The NHS needs more capacity to get the waiting lists down. During the pandemic the NHS did provide many more beds in the Nightingale units in case the pandemic caseloads became too great. They resisted advice to use these facilities for all covid work to keep the General hospitals infection free and able to carry on with their regular work. As a result we have a big backlog.
Large additional sums of money have been made available to the NHS to handle the one offĀ costs of tackling the pandemic, and to deal with the waiting lists. In order to Ā cut waiting lists we may well need more beds in the NHS. It has been one of the features of the NHS that managers have always chosen to operate with relatively few beds compared to the workload and have said they aim to make very productive use of these beds. It leads to issues over so called bed blockers, and how easy it is to send patients on to care in the community or recuperation in other NHS institutions beyond the District General hospital.
It should surely be relatively easy to provide more beds. Some of the beds and equipment acquired for the Nightingales might be available to get us started. The NHS could also set up specialist units in different properties to undertake procedures like cataract removal or other simpler surgery away from the DG hospital.
Apparently the new issue is the numbers of staff this will need. Of course just adding beds is no use without enough nurses and doctors to administer to the extra patients. I understand that the NHS has many jobs open for applicants currently, with many more posts allowed for in the budget than the NHS has staff. The NHS needs to see what it can do to encourage qualified people to return to its employment andĀ whatĀ canĀ be done to promote more people through education and training . The NHS should also consider the balance of work between highly qualified doctors and nurses and other staff to see if more assistance can be safely given to the medically trained to provide great service to more patients.
November 16, 2021
a) The structure and financing of the NHS was designed for the world as it was in the 1940s. There is NO WAY it can keep dealing with the increase in medical science or the population growth/extension of life expectancy that has been seen since then.
b) It was not just management that favoured reducing the number of beds per hospital – it was an idea warmly promoted by consultants, just as it was psychiatric consultants who favoured closing mental health asylums in favour of care in the community.
c) Recuperation – I would be very interested to know if any other poster is aware of recuperation/convalescence institutions within or without the NHS in their area – we had one such facility within our London area and it was eventually closed because none of the relevant doctors used it or even knew about it. That was not local rumour or hearsay – as a member of a Patient Health committee and as a carer, I knew about it personally.
November 16, 2021
Great Western Railway used to have a convalescent home near Par, Cornwall. Trenython Manor.
It was so beautiful thereā¦all ruined now of course.
Now holiday accommodation.
At that homogenous and sensible time they also had ISOLATION HOSPITALS.
November 16, 2021
There was also a time when GPs did duty at hospitals.
I remember my younger daughter had her tonsils taken out b one of our GPs, I also remember my wife stayed the night at the hospital while this was going on.
November 16, 2021
SM. Many of the cottage hospitals as they were known have now closed unfortunately. I know after the birth of my first child I experience health problems and needed rest. The hospital I was sent to in the New Forest was brilliant and very restful. It no longer exists along with many others. Indeed new mothers are sent out of hospital the same day now. Many people after major operations are being sent out within 24 hours only to find they have complications and have to go back in again. This is very costly to the NHS and not a pleasant experience for the patient.
November 16, 2021
In Germany many patients are routinely sent to was one could almost describe as hotels to recuperate after an illness. Some patients even regard it as their right to a soācalled Kur. A friend of mine had a more or less routine operation on his arm, after which he spent about three weeks on Kur in a topārank spar town: mornings cycling, afternoons tableātennis and evenings free for a stroll etc. Pus three good meals a day.
Dream on folks.
November 16, 2021
Yes I got sent out after a kidney operation by robotic modern methods, was back in again within 24 hours, was there for about a week, then back out for approx two weeks, then back in again 4pm Christmas Eve with an infection for approx 2 weeks.
Woke up Christmas morning to a piper’s skirl by my bed – much appreciated !
November 16, 2021
@SM; a/. If a state backed health organization, either via direct taxation or a mandatory stealth tax (as is the case for example in Germany), with in effect a bottomless pit for a budget can not “keep dealing with the increase in medical science or the population growth/extension of life expectancy” then no health care system can. So what is the solution, limit expectation, not sure how that will fly as a manifesto commitment though!
b/. Wrong, such ideas were put forward by politicos as ways to cut the cost of the NHS and thus the tax burden.
c/. If no doctor knew about the conversant facility then the Patient Health committee failed in their task!… Or was this just another example of constructive closure by Whitehall.
November 16, 2021
jerry:
a) you are correct, no state-backed health system (in my opinion) can cope with the strain I referred to. Part of the answer may be to actually consult the public without political and emotive rhetoric and give them facts. As a partial guideline, I suggest you look at the State of Oregon’s handling of just such matters.
b) I am not wrong about bed reduction and asylum closure – I know because I participated in some of the NHS meetings on those subjects in my area of London over a number of years, under both Labour and Conservative governments.
c) the Patient Health committees were not set up to do the NHS’s communications work but to get better care for patients from existing sources and staff. From my years of dealing with the NHS, both in committee and as a carer, I have found that too many staff – both medical and administrative – are past masters at shrugging their shoulders and denying all knowledge of the assistance that is actually available to patients.
November 17, 2021
SM; a/. You miss understood me, if a state backed health system can’t cope then no private health care system will ether – as we see in the USA, so no I will not be taking lessons from any state or country who should actually be taking lessons from the UK or at least Germany. But at last, after years of deigning, you have admitted you want to import the US Medicaid system to the UK for those who can not afford health care insurance policies, thus scrapping our universal free at the point of need system. Good luck flying that policy in plain sight at the next election!
b/. I take it you are talking about the 1960s or the 1970s when you say you participated in certain NHS meetings. Are you seriously suggesting hospital manages simply decided to close wards, if not entire hospitals, not having been required to find cost savings by the govt dept. first?
c/. Pass the buck why not, if these Patient Health committees were set up to get better care for patients from existing resources and staff and to achieve that (the committees reason for existing) meant there needed to be better communications you failed to either act yourselves or get others in the NHS to act.
