I suggested this last year, and was crawled all over by some, dismissing the very obvious concerns. It's easy to blame the longevity of today's population, as some are saying, for over stretching the service, but surely it is the Government's responsibility to have plans in place to cope with this. That the lifespan of the population has been lengthening, over the centuries, is no secret, so not having a proper plan to deal with it is inexcusable.
I don't think putting £10b into the NHS is against the NHS. It's more than Labour promised. The NHS is a large unwieldy organisation which has been added to over time and is badly managed. There is a lot of waste that should be going towards patients. Mr WS works there and is appalled at how it is run and the waste of money compared to a private company.
It's the Guardian I wouldn't expect anything else, they're not going to back a Tory Government. Who knows where the truth lies?
Were as you vote Tories. We will soon see what happens to it. Before you or any one else says I am having a go because you vote Tory I am not. I simply mean you may have a biased view. As I have no allegiance to any party I call them all out the same.
I have no allegiance to any party either so you are wrong there. A lot of people don't always vote the same way and instead vote on what is said at the time. If this wasn't the case there would be no point in all these party political broadcasts and debates.
All the time you have the continuous change of parties in power things like the NHS only move evenly very,very slowly We as a country are just not moving forwards, as each party thinks mainly in opposites.......... You have the Tories for 6/8 years Then you have labour for similar periods. So one undoes what the other started even though it is probably about to pay off and we move backwards while the new parties idea takes off...........Then we change and its back almost to square one. I am doubtful there is anyone that would not agree there is a hell of a lot of waste in both the NHS and the Social services and until someone actually does something positive, perhaps get rid of the quangos for me might me a good start. It is so strange though all parties seem to agree there is a lot of waste but non seem to want to tackle it head on. If the Tories dig there heals in and make the NHS sort themselves out they are accused of trying to privatise the NHS. Along come the Labour movement pouring yet even more money in, which also tends to be just wasted because it just doesn't work. It seems to make the quangos a lot richer but do nowt to improve the NHS overall. A classic example of wasting money is the recent demise of the head of Wessex or some such area, who should have been sacked but was given another Job at £240000 a year??????? I know she has now gone but with a pay out of £195000??????. She was responsible, she didn't do her job properly, she should not have had a penny.Even the Salary she was paid originally, surely cannot be justified either? Talk about waste...........
I left the NHS in 2006 having worked for 34 years in the organisation. I was both a clinician and clinical manager and then a general manager as well as continuing my clinical practice. I saw many changes, and every organisational change produced waste. The organisational changes were always politically driven rather than clinically led. Since leaving I have stayed in touch with many senior clinicians, all of whom are counting the days to when they can retire. Mr Lansley's re-organisation is recognised almost universally amongst clinicians as being disastrous. It was really Thatcher who first accepted the notion that the NHS should be Generally Managed rather than the Multi-Disciplinary Management that preceded it. This led to the Major Government introducing the wholly artificial Purchaser/Provider split wherein former colleagues were effectively set against one another. Whoever thought this would improve efficiency was clearly psychotic. At the same time PFI (private finance initiative) programs were introduced from which we are still suffering. It meant money could be borrowed from the private sector at horrendous rates to pay for major capital projects. The Blair Government continued encouraging PFI whilst tinkering with the Purchaser/Provider split. Along came GP consortiums replacing district health authorities. On the provider side Health Trusts were reorganised into Foundation Trusts. Then Lansley's final changes that saw the establishment of Clinical Commissioning Groups who are charged with purchasing services be they from within the established Foundation Trusts or from the private sector. So now you have winners and losers. Services like the current RSH where almost all of the work is elective and are therefore relatively easily planned and delivered. The areas where there are major pressures for example: Casualty, Mental Health, and Elderly Care somehow are not attractive to the private sector... So now we have a disjointed hotchpotch. Over all planning is almost impossible. Staff have been through so many changes they are now both undervalued and numb. The only people to do well out of these changes are the dreaded Management Consultants, those who funded PFI and senior managers, they are quite few, who have managed to milk the changes. I could go on but suffice to say the NHS has largely been shat on by successive governments who could not bring themselves to address a very old issue. There is a continuum that runs from life saving services to life enhancing services, if the NHS is to survive there has to be agreement across the political divide as to where along that continuum should it be funded.
