Our bloated NHS - it’s beyond ridiculous now.

Good post Casdon.

Thanks Casdon

It’s difficult to discuss the difficulties facing the NHS when the OP is deliberately provocative and divisive
It becomes impossible when genuine criticisms of views thst dismiss the evidence are dismissed and deleted

As for the suggestion politicians should keep off the NHS - that would be a plan if it was keep politicians who are gradually privatising the nhs away from it

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

I defend my position on this ladies. If the NHS was so wonderfully managed there wouldn’t be so many instances of bad practice being complained about, both on here - with real life tales of what went awfully wrong in their experience and also in the press.

The NHS is woefully run in my opinion. Private CEOs probably have their heads in their hands over the shambolic way it is delivered to a public who have little choice but to accept what they are given.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We could start looking at best practice in Europe. A mixture of private & public money.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Quotes deleted post

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Urmstongran

I defend my position on this ladies. If the NHS was so wonderfully managed there wouldn’t be so many instances of bad practice being complained about, both on here - with real life tales of what went awfully wrong in their experience and also in the press.

The NHS is woefully run in my opinion. Private CEOs probably have their heads in their hands over the shambolic way it is delivered to a public who have little choice but to accept what they are given.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We could start looking at best practice in Europe. A mixture of private & public money.

I agree with this post Urms there have been numerous high profile cases along with the not so high profile ones were the NHS has been negligent.

Each time we get the empty promises that this will not happen again, unfortunately it does.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Refers to deleted post

I do agree that we should look at the way health is managed in other countries.I don't hear my french friends moaning about
their service.
It's no good just throwing money at the service and hoping the problems will go away.

GNHQ at its worst. News and Politics, robust discussion, a few insults exchanged, so what.
We’re not delicate flowers that need protecting. I for one am sick of being policed in this way.
If we are offended by a post or poster we can say so and move on or we can leave the thread and look elsewhere for our entertainment.
Please GNHQ, unless a post breaks a law, let it stand instead of spoiling good robust debate with daft deletions.
My opinion on the NHS is that it does need a complete overhaul. A great behemoth that has run out of control. Unfortunately it is a political hot potato and god help any party that tampers with it.

If this thread was a mouthful of teeth, with all the gaps now it’d be requiring a set of dentures!
?

My opinion on the NHS is that it does need a complete overhaul. A great behemoth that has run out of control. Unfortunately it is a political hot potato and god help any party that tampers with it.

I agree with you.

westendgirl

I do agree that we should look at the way health is managed in other countries.I don't hear my french friends moaning about
their service.
It's no good just throwing money at the service and hoping the problems will go away.

That's because in France they successfully marry the concerns of the medical profession with the views of government to achieve the best possible result.

Chewbacca &’LauraNorder I agree and posted as much yesterday only to be told I didn’t know what I was talking about…

Yes Joseanne along with a proportion paid by a health insurance by those who can afford it.

Free for those on lowest incomes.

It is also properly funded in France Joseanne. I think the 30% top-up insurance that is paid by everyone apart from those on the lowest income, demonstrates a fine socialist principle in action.

Chewbacca

^My opinion on the NHS is that it does need a complete overhaul. A great behemoth that has run out of control. Unfortunately it is a political hot potato and god help any party that tampers with it.^

I agree with you.

I agree too.

The NHS is the largest employer in Europe and the largest employer of qualified professionals.
As a result of its growth it may have become unwieldy and does require skilled managers.

But yes, there are inefficiencies, over-spends (even being defrauded by supply firms) and it needs an overhaul. Successive governments are scared to tackle it and changing political dogma is neither productive nor conducive to efficient practice.

I don't doubt that we need change and we also need to make up for all the cash starving that has gone on over the last 10 or 12 years.

When it comes to the standard of IT, I think it's amazing that the staff manage as well as they do with such a clunky system. It did remind me about how long it to the Police to get "Holmes" in place. That took years, didn't it?

I would like them to look at cutting down the individual sizes of any one enterprise but centralising all records. I know there are data problems with that but where there's a will, etc.

I am far from being an expert where the NHS is concerned. However, a bit of organisational behaviour insight would help. Someone I knew, who had set up many a successful company in his day, said that once a company gets over about 30 people (it's not an exact figure) it stops being dynamic. This was because people stopped working for My Company PLC and started working for the Accounts Department, Sales Department, etc. I think this is often the case in huge hospitals, schools, etc.

I have to admit I don't know the answer but I do believe it has to be divided down in some way - and perhaps some of it become more community-based. Working from or near to home seems to be a movement in our economic development, perhaps it should apply to health too.

But the one thing that stands out is that without sufficient funding and a government that believes in the NHS principles and is not blinkered by its adherence to free-markets (that's not capitalism by the way), the NHS doesn't stand a chance.

It's all very well people saying 'throwing money at it isn't the answer' BUt they are saying that about a service which has been underfunded for the last 12 years.

I suggest that it should have its funding returned to its proper level, recruit back to its proper staffing levels ,and be allowed to run like that for a few years before making any decisions about radical change.

Shortage of funding causes inefficiency. It's so blindingly obvious that I can't see how people manage to miss it. Unless they are ignoring it to suit their political agenda.

Didn't it have an overhaul when the coalition Government came in. The "top down" overhaul that David Cameron said was not going to happen.
Before the coalition the country was very positive about the NHS, about 75% wasn't it.
So let's think what has possibly happened since then.

GrannyGravy13

Chewbacca &’LauraNorder I agree and posted as much yesterday only to be told I didn’t know what I was talking about…

It was a very frustrating day on this thread yesterday..

I am sure that there are areas which need change, procedures which need to be tightened, etc. but first of all it needs to be properly funded to allow it to be running more normally. Then time is needed to thoroughly assess what is going wrong and why. We don't need knee jerk reactions and change for the sake of it.

The weird thing is that everyone seems to think that the NHS suffers from too much funding. In fact, it's been cut to the bone and now everyone is complaining about its poor performance. What does that tell us?

I suggest that it should have its funding returned to its proper level, recruit back to its proper staffing levels ,and be allowed to run like that for a few years before making any decisions about radical change.

A period of recovery seems like a very good idea Maizie

Excellent post at 7.28 Casdon ?

The weird thing is that everyone seems to think that the NHS suffers from too much funding.

I hadn't noticed that everyone on the thread thought that at all

I wonder how much of NHS funding goes to outsourced services, private health care providers and staff agencies?