November 16, 2021
On b) it was the medical profession and social workers who insisted on treating psychiatric patients “in the community” rather than in hospitals and asylums. The argument ran for years. Government understood at the time it would cost more. It is not true to say it was done to save money and it didn’t.
November 17, 2021
@rose; The issue is not ‘care in the community’ but the fate of the hospitals, their wards and beds that were the backup to community care, either rest-bite or long term. Care in the Community was before the 1980s was never envisaged as a policy of either/or, meaning little or no back-up if/when Care in the Community failed for what ever reason, and some in-patients were never going to cope being out-patients yet they were still moved out of institutional care. I also disagree with your assertions on cost, our county mental hospital has been sold off and its buildings and grounds are now private apartments and housing, as is our once isolation hospital, ‘nough said…
November 16, 2021
In Lancashire we have such facilities, and my mother, in her 80s, has twice been moved there from a large teaching hospital, once after a hip replacement whilst facilities were being provided in her home, and once to facilitate her mobility after an infection left her bed-ridden in hospital for a month.
The continuation hospital is co-located with physiotherapists and occupational therapists, and medical care is provided by her GPs and other local GP practices.
The system works very well.
November 16, 2021
I might as well post it here.
If all the UK’s health provision problems are caused by immigrants, then how come countries with more immigrants than the UK – such as Germany and France – meet the needs of their peoples rather better than does the UK?
November 16, 2021
Where was immigration mentioned at all in this section?
November 16, 2021
Because they have better more modern systems than we do.
November 16, 2021
We are the only country which treats people free at the point of use with no check on identity or eligibility. This is one of the very strong pull factors we are hearing about at the moment.
November 16, 2021
You might as well post it here – you wouldn’t want to make yourself look daft in front of a wider audience. Most immigrants are young and do not put demands on the health service to any great extent. The problem is that it is an organisation that is simply too large to manage effectively – by the halfwits that we elect to govern us.
November 16, 2021
NLH
In a word -management
November 16, 2021
Go ahead, I’m sure you want to tell us?
November 16, 2021
Nottingham Lad Himself :
Have you seen the pictures of the immigrant camps in Northern France?
November 17, 2021
There are two ways to have an effective and efficient health service.
Administrator run. The administrator have total control over the medics, including hours they work, how time is allocated, patient priority, treatments available, doctor promotions etc etc
Doctor run. Medics have total control. And accountability for keeping to budget.
Either can work well for patients, staff, and the ultimate founders.
Anything else is a dogās breakfast that guarantees poor service levels, inefficiency, expensive procurement, bad capital investment control, poor career paths and endless bickering.
Itās a simple test:
– who can authorise an expensive treatment towards the end of the financial year?
– who gets their pay docked and/or fired if the unit exceeds its budget?
If itās not the same person/group then the system is doomed to fail.
What option is proposed under these new reforms?
November 16, 2021
GP’s are doing an excellent job of keeping the waiting lists down. It is nigh on impossible to see one, so diagnoses are rarely made therefore no additions to the lists.
Doing battle with the rottweiler receptionists to try and get some help is not anyones favourite pastime when you are feeling really ill. Why do people have to beg for appointments and tell a non-medical receptionist the details and seriousness of our complaint in order to be ‘considered’ for a few minutes of the doctors time? I wonder how many people just ‘give up’? It is so tempting when a person feels really ill.
November 16, 2021
+
The ultimate humiliation.
No doubt said Rottweilers have been on various bonkers courses.
āHow to humiliate and denigrate with maximum effectā ( only in Nu Speak obviously).
November 16, 2021
The way GPs are remunerated with a per cap fee is the main problem. People rarely have any difficulty seeing a vet the same day with their pets. This as because they pay. If the vet does not see them he does not get paid if there is a delay they go to another vet.
The Nightingale hospitals were clearly just a PR stunt and distraction wasting millions. This as the never had any staff free for them.
We should pay people on the waiting lists to go privately say 40% of the cost. Saving 60% of the cost, getting them treated earlier and shortening the waiting lists for other. Give people tax breaks on medical insurance cover & abolish the 12% IPT tax on this insurance. People can fly to say India to get treatment if not available in the UK. The private sector in the UK would then enlarge to meet this demand. Perhaps make such insurance cover the any NHS treatments too if used. Make all who can pay something for NHS treatment to kill this state run, communist, fairly dire, rationed and delayed monopoly healthcare system.
When you train say an aircraft engineer you do not have to train them on all aspects of the aircraft before they can do useful work so why do so with medicine. No reason why you can not just train people just to do cataract, knee or hip operations in far less than the 5-6 years is needed for a doctor or 10 years for a surgeon. It is often just a skilled manual job needed in essence. If there are complication other specialist can be consulted.
It is not very clear from the figures that the lockdowns and school closures did far more damage than good by delaying the young getting natural protection. The Barrington Declaration was always the correct way to go.
November 16, 2021
Indeed LL good points but getting government interested in common sense solutions is not going to happen with the present crew. Perhaps our host can shout in Boris’ ear to get some changes although I expect a better course is to get rid of Boris asap.
November 16, 2021
DavidJ – It is not going to happen with ANY crew. And who are you going to replace Boris with, they are all the same and they promote the Globalist UK Establishment
policy. Remember the real conspiracy theorists believe their government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the pharmaceutical industry that makes billions from sickness wants to cure you.