Absolutely spot on. I retired as a Chief Biomedical Scientist in 2013 after nearly 39 years and I still go back part time occasionally to help with some of the IT side. I completely agree with everything you say. And yes, should part of the service become insurance-based so that the acute services can remain free at the point of need? I personally have great misgivings about taking that step but the debate certainly needs to be had.
The small part of the NHS I have an insight to, is financially wasteful beyond believe. It would be laughable if it wasn't so damn serious.
Genuinely found this quite interesting. Didn't get stale, didn't really slander anyone - felt like a good insight. Take a look.
Yep. That piece is a little left-leaning in that it pretty much assumes Trump is lying. I mean, I'm pretty sure he is, but they should have some facts to back that up. But it's accurate in its description. The coal mines are kaput. They're not (IMO) ever coming back. Like the one woman said, the land is "timbered out." So, they have nothing left. The people in that area who maybe had a bit more money, or saw this coming and sent their kids to college, or had relatives in nearby counties have all moved out. These are the people that are left. Immigrants are not taking their jobs, there simply are no jobs. They are mad at Democrats because many of them have voted Democrat their whole lives. But this was not based on Democrats promising great things for coal miners or for West Virginia. It's because they were union. And unions have always endorsed Democrats. And tbf, the Democrats have to some extent been pro-labor in the sense of supporting unions and minimum wage and the like. When there was a coal industry, Democrats were on their side. But now that the coal mines are shut down, there is no union. I mean, let's be real here. No President is going to do anything for those people, because 1) politics, but also 2) there is not a solution there. At least not one that can be tackled on a national level. But you can see that Clinton is echoing the general liberal stance of wanting to help the poor, trying to transition them to some other economy that will work. Which isn't to say she will actually do it, but that is IMO the right solution. But it's not what they want. They want the coal mines back. They don't want to live on what they see as government handouts. They want to work the mines and feed their families like they have for generations. Walmart really screwed those people over, because they came and swallowed up a lot of the local businesses, became a major employer and shopping center... and then left. But no one in that clip is blaming Walmart. They are blaming the loss of the coal mines, and that loss is blamed on Democrats. So yes, these people are desperate for jobs without a doubt. But they are also really fighting for their culture. So when you promise them specifically coal mining jobs AND no immigrants moving in and introducing foreign stuff, then they are suckers for it. Even though no immigrant in their right mind would move to West Virginia. One other thing that they don't tackle in that clip. These places and people tend to be very religious. So a lot of them don't fully accept that coal or timber will ever run out. God has granted humans this land to be used and he won't let them down. That's one strong reason it's hard to convince them coal is dead. I've tried to work with people in coal mining towns. Not as bad as that one, but pretty bad. Also, I used to work with fisherman. It's the same attitude. Fisherman believe in pollution and keeping the water clean, because that is humans being wasteful and humans are capable of sin and wasting God's gifts and that is wrong. They also have to make money, and they don't always agree that what they are doing pollutes the water (and they may be right). But I mean, they are at least on board with that concept. That's a conversation you can have. OTOH it is almost impossible to convince them that an area can be overfished. They just think God will put more fish in the water for them.
Well said that man. All flavours of gov since the mid 90s have played a part in undermining the NHS. The special, nasty talent of this one is spinning it so nurses, doctors and other clinicians are blamed by the public for poorer services. Nothing to do with lack of resources of course. I remember the old 'regional' system dismantled back in the late 80s. It had many faults and the mostly clinical led management needed a kick up the pants but we (the public) fell for the idea that by employing pro (non clinical) managers and introducing 'competition' care quality would increase while costs reduced. I believe the snake oil costs extra.
