The situation we're in this week with the NHS, cancelled operations, frail and ill patients sitting in queues of ambulances outside A and E, etc etc.
The health secretary and PM are insisting they planned well for these pressures. Every doctor/nurse Ive heard interviewed is saying the situation is desperate and that the issue is lack of resources.
Local Authorities funds have been devastated so patients who could be discharged home if social care was available remain in hospital. People stay on trollies in A and E rather than being discharged because there isn't a Consultant available to confirm they ca go home.
Does anyone have a sensible suggestion about how this situation can be improved. I don't see how it can improve without more money, we need to train and support our medical staff.
Well done, Bristol, for listening to your workers.
www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/southmead-hospital-bosses-scrap-proposal-1157104
www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/660
About the Accountable Care Organisations. You can see if your MP has signed the EDM, and ask them to if they have not, particularly if they are Libdem. I notice even SNP are signing up to it.
Sammy Wilson, DUP, has also signed it.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/you-think-you-pay-much-11957968
This is interesting. Puts spending into perspective.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ralf-little-raises-stakes-nhs-11948700
Do you think Hunt will be there?
Thanks for the links Jen and Jelalima.
I do get the impression that a proportion of our country seem to think we are very like the USA culturally. I can only think they have never lived there. Looking to Europe to take some of the best from their systems seems to make sense to me.
It's interesting to see that Germany's tax is hypothecated. I do think that would make a difference to how people see and use the service.
If I remember rightly only 1% of NI goes to the NHS; the rest comes from general tax. NI is basically a work and end of work insurance.
I think our NI is now 12%?
yes, I've read i properly now, too tired to concentrate.
But the 14% is half from the employer and half the employee, so it's actually less than our NI, I think.
How much do employees pay into NI in the UK now?
I got the impression that the 14% goes solely to funding the health system - it is a health care tax, whereas our NI only partly goes towards the NHS and the rest of the funding comes from general taxation.
I wonder if people in receipt of pensions also pay this 14% healthcare tax?
Oh, I see that djen has put the link on already. Yes, that's the one. I answered before I read the other posts.
Jalima which was the link for the comparison with Germany please?
I didn't put a link on, I'll try now:
www.itv.com/news/2018-01-31/why-arent-european-hospitals-facing-a-winter-flu-crisis-like-the-nhs/
They do spend more and many patients have to pay 10 euros per night for a stay (up to 30 nights) - but the main thing is that it is organised and funded differently.
"He was clear that he believes more money needs to be spent in the UK, but also seemed a bit surprised that when we debate health we seem so resistant to studying and learning how others do it.
And that is perhaps the point: for decades we have looked westwards across the Atlantic at the way the Americans organise their health care, and felt a smug satisfaction that we don’t allow the inequalities and excesses of the US system.
But closer to hand, just across the Channel, a number of countries with a similar social system and spending similar amounts of money seem to be managing health care rather well.
Perhaps that’s where we should be looking."
Said by a German doctor who worked in the NHS for six years.
What I see is that money from their health service is not going to fund private healthcare companies and being lost from the NHS.
Also, the difference between 9.9% and 11.1% of GDP is quite a lot of money.
How much do employees pay into NI in the UK now?
In Germany they pay 14% of their pay.
www.itv.com/news/2018-01-31/why-arent-european-hospitals-facing-a-winter-flu-crisis-like-the-nhs/
I presume this is it, GracesGran.
Jalima which was the link for the comparison with Germany please?
I still can't get my head around the Home Office setting the Tier 2 salary minimum at £55k, when there's a shortage of doctors who would typically earn £30k-£45k. The supply of EU doctors has virtually dried up, so hospitals are trying to recruit from outside the EU, but the successful candidates can't get visas because of the salary offered. And it's not that the salary is too low, it's the going rate. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face.
PFI? 2% of NHS spending that needn't be spent, that goes to profit rather than the NHS?
It was on ITV News at 10 btw.
Well, that was an interesting if rather short report on the NHS in comparison with the health system in Germany. We spend just slightly less per head on healthcare in the UK than they do in Germany. The German system is a mixture of state, private and charity funded - free at the point of delivery but so much better organised than our NHS apparently with no bed crisis and yet patients are kept in for much longer after operations for a period of recuperation; there has been a winter flu outbreak in Germany too but no crisis.
Why? And what could we learn from this?
The last one didn't get much at all, but this one is just for the NHS, so might get some coverage, particularly with May being wounded now.
Be interesting to see how much coverage the event gets in the media. ...
Lots of information on here about the People's Assembly meetups and demonstrations on Saturday.
Also Facebook information if you are on Facebook.
www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/nhs_fix_it
Haven't had time to read this enture thread, but it sounds to me like it is more of the same from the election - I know what's best and will do it, no need to consult with anyone else or be open...
It makes you wonder how many times this government will have to be taken to court before they realise they may parties with a majority may hold sway but it is Parliament that governs - all of it. This seems to be more of May playing Henry VIII again. For those who at linkaphobic this is the start of the article.
Professor Stephen Hawking has won permission to take Jeremy Hunt and NHS England to court over controversial proposals to restructure the health service, The Independent can reveal.
Mr Hunt has tabled a plan which could allow commercial companies to run health and social services across a whole region in what critics have described as allowing back-door privatisation.
Leading healthcare professionals and Professor Hawking have argued an act of parliament is required, allowing MPs and Lords to scrutinise the proposals, before the policy is implemented and any changes to regulations are made.
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