November 16, 2021
GP,s are the reason why A&E are overwhelmed.
Last night my friend who blogs on here was rushed into hospital and the only way I could get action for him was by calling the police.
The GP practice is disgraceful but they still keep taking our money.
I bet IR35 doesn’t apply to them.
November 16, 2021
Sad news
November 16, 2021
@Shirley M; “I wonder how many people just āgive upā?”
Indeed, but on the flip side I wounder how many also feel better within days, as nature always intended.
It would be interesting to see the breakdown of what ailments and illnesses the currently overrun A&Es are treating…
November 16, 2021
Jerry. I don’t know. Maybe the rottweiler receptionists could tell you? Surely (as the experts they think they are) they know the hypochondriacs, and the ones who only ever call for genuine reasons, or should do? Even hypochondriacs get ill at time, don’t they? I doubt the receptionists are medically trained, so why are they allowed to make all the decisions over when, or if, a patient gets a doctors attention?
Maybe if doctors were differently it would help. They get paid per registered patient, even if they never see them. Maybe if they were paid per appointment, as they are paid per covid jab, we would get better service?
November 16, 2021
Apologies for the typos. I intended to say ‘maybe if doctors were paid differently’.
November 16, 2021
@Shirley M; Paying doctors per appointment would not mean those in real need, not just those who think they are in need, as currently ‘triaged’ by those you call “rottweiler receptionists” [1], would see a doctor any quicker, indeed it could even make the problem worse as many more easy (antiseptic cream and plaster or paracetamol and bed rest for 48 hours, or indeed have a preference to offer flu and/or Covid vaccinations….) cases would be seen in preference to a patient who might need a longer consultation.
[1] and whilst receptionists might not be medically trained I am sure they work from Q&A crib sheets that are written by medically trained people
November 16, 2021
+1
November 16, 2021
I wonder how many just die within days?
November 17, 2021
@MT; If anyone was feeling that ill why did they not call either NHS101 or 999 for an ambulance, and if they were that ill and even got an immediate GP appointment/home visit what would the GP have done, other than call an ambulance to the surgery or home?
November 16, 2021
Large sums of money have been allocated.
It not about how much, it is about how and where it is spent. Operating theatres have to be used 24/7 with breaks for sterilisation and cleaning after use. Have the requisite number of trained staff to engage in a rolling 24/7 programme? Patient GP medical centres should be used to carry out the minor operations. I was sent to a private hospital to have a suspect mole removed, excessive travelling and what appeared a long drawn out process carried out over three visits. Aside from the medical experience the financial cost, the impact on the environment due to all the travelling. It all starts to add up to impacting on the bigger picture.
November 16, 2021
Everyone I speak to says that their town/village is being swamped with new houses but no more services including GPS, hospital beds, schools and dentists. When you are allowing thousands of illegals to stay each week it’s no surprise there are problems. Many of our indigenous population can’t get and NHS dentist now. Waiting lists for serious conditions are unacceptably long. Does the government think these illegals don’t need medical intervention? The extra demands being put on this country’s services of all kinds are unacceptable.
November 16, 2021
Well said, FUS. The outskirts of our small town was fields, mostly arable but some grazing, but is now covered in housing all the way round. Every square inch available gets new housing even where the land is quite steep (a recipe for fun on icy roads!). Our once tiny town has probably doubled in size, but no new doctors, no new schools, although we have doubled the number of supermarkets.
November 16, 2021
Indeed.
November 16, 2021
F U S
Think to hit that well and truly on the head.
November 16, 2021
+1
Extraordinary U turn really.
Having been bullied all my life by dentists and Drs suddenly it just doesnāt matter.
Oh except for the MANDATORY jabssssssssssssss!
November 16, 2021
Illegals arenāt allowed to stay because they are illegal.
November 16, 2021
Only in your fantasy world is that the case.
Only a few days ago thirty seven ‘illegals’ were on a deportation flight. It left with four on board !!!
November 16, 2021
@ Andy – so what is the reason they are allowed to stay then, because the Home Office has not the gumption to see them removed?
November 16, 2021
I donāt vote for the incompetent people who run your government. Ask them. You vote for them.
November 16, 2021
Which is why I don’t ever mention ‘illegal’.
The Tories really need to knuckle down on their promises to bring legal immigration legal down to tens of thousands a year.
You realise that Jacinda Ardern (your hero) is the PM of a country with a very strict and limited *legal* immigration policy, don’t you ?
November 16, 2021
No longer anonymous
No country in Europe the size of the UK only has tens of thousands migrants a year it’s an illusion and does not work
November 17, 2021
What we have
does
not
work
November 16, 2021
Tell us young Andy what percentage are actually not allowed to stay.
November 17, 2021
Well, Andy – and the circumstances are as yet unclear – there are reports that the presumed bomber in Liverpool was refused a right to appeal against not being granted Asylum as long ago as 2014, a full seven years ago.
For some reason he was not deported, evidently.
Whether this was never attempted, or whether it was, but he managed to evade the authorities has, as far as I know, not yet been established.
November 16, 2021
I bet they go to the top of the list for housing, NHS treatment, access to free lawyers and DWP benefits.
November 16, 2021
Asylum seekers (who are not “illegals”) are given accommodation wherever the local authority decides, they have no choice. They receive Ā£39.63 per week each which is in line with other countries. EG France (which has more refugees) gives EUR 47.60 a week. There are no other DWP benefits available to them. The money is for food and toiletries. It’s not quite the luxurious lifestyle you imagine. If asylum is refused there is no entitlement to financial support. It is only if asylum is refused, all appeals are exhausted and the person does not make any attempt to leave the country that they become “illegal”
November 16, 2021
How is it possible for them to be classified as “asylum seekers” when they have come from a safe country, i.e. France for the most part, where they should have sought asylum under the rules?
