Dear old angry geezers - if only those various NHS bodies were like Rhett Butler and leave, not giving a damn! Instead they are like Scarlett O'Hara: they stay, reassuring themselves that 'tomorrow is another day' ... After all, there always has been another day and surely will be - until everyone will be working for the NHS - those on bennies and 'asylum seekers' of course excepted ...
The NHS has never met medical need or public expectations and never will. There have been dozens of major and minor changes to the system since 1948 and none have worked, despite the best minds (supposedly) being applied to the issues. The inescapable conclusion is that the task of reorganisation is impossible.
My book "Mad Medicine: Myths, maxims and mayhem in the National Health Service" dissects the various reasons for failure, but three things stand out; absence of common sense, the loss of institutional memory, and failure to apply the law of unintended consequences. Examples of each: an inability to see that if you double the number of surgeons but don't double the facilities for them to work in, then productivity per head will halve; failure to recognise that the latest wheeze to fix things was tried 20 years ago, and didn't work then; if you increase pay above inflation but don't cover the increase then something else will have to be cut.
During Covid all the public health systems, helped by complicit media, managed to sell the “we are heroes” story and changing the public perception that was originally pretty bad. Since then they feel entitled to work less, claim for more money while appealing to emotional reactions from the public to get support. Time someone put out numbers, productivity, waste into DEI and other woke initiatives.
Universal healthcare is in trouble here in Canada too. The premier of Ontario has been trying to sneak in for profit systems. I can get a private whole body MRI at a cost of $5,000 plus, it can go up from there. I have a neurologist appointment for vaccine injury which is 18 months out. My family doctors told me our healthcare is imploding. I have no idea how universal healthcare is doing in other countries, I don’t have family anywhere but the U.K.
BTW, my doctor tried to refer me to two other neurologists but they’re at capacity, so my referral was declined. Seems they’re in in high demand right now. Geez, I wonder why?
It's obvious to me that the NHS is the victim of financial jiggery pokery. It's just not possible for an organization to absorb so much money for so little service improvement.
The financial arrangement of the DHSC are Byzantine. It means the uninitiated have little hope of understanding what is really going on.
I tried. 80% of NHS England's budget is allocated to Integrated Care Boards, which in turn allocate about 80% of their budget to NHS Trusts and independent healthcare providers. So perhaps a third of the budget somehow disappears.
A similar scenario is found in the story of HS2. Inflated contract prices. Poor financial control. Ill-judged grandiose projects. If you don't believe me, have a look at today's telegraph:
Fully agree. From everything I see and read the NHS needs a full reset.
I know there are lots of anecdotes,
and I will add mine from today. Was called on the phone for a review of medication (was given a 2 hour window during which they could call me). It was a nurse practitioner. Perfectly pleasant. Problem was that the information she gave was contrary to the information the specialist gave me 14 months ago…. I asked her if the evidence had changed, but she could not answer.
So who should I believe?
Shambles. Will have to do my own research again…..
Good grief, Health Geek-out indeed. A perfect name for the new wonderdrug DNA/RNA treatment that will be injected in your arm in order to prevent Altzheimers,slim you down and stop you catching Blackbird flu.
Almost Trumpian in its crass stupidity and dont get me started on the lack of interest let alone mention of the Cinderella service of the NHS, my former profession, dentistry! GRRR!
Yes, NHS Reorganisations are a bit like Public Enquiries: they give the illusion of doing something whilst buying time, and all at monstrous expense. All that really happens is that the senior managers play musical chairs, awarding themselves the associated pay rises and bonuses - or massive redundancy payouts and/or early retirement pensions -for doing precisely nothing of any import to improve the patient pathway.
Hurling yet more money at the NHS was never going to work. The shambles that is the administration tells you all you need to know. Function, not funding is at the core of this mess. I share your anger. My father was a senior lecturer in biochemistry at CXH for nearly 40 years. Towards the end of his tenure, he became utterly fed up with being sidelined by his boss who thought he had passed his sell-by date. Instead there was an obsession with chasing research funding while teaching was seen as a secondary and rather lowly function of the medical school. Way too many egos getting in the way.
The problem isn't the NHS!! Ask Sir Michael Marmot - he can explain how wider government policy (not fixing housing, keeping older people cold and families and children in poverty etc......) makes people ill, then Mr Streeting wonders why the NHS is over-whelmed - duh!!! So the socio economically disadvantaged have a higher incidence of 'avoidable' illness, not through poor choice, but by having NO choice about housing, diet, environment. Avoidable illness is, according to the DOH, costing 40% of the NHS budget (as well as huge suffering for people). So why can't we just avoid the avoidable illness? Because to do so would mean addressing poverty and inequity; if the govt decides on taxation, benefits and minimum wage, then poverty is definitely a political choice. Would also have to tackle BigFood and BigPharma. Big Food sells stuff which pretends to be food but displaces real food and is in itself harmful, hence widespread malnutrition and its consequences, especially in our children. BigPharma's influence on professions and their training keeps us away from the straightforward lifestyle changes - especially diet - which would, along with fixing poverty, turn this around. Government could do this - unless of course they succumb to BigPressure!
Politics is the art of looking for trouble,
finding it everywhere, diagnosing it
incorrectly and applying the wrong
remedies. (Groucho Marx, 1890-1977)
Dear old angry geezers - if only those various NHS bodies were like Rhett Butler and leave, not giving a damn! Instead they are like Scarlett O'Hara: they stay, reassuring themselves that 'tomorrow is another day' ... After all, there always has been another day and surely will be - until everyone will be working for the NHS - those on bennies and 'asylum seekers' of course excepted ...
