Labour to get back to an 18 week waiting list within the first term

eazybee don’t forget that NHS consultants also work long hours in the private sector. Any ideas there? Or happy with the status quo?

It's a laudable objective and I hope they can achieve even a half of it given the pain and suffering endured by people during the Tory government.

Sorry, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

They are going to use the private sector, supposedly as a short term measure. It won't be a short term measure will it, it will be the beginning of full privatisation. Starmer's Labour are the party for business now, they will prefer that private businesses earn more profits rather than increase nursing bursaries or pay NHS staff what they deserve.

eazybee

Well, the first thing any party needs to do is to persuade doctors to work full time, not like the six I know who prioritize work-life balance over their career. In their thirties, all refuse to work more than three days a week and all can afford to live comfortably on what they earn.

Many doctors prioritise their children over their work.
Also many doctors work in different disciplines. My daughter did, she worked one day a week in management. She was instrumental in setting up the vaccination centres across the south east corridor during Covid. I suppose her patients thought she was at home with her feet up.

Other doctors work a day a week at the hospital, three days a week as a GP. Female doctors often work two or three days a week because they’ve got a baby at home. Some doctors spend a day a week training other doctors, or doing locum services, or in management, or working at night instead of the daytime. Doctors are most certainly not lazy.

Ilovecheese

They are going to use the private sector, supposedly as a short term measure. It won't be a short term measure will it, it will be the beginning of full privatisation. Starmer's Labour are the party for business now, they will prefer that private businesses earn more profits rather than increase nursing bursaries or pay NHS staff what they deserve.

Tony Blair’s government introduced using the private sector to help keep NHS lists down. I’m currently being treated at a private hospital. I’m an NHS patient.
People forget so quickly.

They intend to keep the balance.

But there are some sectors like A and E, long term elderly care, Chronic long term physical illnesses - Care in areas where there are no "in, operate, out, treat" illnesses, Mental Health Care, that don't appeal to the private sector.

Tony Blair’s use of private health sector happened years ago. Given current waiting lists, some bright spark needs to do a quick rethink.
How about one State run health care with no private sector? To match the Socialist dream of one State run education system again with no private schools? Is this in line with the way Cuba runs?

If you want to see how labour run a health service look at Wales , the waiting times for treatment are far worse than here.

ronib

Whitewavemark2

Oh sorry ronib I meant for that quote to be on top of this post.

So Reeves and Truss are so far apart in the way they view economics that they have zero in common.

Think Truss- = neo-liberalism on stilts

Reeves =Keynesianism

Keynesianism as in spend money we don’t have.

No Keynesian as in fiscal stimulus.

Tell it to the fairies Wwm2

ronib

Tell it to the fairies Wwm2

What a charmer🙄

As a long serving NHS professional.. How?.... How will they do it?
You can't just keep throwing money at it. We are working flat out in our working week, we all do extra overtime /24 hr on call but there is a limit.
To implement more changes in shift patterns you need more staff, we are guided by the Universities who do these course, they limit the numbers.
Why do they think qualified Staff grow on trees , once you get your degree you have to find a job, with someone who can do your further training.
From the Labs, to the Wards, you also need the support teams /staff, that includes Cleaning team, Admin and Managers etc

It's not all about Doctors and Nurses, which people think is a quick fix.

Everyone who comes into Hospital, has something done by a Health care Scientist/Professional. This team covers 24/7, no idea how we can even think about changing this?

NHS staff are leaving in their droves so where will the fully qualified staff come from to run extra clinics and man the extra equipment that Labour is promising?

Starmer and Streeting said today they will all be happy to do lots of paid overtime. Yeah, right …

Labour are telling the electorate what they think will get them elected, and it probably will.

I doubt very much if they have a magic wand to find the extra wom/man power to put their NHS policies in place in the first 100 days as is their mantra

Pantglas2

And pigs might fly! Check out Wales stats under Labour over the last 25 years and see how 18 MONTHS would’ve been optimistic in most instances!

Labour in Wales scares the pants off me to be honest. It’s what I fear next for England. It’s already in London with Khan who is Labour.

It scares me too. What they say is not what they will do. The other day a poster said ‘better the devil you know’.

I'm not keen for the NHS to get any more money without them making huge efforts to stop wasting it and start being more efficient. I've had lots of experience of medical treatment over the past 5 years and the inefficiency and subsequent waste of money has been appalling

Germanshepherdsmum

Starmer and Streeting said today they will all be happy to do lots of paid overtime. Yeah, right …

Many of them already do lots of overtime. It’s unpaid overtime. I expect they’d quite like to be paid, but it won’t improve things because they already work a lot of hours.

Whitewavemark2

Labour are responding to the country’s fears, that the NHS will be degraded even more if the Tories return to power, to such an extent that it becomes like the dental service.

It is an extremely demanding target, but the health professionals have agreed it is doable.

Streeting - the shadow health minister, has said that as someone whose life was saved by the NHS, owes everything to the NHS.

If it’s doable why aren’t they doing it now?
Pardon me for being a sceptic.

maddyone

Germanshepherdsmum

Starmer and Streeting said today they will all be happy to do lots of paid overtime. Yeah, right …

Many of them already do lots of overtime. It’s unpaid overtime. I expect they’d quite like to be paid, but it won’t improve things because they already work a lot of hours.

Exactly. Perhaps Labour have a secret plan to increase the number of hours in a day, and the number of days in a week. Given that appointments and procedures are already taking place in the evening and at the weekend, I cannot see how 40,000 more appointments per week can be created.

Rereading this thread I realised I made a mistake. When I said Gordon Brown raided the private pension pots, he did indeed do that, but it was his first budget in their first term, not their last term as I incorrectly said. I believe it was because the investments were paying very good dividends at that time, and he presumably thought it would be easy money. Unfortunately subsequently the dividends weren’t so good as they had been and consequently many people with private pensions lost a lot of money on the value of their future pensions. Those pensions never recovered as I understand it.
I hope that answers your question fancythat. I considered myself lucky because I didn’t have a private pension, I had a professional teacher’s pension, so it wasn’t affected. I think Brown thought it would be an easy hit because the dividends would soon mount up again, but they didn’t. I’m not an economist but that’s a simple explanation. Even now, people have to put enormous amounts into their private pension pots to get anything like a decent return, and there are many people who simply can’t afford to do that. They will have to rely totally on the state in their retirement, and we all know that the state pension is not generous, even with pension credit.

GSM
👏👏👏

maddyone

I hope you haven’t got a pension pot. Labour raided the private pensions in the first budget of it’s last term. That was one way they funded public spending.

Some of us are suffering now because of that, but if it didn’t affect you, you won’t remember.