November 16, 2021
Under the actual rules (as opposed to the fake rules Farage has told you about) they can claim asylum where they like. There is no āfirst safe countryā rule.
They may have travelled through France but they are not from France. If they were from France they would not be eligible for asylum.
November 16, 2021
Villa king. Well the system needs a radical overhaul then . I suppose when we’re bulging at the seams and are looking like a third world country ourselves someone just might sit up and take notice. What I want to know is where are all these ‘asylum’ seekers being housed eventually? They can’t stay in hotels forever. ….there aren’t enough and the supply would be exhasted so they must eventually be a burden on the housing stock and other services. Or is that a stupid summary? Can someone who thinks the situation is fine just say how many they think is too many or is that a difficult question?
November 16, 2021
Villaking, the Home Office says they provide accommodation, 3 meals a day and drinks, and the allowance of Ā£39.63 it is not for basic food provisions that is covered. They have also been instructed recently to pay for phone calls by the court.
November 16, 2021
Trevor Kavanagh on Farage last night speculated that there were 4 million illegals living here. I gather a GP service opened for illegals was swamped by 4,000 people, we saw the massive queues when the Government gave no questions asked covid vaccines, and supermarkets believe they are servicing the needs of a population of 80 million . Decades of the British establishment failing to defend our borders has its consequences , and unbelievably the Government’s control of our borders is not getting better it is getting a whole lot worse.
November 16, 2021
Yes, 4 million illegals sounds eminently credible. As I have pointed out here before, a well-researched article I read many years ago calculated there were at least 2 million illegals at that time, and obviously the number will have rocketed up since then! Our services just are not equipped to deal with this country’s gross overpopulation. For our geographic size, anything over 55 million is too much. Our quality of life has been utterly DESTROYED by filthy, treacherous governments and politicians who have allowed mass, uncontrolled immigration to ruin the country.
November 16, 2021
Too right X-Tory.
November 16, 2021
Those who object to major new housing plans are sneeringly labelled NIMBYs, as though we were all Lords of the Manor who objected to their greenswards being co-opted, when in fact it is almost entirely to do with the lack of service provision.
November 16, 2021
Totally agree. Large numbers continuing to flow into this country is now one of the biggest single things not helping the NHS. Yet it is the elephant in the room that the so called Conservatives continue to ignore.
Big talk, but as ever no action on this issue.
The existing NHS budget would likely be enough, if it were not for the increasing numbers it is expected to cover. The NHS is not free. There is a cost to providing a ‘free’ health system – namely through our taxes.
I’m now highly in favour of every entitled UK citizen being given an ‘entitlement card’ which allows for access to public services and benefits. No card = no access to services, or benefits. The card would have a photo and QR code that would be scanned and checked against a database of eligible persons. If the computer says No = no access to benefits, or services. Weak borders and weak checks of people accessing services and benefits they are not entitled to, have now pushed me to supporting such an idea.
It is not on that a limited number of taxpayers are forced to support an ever increasing number of non contributors towards the NHS.
To Mr Redwood I say this.
If you want the Conservatives to suffer defeat at the next election, then carry on as you are.
Former Conservatives like myself have no intention of voting for your party in its current incarnation of sleaze, liberalism over conservatism and empty promises.
If not, you and other backbench Conservative MPs need to start telling Boris that he needs to start delivering on his promises and stop hiding behind covid and ‘EU rules’ (that I thought we got away from), in order to start delivering.
If he can’t, then you should starting looking for a new leader who can.
November 16, 2021
Oh my word Mark J, what an excellent post. I agree with every word.
November 17, 2021
Fish rots from the head. 80 seat majority can enforce its will and it is. Our political system is corrupt as it does not align with voters expressed wishes.
The NHS capacity problems are the direct result of not being honest about the population numbers and acting early and sensibly.
Is the policy , divide and conquer. Using the resulting problems to liquidate us all down to compliant plantation inhabitants , some paid , some state funded, but all paid in increasingly worthless plantation scrip valid only in the plantation shop. Where all real assets are held at high values due to money policy.Inflation now running ahead of wages, even with exclusions and adjustment. Ā£ v oil . Ā£ v commodities. Ā£ v even the US dollar!
Digital passports. Travel & work restrictions.Social credit scores. Hate speech. Compulsory re-education.
Of course these rules are for thee and not me.
MMT is fine but you have tax the spending after its spent.It can’t all of leached offshore?
How many business owners have been fined or jailed for employing illegal labour?
How many organisations have supported open borders and free movement under the guise of “asylum”.
It no longer matters we are full.
Hence harder decsions will we will have to be made.
We need zero migration and need to defend that like the Poles. These violent invaders are not stopping at Poland. They are enroute to the UK.
No legal immigration ,unless the job skill shortage can command a salary of Ā£75,000 or more.
November 16, 2021
The government and the political and media elite are entirely wedded to the global project of bringing down nation-states. This cannot be done without mass migration.
November 16, 2021
+1
November 16, 2021
+1
November 16, 2021
With 20k added to the patient data base every year one has to be asking what is the cost to the NHS budget for the treatment and checking of all these sea taxis people. I cannot believe that these people are not subjected to some very basic medical examinations at the point of entry. If they are not then it’s a long slow fuse burning, but what the heck they can use the NHS just like they used the RNLI. The British taxpayer will foot the bill.
November 16, 2021
Personally I think that during OUR plague they were whisked off to the closed and closeted hospitals. In secret.
