How can the Tories be proud of their leader? *Title edited by GNHQ*

Good post B9exchange and yet another reason for the NHS to be taken out of the political football game.

Surely the answer to the GP shortage is to train men rather than women.

Years ago our surgery had all male doctors who worked full time.

Now there are more women than men and they are only there two or three days a week.

The two male GPs however work full time.

It seems wrong to me that the country spends a great deal of money training women for them to subsequently only work two days a week.

The situation was made worse of course by Labour some years ago allowing GPs to work fewer hours coupled with a pay rise. Madness.

If the GP situation was sorted out then fewer people would turn up at A and E in desperation.

Thanks sodapop.

B9Exchange yes, the waste of money whilst essential services are starved was and is inexcusable.

The NHS suffers greatly from funding mis management, certainly has for the past 20 years that I recall when working in it. Our district nurses and midwives were not given enough money for equipment by the PCT in 2006, and were actually sent a letter telling them to raid the local petrol station for disposable gloves for rectal and vaginal examinations!!! This same PCT spent £10,000 on a piece of artwork for its office, and appointed a £33,000 a year '5 a day' manager whose sole role was to advise the local population to eat five pieces of fruit or veg a day. Meanwhile the local hospital, having received a damning inspection report that it was filthy decided to appoint yet another cleaning manager, but no more money for cleaners or training them.

The NHS is way too big and has suffered from each new government putting in yet another major reorganisation at huge cost that could have gone on patient care, every single one of them. Look at the NHS IT fiascos and the billions wasted on those. Each new goverment knows the NHS isn't working, needs to be seen to be doing something about it, so shifts all the very expensive deckchairs on the deck of the Titanic yet again, bringing it down even further.

Thanks Maw, no, not my Mum, but MIL of someone close to me in the family.
It was so bad in fact that people were refusing to be treated there and there was ultimately a public enquiry.

Other people elsewhere were receiving good treatment of course, as they do indeed now.

I was just trying to point out that NHS provision has always been patchy under all governments, varying from excellent to downright dangerous and that using it as a political football does not help.

Then later Boris Johnson took a private jet from Doncaster to Darlington!
It took 23 minutes saving him 30 on the train journey!
Not really acceptable when the climate crisis is such an issue. Apparently he was on a tight schedule, but I assume the schedule was up to him and his aides. Besides what a wasted opportunity. He could have met some of the electorate on the train. Ah, I see the problem, unscripted encounters,,,,,that would never do.

top tip, avoid being ill in Bolton.

Urmstongran your post seems to have been misinterpreted ? deliberate. I have to say that similar thoughts sprang to my mind when I read the item. My daughter is a mental health community nurse and constantly struggling with a lack of resources to help her patients.
Things are easily manipulated especially in the current climate.

Back in 2017, I went to hospital several times, both to A & E (by ambulance) and for outpatient appointments. I had a severe back injury. I am elderly.

There was no way I could sit in a chair. I could sometimes walk around or stand up (but not for hours) or lie down on my side. I always took a yoga mat. Even with a that and a maximum dose of Zapain codeine, the floor was incredibly painful.

There were no trolleys instantly available, let alone beds. I was soon turfed off my trolley once the ambulance staff had departed, then left to wait for hours.

I tried lying in my son's car, with him sprinting to get me when my name was called, lying along a row of metal chairs, even begging pathetically for somewhere to lie down. Several times, I just gave up and left!

Callistemon - my sincere sympathies about your Mum but believe me I am not belittling any period in the history of the NHS
In the period since 1997 until his death 2 years ago, Paw had a liver transplant, a biliary duct resection, a perforated bowel and resection, lymphoma, open heart surgery, (aortic graft and valve replacement) several instances of sepsis, several minor strokes, weekly blood transfusions , oh and iron infusions. I literally could not add up the time he spent in hospital and my memories are very clear.
And in MK and in London (RFH, Heart Hospital, UCLH,) , flowers were not allowed. ?

absthame, you’re right, enormous resources are spent on delivering the services. My daughter would still have only worked two days a week at the practice, but when she saw the other job advertised, she was very interested, and eventually she got the job. She enjoys it, and it pays more than her normal GP job does. That’s good for her, but less so for the NHS.

I think the answer to your query Callistemon is that we simply have too few GPs. As our population has increased over the last twenty years or so, the number of GPs haven’t kept pace, consequently it’s difficult to get an appointment, and then patients feel dissatisfied. I have recently (well a couple of years ago) changed my GP and am much happier as at this practice I can get an appointment if needed, although I rarely go to the GP.
We must train more GPs, that’s the answer. Hopefully our next government will get to grips with this.

MaddyOne effectively explained the issue. Hunt's great reorganisation of the NHS introduced the CCG's the mechanism for controlling were and how monies are spent in the service. However it utilises Gps as the administrators and planners of the service. This has led to a massive increase in their none medical activities leading to the collapse of the GP servise and as a knock on the collapse of the emergency medical services. Great isn't it

Mynquestion was: Why are they failing? maddyone

I know my niece disliked working as a GP, not because of tbe pressure, that was years ago anyway, and went back to hospital work.

Oh no, it is definitely not MawB!

If you don't remember the Stafford Hospital tragedies I most certainly do.
So does one of my family's in-laws as his mother died there.

Please do not belittle that period of crises in the NHS.

I just said that things do not seem to have improved since then and the NHS should not be subject to political arguing.

My daughter is a GP and she works part time. She also has five year old twins and a two year old, so that’s why she works part time. However on the two days a week she works at her practice, she works from 8.30 am to approximately 8.00 pm. I think those hours are long enough. She also works a further one, sometimes two days a week for the health authority on a committee which organises the delivery of services in our area. Once a month she is required to spend a night away from her very young family as the committee needs her two days up in London. It took my daughter twelve years to qualify as a doctor and eventually as a GP. She feels undervalued by the NHS. I’m not surprised she feels that way. Her husband is also a GP who works much, much longer hours. I think our GPs work hard enough to be honest. The solution to the pressure on GPs is not longer working hours, it is more GPs.

I would have hoped that the NHS had improved since the days that patients were forced to drink dirty water from flower vases in Stafford Hospital during the days of the last Labour Government
Strange - my recollection of that time (and indeed earlier) when Paw was in both the Royal Free and MK hospitals, was that flowers were not allowed on the ward because of the spread of bacteria.
Another urban myth?

And only one nearer retirement, all quite young.

No, we have about 50/50 split of men and women GPs.

We used to have 3 full-time years ago, now 8 or 9 part-time.

Because more and more GP’s are women with children?

Why do so many work part-time?
All GPs in our practice are part-time.
Obviously the pay must be adequate to enable them to do this.

GP services are failing because we don’t have enough GPs. Simple. And the simple way to improve things would be to employ more GPs, and therefore we need to train more GPs. We have been told that GP training places are to be increased, well this government said that and Tony Blair’s government made the same promise. Perhaps the next government actually needs to do it.

...he's now hiding away from areas were people are protesting against him, just as he's hiding from Andrew Neil. And this is the 'strong' man that everyone thinks will take us out of Europe into a new golden age....I hope he has a 'dead man walking' moment on Thursday/Friday the way that May did....

No; his bumblyness is a cover for that, isn't it. Like the supposedly unscripted bumbly speeches he makes that are, in fact, well rehearsed.