The NHS has never met medical need or public expectations and never will. There have been dozens of major and minor changes to the system since 1948 and none have worked, despite the best minds (supposedly) being applied to the issues. The inescapable conclusion is that the task of reorganisation is impossible.
My book "Mad Medicine: Myths, maxims and mayhem in the National Health Service" dissects the various reasons for failure, but three things stand out; absence of common sense, the loss of institutional memory, and failure to apply the law of unintended consequences. Examples of each: an inability to see that if you double the number of surgeons but don't double the facilities for them to work in, then productivity per head will halve; failure to recognise that the latest wheeze to fix things was tried 20 years ago, and didn't work then; if you increase pay above inflation but don't cover the increase then something else will have to be cut.
During Covid all the public health systems, helped by complicit media, managed to sell the “we are heroes” story and changing the public perception that was originally pretty bad. Since then they feel entitled to work less, claim for more money while appealing to emotional reactions from the public to get support. Time someone put out numbers, productivity, waste into DEI and other woke initiatives.
Universal healthcare is in trouble here in Canada too. The premier of Ontario has been trying to sneak in for profit systems. I can get a private whole body MRI at a cost of $5,000 plus, it can go up from there. I have a neurologist appointment for vaccine injury which is 18 months out. My family doctors told me our healthcare is imploding. I have no idea how universal healthcare is doing in other countries, I don’t have family anywhere but the U.K.
BTW, my doctor tried to refer me to two other neurologists but they’re at capacity, so my referral was declined. Seems they’re in in high demand right now. Geez, I wonder why?
It's obvious to me that the NHS is the victim of financial jiggery pokery. It's just not possible for an organization to absorb so much money for so little service improvement.
The financial arrangement of the DHSC are Byzantine. It means the uninitiated have little hope of understanding what is really going on.
I tried. 80% of NHS England's budget is allocated to Integrated Care Boards, which in turn allocate about 80% of their budget to NHS Trusts and independent healthcare providers. So perhaps a third of the budget somehow disappears.
A similar scenario is found in the story of HS2. Inflated contract prices. Poor financial control. Ill-judged grandiose projects. If you don't believe me, have a look at today's telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5c38e46c0972c7b8
"When Cresswell turned whistleblower to warn of the railway’s soaring expense, it cost him his job and, for a time, his health."
We need such brave people to shed light on the financial arrangements of our health system. Maybe that will be Mr Cresswell's new career.
Fully agree. From everything I see and read the NHS needs a full reset.
I know there are lots of anecdotes,
and I will add mine from today. Was called on the phone for a review of medication (was given a 2 hour window during which they could call me). It was a nurse practitioner. Perfectly pleasant. Problem was that the information she gave was contrary to the information the specialist gave me 14 months ago…. I asked her if the evidence had changed, but she could not answer.
So who should I believe?
Shambles. Will have to do my own research again…..
Good grief, Health Geek-out indeed. A perfect name for the new wonderdrug DNA/RNA treatment that will be injected in your arm in order to prevent Altzheimers,slim you down and stop you catching Blackbird flu.
Almost Trumpian in its crass stupidity and dont get me started on the lack of interest let alone mention of the Cinderella service of the NHS, my former profession, dentistry! GRRR!
I was also informed that graduate doctors cannot find placements? So they have to re-apply, go abroad, locum or leave the profession? Is this correct?
Yes, NHS Reorganisations are a bit like Public Enquiries: they give the illusion of doing something whilst buying time, and all at monstrous expense. All that really happens is that the senior managers play musical chairs, awarding themselves the associated pay rises and bonuses - or massive redundancy payouts and/or early retirement pensions -for doing precisely nothing of any import to improve the patient pathway.
Remember the Vote Leave Bus claim about £350m a week extra for the NHS. Small beer. £29bn equals over £550m a week.
I'm confused, and that is bad because its my money. As I see it 29bn is spread over 4 years, which equates to 6bn this year (ie 3% of 200bn).
NHS: The health service gets £29bn for day-to-day spending - a 3% rise for each year until the next general election; https://news.sky.com/story/reeves-hands-nhs-29bn-extra-per-year-and-pledges-to-end-asylum-hotels-13382142
✔️
Spot on!
Hurling yet more money at the NHS was never going to work. The shambles that is the administration tells you all you need to know. Function, not funding is at the core of this mess. I share your anger. My father was a senior lecturer in biochemistry at CXH for nearly 40 years. Towards the end of his tenure, he became utterly fed up with being sidelined by his boss who thought he had passed his sell-by date. Instead there was an obsession with chasing research funding while teaching was seen as a secondary and rather lowly function of the medical school. Way too many egos getting in the way.
The problem isn't the NHS!! Ask Sir Michael Marmot - he can explain how wider government policy (not fixing housing, keeping older people cold and families and children in poverty etc......) makes people ill, then Mr Streeting wonders why the NHS is over-whelmed - duh!!! So the socio economically disadvantaged have a higher incidence of 'avoidable' illness, not through poor choice, but by having NO choice about housing, diet, environment. Avoidable illness is, according to the DOH, costing 40% of the NHS budget (as well as huge suffering for people). So why can't we just avoid the avoidable illness? Because to do so would mean addressing poverty and inequity; if the govt decides on taxation, benefits and minimum wage, then poverty is definitely a political choice. Would also have to tackle BigFood and BigPharma. Big Food sells stuff which pretends to be food but displaces real food and is in itself harmful, hence widespread malnutrition and its consequences, especially in our children. BigPharma's influence on professions and their training keeps us away from the straightforward lifestyle changes - especially diet - which would, along with fixing poverty, turn this around. Government could do this - unless of course they succumb to BigPressure!