I did hear that they got immediate dental treatment.
November 17, 2021
Well im still waiting to get a local dentist on the NHS. I keep trying every 5 years or so but they are always full and not accepting. Still the NHS website paints a rosy picture and they just use up your life on the phone. Mandatory jabs !!! I would like a mandatory ( not just on paper illusion) NHS dentist!
November 17, 2021
Hmmm….another mandatory service you often cannot get, but the Government makes you pay anyway.
November 16, 2021
Until then migration crisis is handled and not ignored, the situation can only get worse. May I humbly suggest that all migrants are relocated to South Georgia and given enough support to build a new community. Inshore fishing boats can be provided to earn a living, and support vessels bringing in supplies and red cross facilities. There would be no escape by rubber dingy anymore. Migrants could develop their skills to be of value for permanent places in other countries. Any illegal migrants already in the UK should join them unless they could show they had supported themselves, paid taxation and made a positive contribution.
By the way, last week my daughter of 22 years service at a college for disabled young adults was sacked (statuary dismissal) along with another estimated 57,000 in the care home sector workers. Fit to work throughout the Covid crisis, on tenth of November, but not the eleventh. Good luck with the bed blocking in the NHS ā a crisis created by the Conservatives.
November 16, 2021
+1. The care home policy is a disaster and probably illegal.
November 16, 2021
Good post Turbo
November 16, 2021
The NHS has become a threat to its patients and to the taxpayer. It acts politically. It is deceitful and it engineers and contrives crisis after crisis as a malicious weapon to extract ever greater levels of funding from government.
With a Tory party now captured by Labour’s gangster client state, Johnson and other Tory leaders have no choice but to continue to throw ever greater levels of our cash at Labour’s ever expanding power base which is what the unionised NHS has now become.
Tory party weakness is costing the UK billions of pounds a year simply because they are financing their politics using the taxpayer. Party above taxpayer. Party above national interest. Party protection above all even freedom
Let’s face it, your party has sold us all down the Socialist river to protect itself from a more powerful enemy. It has become Socialist itself as an act of both appeasement and protection
November 16, 2021
I often āseeā things but donāt understand what I am āseeingā.
Pretty stupid OK but years ago I bored the pants off everyone twining on about that Bullingdon Club photo.
It gave me a sense of ālaying wasteā but I dismissed the thought. They were the trustworthy ruling class after all.
Wasnāt wrong though was I?
The only one missing of course was that previous leader of āLabourā whom they all so admire! And do the bidding of!
November 16, 2021
Dom – Yes, sums it up nicely.
On this website, we keep on telling each other what we already know. We’d be better off thinking what action to take while we still have some semblance of a democratic society left. That means putting our shoulder to the wheel and joining action groups or political parties that can defeat Tory candidates in our wards and constituencies: Chesham and Amersham on a nationwide scale. In my view, it is only that kind of shock therapy that’s going to allow the Conservative party to recover its political compass and speak for its traditional supporters again.
November 16, 2021
Labour can do that, Philip.
I’m voting Labour at the next election. If we’re having Commies then let’s have the real thing and not a bunch of fakers who deliver the same policies anyway.
If Northern strongholds can turn Tory…
November 16, 2021
you have a very good point.
November 16, 2021
My son is a Junior Doctor in the NHS working 70 hour weeks in a busy London hospital often with no lunch breaks and certainly with no appreciation. Morale is so low that many are thinking of quitting the profession altogether if they havenāt already. How will Johnsonās recruitment of dozens more managers on their Ā£270,000 salaries help them?Unlike them by the time he has paid income tax, national insurance and 9% student debt, it doesnāt leave much at the end of the month after he has paid his monthly London rental costs.
Hereās an idea, why not cancel all medical graduatesā student debts on condition they work for the NHS for say 10 years? After all, most of those taking worthless degrees will have the bulk of their student debts, if not all, written off by the taxpayer. Or is that too sensible an idea for this out of touch incompetent Government?
November 16, 2021
+1
The financial pressure on the families to help their kids through med school is immense too. Six years of support in my boy’s case. In financial terms it feels like a big mistake.
November 16, 2021
Exactly – same here NLA.
November 16, 2021
The problem in most areas of concern is that “out of touch incompetent Government”. Of course there are a few exceptions but not enough.
November 16, 2021
Good points there Jools
November 16, 2021
Was all this a terrible shock, or did he think it would be a bed of roses, sitting at the bedside whispering words of comfort to the dying, or with other staff waving a happy goodbye to a miraculous patient cured?
November 16, 2021
All the thousands of ex medically trained staff now employed within the organisation in administrative positions should be called upon to return to the front line and utilise the training skills they have. The retired doctors and nurses could be called upon to cover their positions in the administration blocks. They are trained and I would be confident they could answer the majority of emails and phone calls. Carried out on a two day on two day off cycle should not see the collapse of the administration process.
The biggest change to impact on the situation would be to return to 8 hour shift in certain area of operations. More staff may be interested in returning to work if the night shift was 10pm – 6am as it would not have such a big impact on their home life, especially those with children.
November 17, 2021
Almost all medical directors involved in managerial roles are also performing clinical duties.
Why would retired staff want to return to the NHS to cover menial tasks, it is an abusive employer.
November 16, 2021
Why is it so difficult to make ONE person accountable for NHS spending?
Why did governments continually tear down hospitals at the same time knowing they were warm welcoming too many people?
And close GP surgeries on very spurious grounds? Like one-doctor practices had to go and something about having āhalf a doctorā or some such nonsense.
Anyway, as far as I know GPS always hated governments. Right from the ghastly NHS imposition.
And you should have heard the anti Johnson tirade I got recently from a receptionist!!
