. The Honourable East India Company built loads of monuments, and their real interests were making money.
Worth watching. My great great great grandmother was a tea importer from India.

The black hole of Calcutta really existed. There are different tales about that.

opinion

Why did the Frome pensioner fly to the States for a second opiniong - why didn't he ask for one here first if he thought he needed one?

Thanks Ana