NHS

"4. Are waiting times increasing because more people are going to A&E?

The number of people going to A&E has risen substantially over time. In 2016/17 there were 23.4 million attendances at A&E departments – the equivalent of 63,000 attendances each day on average. Between 2011/12 and 2016/17, A&E attendances grew on average by 1.7 per cent each year, and increased by 1.9 million in total (or 8.8 per cent). This is the equivalent of an extra 5,100 more A&E attendances each day. The growth in attendances has been higher in type 3 A&Es (such as walk-in centres and minor-injury units), compared to type 1 (major) or type 2 (specialist) A&Es.

However, the rising number of attendances at A&E is not the main factor affecting performance. The increased pressure on A&E departments is more closely associated with rising numbers of emergency admissions to hospital and reduced capacity to meet this rising demand.

It is the emergency admissions from A&E rather than attendances themselves that place greater demands on health services, because patients admitted as emergencies usually need more complex care from a wider range of professionals, and an available bed in an appropriate ward must be found for these patients before they can be admitted.

Figure 4 shows that, compared to 2011/12, attendances at type 1 (major) and all A&E departments have increased at a faster rate than growth in the general population. However, emergency admissions via type 1 A&E departments, which account for over 70 per cent of all emergency admissions to hospital, have increased at an even greater rate than attendances. "

From King's Fund.
Where did you get your 7x increase over last year, jalima?

Fullfact doesn't agree with your figures, either.

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

The rise in homeless and those people in temporary and filthy accommodation with children will also need more frequent health care and put pressure on the system. That must have risen enormously

If I'd had to wait four hours for an ambulance the last time I used 111, I would have been dead.
They sent a first responder within 15 minutes, and he called an ambulance which arrived five minutes later.

Where did you get your 7x increase over last year, jalima?
ITV News at Six

Did you not think that it was impossible?

"The number of people going to A&E has risen substantially over time. In 2016/17 there were 23.4 million attendances at A&E departments – the equivalent of 63,000 attendances each day on average. "

Kings Fund.
Are you saying that in 2015/16 there were only 9,000 attendances a day?

This says not.

"Between 2011/12 and 2016/17, A&E attendances grew on average by 1.7 per cent each year, and increased by 1.9 million in total (or 8.8 per cent). This is the equivalent of an extra 5,100 more A&E attendances each day. "
That's from 2011-2016.

7x is not possible.

id you not think that it was impossible?
Yes I did actually
So pleased that you could put me right.

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/11/conservatives-theresa-may-nick-boles-fund-nhs-raising-taxes-national-insurance

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/11/nhs-patients-dying-in-hospital-corridors-doctors-tell-theresa-may

Since the Government seems convinced with its own lies, I cannot see how anything is going to change in the short term. This is I find the scariest aspect. Do they think they won't be blamed? Do they think it will not affect people's votes in the future? Do they not want to be in power in the future? Are they just totally incompetent? Or are they trying to reduce the population?

I think they want to be out of government because they can't see how to get out of the mess they have put themselves in.

Julima1108 - your description of the way your surgery works reflects the pressure, staff shortages and increased demand that all GP surgeries seem to be under. Our nurse practitioners are great. They triage urgent appointments and see patients with illnesses they can prescribe for. Sometimes, A and E is inevitable, it's happened 3 times in our family in the past 3 weeks. We've been very fortunate in the speedy response and level of care given on each occasion.
The NHS needs more funding. We need to train doctors and nurses. Nurses shouldn't have to pay for training . Gillybob's point about taking the NHS out of politics is something we often discuss here. What about taking all public services "out of politics". All the senior police officers interviewed in recent weeks talk about the impact of the reduction in officers alongside the devastating cuts to mental health, drug/alcohol, youth and every area of social care is leaving the most vulnerable in our society at significant risk. Cresida Dick said last week that knife crime in London can't be stopped by focus on arresting people, it needs to be tacked by working with children and families at an early age and by youth work with disaffected young people.
I can't recall a time when every senior Police Officer interviewed stressed the need for effective early intervention rather than increased prison sentences (or alongside that of course).

There is a petition at moment on 3rd degrees calling for Government to release funds now for N.H.S.

We should also look at public sector staff making themselves unavailable to work and then renting themselves back to the nhs as bank staff at much higher levels of pay. We are seeing this more and more with nurses, social workers etc.

It's not the problem of the staff. Most people in most professions go for more pay.
It's a problem of having a government that undervalues such workers.

I can’t agree with you there Durhamjen. I know 2 people who have left full time nursing jobs “to spend more time with their family”only to go back to the same job via an agency working even more hours for a ridiculously inflated hourly rate (and I mean ridiculous) . Good for them you might say but the NHS can not afford to pay these silly rates and let’s not forget it would be all tax payers who would be footing the bill.

How much do you think a general nurse is worth per hour then? Or a police constable? A newly trained social worker? A fireman/woman? Rufuge collector? Civil servant? There is a very long list and they will all want more.

Why blame them for wanting more money to spend on their families?
Isn't that normal?
Blame the system that allows it.

So the NHS should stop all agency staff immediately Durhamjen?

I don’t think anyone should be allowed to do both. Work 16 /20 hours for the NHS and 30 + more via an agency.

Some Tories are plucking up the courage (who knew there were any apart from the Remainers) to suggest higher taxes for the NHS

There is also the problem of recruitment - however much money is put into the NHS pot (and social care pot needs to be increased too) we have not trained enough doctors and nurses over several years having relied on overseas recruitment.
There was an item on local news about a doctor going to India to poorer areas to recruit junior doctors from there (where the number of patients per doctor is far higher than here) - supposedly for just a couple of years with two aims: one to fill our shortages and the other to train them so that they can go back to India better qualified to fulfil the needs of patients there.

I am not sure how ethical that is.

gillybob if you stopped the NHS using agency staff it would completely shut down. It can't function without them, and you can't blame someone for wanting to earn more when they have had what is effectively a pay cut over years. www.unison.org.uk/news/press-release/2017/09/nhs-staff-need-pay-rise-thats-inflation-say-health-unions/If you have growing expenses what else can you do?
As for this pie-in -the -sky idea that a cross party group could run the NHS has it not sunk in yet that this government and the Tory party have no interest in the NHS running successfully, they are just waiting to cherry pick the best bits to flog off to their mates.
I was in A&E recently and wondered who the 2 members of staff out of any uniform were. I eventually realised they were the psychiatric team. They seemed very busy. Cuts to mental health services and no social care must have left the mentally ill with nowhere to go but A&E .

Probably not very Jalima. Whilst we're taking qualified doctors from poorer areas of India for our benefit, we're depriving those areas of qualified medical expertise. So who will care for them?