November 16, 2021
Qualified people wonāt return because the ludicrous government requires a signing up to all forms of wokery! Thatās why many ( I have heard) didnāt return during the plague ( oh, according to Johnson it is still with us!) and no doubt older Drs are more knowledgeable and efficient ( as in āHOW MANY boostersā?)
Plus I imagine that GP work is now a frankly dangerous job.
All thanks to governments.
November 16, 2021
The English NHS will certainly need more money. England is getting a thousand a day illegal migrants, all who will demand free treatment to go with their free food, clothes, hotel rooms and eventually,
houses.
November 16, 2021
I don’t want to see another penny added to the NHS’s bloated budget. I have lost track of how many tens of billions have been thrown at it by a ‘Conservative’ government that thinks that the answer to any problem is to throw tens of billions at it. The key problem right now appears to be one of hospitals being unable to extract patients from ambulances. One solution might be to look at getting the great many part-time doctors away from watching daytime TV and into their cars to attend patients at home. Another might be to have police forces make more arrests for drunk and disorderly, earlier in the evenings, to reduce pressure on A&Es.
November 16, 2021
Sir J,
To quote “Apparently the new issue is the numbers of staff this will need.”
Given this, is it sensible to fire staff who refuse a vaccine, when evidence shows:
1. The vaccines give minimal (if any) protection against catching C19
2.The vaccines give minimal protection against ongoing transmission of C19
3. Vaccinated staff and patients do circulate within hospitals.
November 16, 2021
4. The notion of herd immunity does not apply to Covid.
(Why are the scientists whose wrong advice to the contrary determined Government policy still employed to give more advice? (I acknowledge the herd immunity nonsense has been quietly dropped.))
November 16, 2021
Plus, how many booster jabs will people need? Is it continue ad infinitum? Government not saying.
November 16, 2021
Well the voices the Government listen to used to work in Big Pharma on Ā£millions salary.
Nice job – just wait a bit for the gong.
November 16, 2021
It used to be different.
People seldom called on medical services: if you weren’t broken or bleeding badly or in real pain, you sorted yourself out and carried on. Next step up was the local doctor, who also offered an out-of-hours service which was appreciated but seldom called upon. The main hospitals were for serious stuff. When they had done their bit, patients who wern’t ready for independent living were moved to convalescent homes staffed by nurses and assistants, with a capable sister in charge and a doctor on call. All those ancilliary services have gone or are greatly diminished and we appear surprised when the main hospitals creak with the strain.
As for specialist surgery, e.g. opthalmology, in units away from the main general hospital, good idea! We used to have that too – eye infirmaries – but a few years ago they were closed and their services brought into the main hospitals.
So-called care in the community is a poor substitute for what we had and discarded.
November 16, 2021
What the NHS actually needs to do is much more outsourcing, joint ventures and partnering with the private sector. The big difference between the U.K. and, eg, every other country in Europe and many others around the world, is the private sector is minute and accessible only to the rich.
Thatās the way to get resources allocated better and much better service – it will save tens of thousands of lives a year, maybe hundreds of thousands. But of course thatās unthinkable in our political climate where politicians – including Conservatives – commentators and others would rather kow tow to the statist left and take the worse health outcomes with all the unnecessary suffering and death that results.
November 16, 2021
+1
November 16, 2021
And mandating vaccines will help how?
November 16, 2021
Just a quick thanks to our kind host for giving us malcontents the daily opportunity and indeed a public platform to offload our anger at his party and this nation’s descent into ever deepening CV19 inspired authoritarian abyss
Every Marxist in the west is cheering the actions of the Chinese State all those months ago now.
The Marxist creed has taken control and freedom lovers everywhere are under attack from the people many have voted for. That is the great deceit that I find utterly intolerable
Horrifying events in Austria with innocent people being targeted by their own government. The parallels with the 1930’s cannot be overlooked
Western governments are now out of control led by psychopaths and lunatics
November 16, 2021
+1
November 16, 2021
“They resisted advice to use these facilities for all covid work to keep the General hospitals infection free and able to carry on with their regular work.”
How on earth could the NHS do that, given at that time CV19 diagnosis usually followed admission?
“As a result we have a big backlog. ..//.. In order to cut waiting lists we may well need more beds in the NHS. ..//.. Apparently the new issue is the numbers of staff this will need.”
There was a big backlog well before CV19, those beds have been needed for years, there has been a shortage of front-line staff for decades – chickens, some are 42 year old, are simply coming home to roost.
November 16, 2021
As the NHS and care sector are busily firing staff for not being vaccinated it’s no wonder there are lots of vacancies advertised.
The GP sector is clearly not working with doctors refusing to see patients and working part time partly because their pay and pension entitlements are so high . In the absence of full NHS reform I say we might as well nationalise the GP sector in its entirety (it is currently all in the private sector) and treat all GPs as simply full-time NHS employees on fixed salaries and with specific working hours. Why not ?
November 16, 2021
So what is the point of sacking NHS and care workers who won’t have the vaccine? The loss of so many workers will reduce the ability to treat patients, which will increase waiting lists and preventable deaths. Has anyone done any analysis of the impact of this decision? If not, why not? We are being governed by fools.
November 16, 2021
I agree. Don’t force the 110,000 NHS workers to have the vaccine. Therefore don’t force the rest of us to wear masks, not see each other and stay at home.
Scrap the silly “Stay at home, save lives, save the NHS” slogan.
November 16, 2021
why not ‘Go out , make merry, kiss your friends and die happy’. much more cheerful slogan.
November 17, 2021
We have vaccines that reduce that already low outcome by around 95%.
