Given that ‘working people’ will have a defacto tax rise as the threshold freeze is extended again and this is meant to help provide more cash for the NHS are we allowed to ask how the ‘reform or die’ NHS fix is panning out?
Asking as we’ve had an unwanted level of contact with the NHS over the last couple of weeks. Mother in law with dementia has an incredibly badly infected eye, which she has lost the sight in and it might have to come out entirely. Clinical care, and the patience and attitude of clinical and support staff has been brilliant during a week long stay and emergency operation in Birmingham Eye Hospital. The basic organisation of services has been pathetic. She has required a few scans which they don’t do at the Eye Hospital, but do at the City Hospital, 200m away. To transport her from one to another required permission and funding from North Warwickshire CCG - phone calls and waiting every time and impossible to do at weekends because there is no one to authorise the cost. She was due to be discharged but couldn’t be because they couldn’t put the care package in place (4 visits a day from a district nurse) in time - so she has been transferred to yet another hospital to avoid blocking an acute eye surgery bed. Complete waste of resources. This is a confused old lady whose dementia care is run from Nuneaton and Rugby, arthritis is managed in Solihull, eyes in near enough West Bromwich, and now a community hospital over there as well. She also visits a variety of A&E services on a regular basis. She lives in a place called Coleshill, which is apparently, in healthcare terms, the South Pole.
My point is that all this **** is organisational. I’m sure we need more clinical funding everywhere, but most of the issues we are dealing with arise from poor organisation, management and administration. Fixing this would not require cash, but some ****ing common sense. Time to bin the internal market, strip out layers of bureaucracy and have clear lines of accountability. People like my mother in law, who are incredibly high users of health services and stunningly expensive, should have a case worker responsible for coordinating all the various services involved. And a nurse should never spend 30 minutes trying to set up transport for a 200m journey.
Sorry, rant over. Over to you Wes.