But yes. That slogan sounds preferable to the life that seems planned for us every Christmas.
November 16, 2021
With a āliferā newly in post to give so called leadership, no chance. The NHS has demonstrated time and again it needs a big organisational hitter to run it, no medical experience required.
Sunday it was announced that the Secretary had hired an experienced problem solver to specifically drive waiting list reduction and that he personally was committed to performance improvement etc.
I believe in Father Christmas as well.
And in other news we see a massive spin exercise to convince us that COP was a success. On the basis of what it sought to achieve before it happened, no it isnāt and the CO2 expended, virtue signalling etc, disgraceful.
And HS2 is finally unravelling demonstrating what we all knew years ago, indeed highlighted by you, that it was a wasteful vanity project with the money better spent elsewhere. Incidentally a geography lesson for Ministers. The North goes up a lot further than they think.
November 16, 2021
+10
November 16, 2021
The NHS has been reducing bed capacity for decades, the reason often given, operations are now more refined, recovery is quicker, and non invasive treatment has improved.
However the population has grown, and more and more of Andy’s old people are staying alive longer, with more serious debilitating conditions and illnesses which require long term care.
Many Youngsters are also now appearing with a huge range of allergies, mental health problems, drug and substance abuse.
Then we have the growing number of obese people in all age groups.
Yes bed blocking does occur, simply because some people cannot leave hospital without proper home or family support, or ongoing treatment or physiotherapy.
Many decades ago we had Convalescent homes designed for short term, typically 2 week recovery/improvement stays, where the emphasis was on physical improvement, then we also had Cottage hospitals for the treatment of much smaller and less serious conditions.
We now appear to have one huge unmanageable, unaccountable system, which seems to be falling apart at the seams, where demand exceeds supply, and its ability to ever cope, let alone catch up.
If you were to form a health system now, would you design it the way operates now, knowing what you know now ?
November 16, 2021
What about the young needing care after all that damage skiing, gym work, cycling , RSI caused by all that gaming on the keyboard?
November 16, 2021
Sensible suggestions as ever. I hope someone listens, and that the NHS can be cajoled into action.
I thought the problem with the Nightingales was that there were not enough medical staff to make them operational. Maybe that was because NHS managers didn’t want to play ball and reallocate staff, due to a reluctance to lend support a Conservative government.
November 16, 2021
Of course the government WON’T listen! Sir John comes up daily with sensible, carefully thought-out ideas and solutions to political problems of every kind and the government totally IGNORES him. Why isn’t he in the cabinet? Why doesn’t the government take his ideas and concerns on board? Because the government are TRAITORS. They do not have any intention of doing what’s right for Britain. The government is the enemy of Britain and of the British people. Sir John is wasting his time. The Conservative Party is sadly now no different to the Labour Party. That’s why I have now switched to supporting Reform UK.
November 16, 2021
+1
November 16, 2021
Reform UK for me too.
November 16, 2021
Yep – same here for this life long Tory voter (no more)
November 16, 2021
The Nightingales weren’t equipped to deal with the comorbidities that most serious CV-19 patients came with. Because this was never a pandemic, it was a syndemic.
November 16, 2021
We are back to have to import more qualified hands again, what a surprise?
November 16, 2021
We export many UK trained to the ANZACs
November 16, 2021
Simply rescind the unnecessary vaccine mandate and you will prevent many NHS staff from being forced to leave.
November 16, 2021
Too much like common sense for “our” government.
November 16, 2021
JR: “The NHS needs to see what it can do to encourage qualified people to return to its employment and what can be done to promote more people through education and training.”
You’re joking of course. The movement is in the opposite direction and soon to to be exacerbated by in government and the NHS with mandatory vaccination for NHS staff on April Fool’s day (how very appropriate). The threat to “overwhelm our NHS”this winter has also been exacerbated by having had a National Covid Service rather than a health service for 18 months and forcing upto 60,000 care home workers to be sacked for not being “vaccinated” thereby reducing the capacity in care homes. Some may call this incompetence but I regard it as calculated and evil in intent. You should not be supporting such people.
November 16, 2021
+1
Absolutely.
November 16, 2021
+1. It’s disgraceful.
November 16, 2021
Population minus 30% equals NHS capacity, therefore long term reduce the population from around 70 million to 40 million. Instead of financially supporting procreation via the tax system, penalise it above the point at which population begins to reduce.
The do nothing alternative is to ignore population growth by procreation and immigration and hope that you have enough intelligent people to train as GPs 10 years, Consultants 15 to 20 years, Nurses ,Radiographers, Pharmacists and Technical Support Staff say 5 years. You will need to cope with an extra half million population per annum ad infinitum, which is roughly the rate at which it has increased since the end of WW2.
The insanity of population growth is not just an NHS problem. It emphasises the inadequacies of housing, transport, education, power generation et al, you name it there is a problem. I heard it estimated last night that illegals in the UK could amount to around 4,000,000. You know where to start, you know what you then have to do, and finally as part of a major tax and benefit reform put procreation on a reverse sliding programme that gets us back to about 45,000,000 population in 75 years hence. As politicians can only think five years ahead max, I am not holding my breath.
November 16, 2021
How can anyone believe the Health secretary has any intention of relieving the problems with the NHS when staffing is the biggest issue, and he intends to sack 70,000 of them.
His excuses are just sanctimonious posturing, and blatantly untrue.
It’s not the unvaccinated that are a threat to NHS patients, it is the minister himself, with his insane approach to the problems.
Being vaccinated does NOT stop people carrying and passing on the virus.
With more people dying, with or of the vaccines, the last thing we need are false actions that will make things worse!
November 16, 2021
B H
One would be forgiven for thinking that there may be a connection involving money and vested interests.
November 16, 2021
+1
November 16, 2021
+millions
Congrats on getting that one through!
So blinking true!!
I think the truth must be that they are planning a major rejig of the āHealth Serviceā.
They usually get rid of staff in the cruellest and most underhand way possible.
November 16, 2021
+1
November 16, 2021
Wokingham Medical Centre use Push Doctor. I have always managed to speak to a doctor the same day. Sometimes I have managed an appointment within the hour. It is face to face albeit on a computer screen. During the pandemic it has been fantastic. Most of the time you just need advice regarding an issue. Well it works for me. If the push doctor thinks you need more they can fast track a proper face to face appointment for you at the surgery.
Not all medical centres have signed up to it.
November 16, 2021
BW that is good for WMC, but whar is the answer for all those who have no computer or mobile phone. I know plenty in the UK in such a situation.
November 16, 2021
I don’t have the answer but surely each time I use the push doctor, does that not free up the time the doctors in WMC have for those that you describe.
November 16, 2021
I suggest 95% of the WMC roll of patients have not a clue to what you refer. If they (GPs) are so good using PUSH, why not use the telephone for people who encounter the wait queue, and the Reception sifter, or the triage?
November 16, 2021
I know, why don’t we return to the road system we had in 1945. It was suitable then, so it must be now.
I’m sure with an “investment” of another Ā£50 million or so, we can make it work in the 21st century and get everyone from A to B eventually, although many will die of old age and various illnesses whilst they try.
But that’s irrelevant; it’s the FAITH in the network that counts.
November 16, 2021
*****gold star comment, Donna!
November 16, 2021
“The NHS should also consider the balance of work between highly qualified doctors and nurses and other staff to see if more assistance can be safely given to the medically trained to provide great service to more patients.”
I had personal experience of this practice only last week : I went for regular six monthly blood tests to find that a “Nursing Assistant” was allocated to put the needle in my arm. After four attempts in different places in both arms, one which caused a lot of bleeding and pain, a qualified nurse was called who, of course, carried out the proceedure at the first attempt, perfectly done and pain free.
At the hospital a couple of days later, the nurse there asked me what had been done to my arms !
Maybe it was a one off but I was not impressed.
November 16, 2021
The NHS is one big monopoly where only people with money can escape the service on offer. So we have to take what we are given and be very grateful for it.
Hospitals have specialised and some trauma units seem to be specialist trauma for such a big area that now local people can’t access emergency services in that hospital.
One small local minor injuries hospital with x-ray facilities stop people from my town from being sent there just 10 minutes away, instead, we were sent to a large A&E miles away 40 minutes journey which was packed out and didn’t record the computer book-in so wouldn’t see us even though it gave us a time slot. The GP receptionist told us to go to the other smaller unit and it was empty and we were seen very quickly.
You need to train many more men in medical nursing and specialisation.
Accommodating so much part-time working, early retirement and sick and extended leave would cause any organisation a massive skills shortage. Trying to get the nursing colleges and higher up Management to change will be very difficult and they will resist because they have such a stranglehold on your government in particular as they are so political, I had to mute some people I know on twitter. Without change, you will never be able to put enough money in to satisfy what they want for themselves.
November 16, 2021
I notice that no one here has dared mention one major reason for the lack of NHS staff: Brexit.
November 16, 2021
That’s because Brexit isn’t a ‘major’ reason, Gongoozler. Whatever the Guardian might say now, it reported in January 2015, before Brexit, that the NHS was massively short of staff and put the blame firmly where it belonged, bad planning and thoughtless government rules:
‘University hospitals Birmingham… blamed the shortages of doctors on two things. NHS central workforce planning āhas never worked and has been a shambles foreverā. The tightening of visa rules has made it harder for junior doctors from the Indian sub-continent to stay in Britain long enough to complete their training. It has prompted some of the doctors to go instead to places like Canada, where they are allowed to stay until they become senior doctors.’
Yes, Brexit hysteria may have contributed, but the roots of the problem go back earlier.
November 16, 2021
And nurses have often been underpaid, R. Grange. That’s a big part of it too.
November 16, 2021
and the millions could have asked to stay? And did?
November 16, 2021
Gongoozler
During our time in the EU we lost many home grown doctors and nurses to the ANZAC nations while we stole medical staff from poorer countries.
What is it with Remainers and their addiction to cheap foreign labour ?
Come to that, what is it with Remainers (largely middle class) and their addiction to shoving mass immigration on to the working classes ? (And being surprised at the consequences in the voting booths.)
November 16, 2021
A good thing (something which is absolutely Golden) about Brexit.
We are out of the EU.
The Tories have their 80 seat majority.
We are now seeing what they really are and there is no hiding place from it.
The Boat People are doing us a great service and even the BBC can’t hide it, as much they might try. Really ! Reporting from Poland while showing NOTHING from our own shores.
Everyone knows about it now and the outgoing Border Force Chief saying “Bloody borders, waste of time and an obstacle to humanity.” (to that effect) gives us a clue as to why nothing changes and only gets worse.
November 16, 2021
Is the Government providing sufficient funds to cope with our rapidly expanding population?
Not just the 1800 births/day in England and Wales but also the 1000/day legal immigrants and 1000/day illegal immigrants invited to come to the UK.
This doesnāt just affect NHS spending and capacity but of course CO2 emitting housing (hotels), schools, social care and infrastructure such as roads, power supplies and sewage works etc..
Do the NHS publish how many NHS numbers are in use?
November 16, 2021
How many people apply to do nursing training each year that there aren’t training places in universities to accommodate in the UK? Or are all suitable applicants given a course, what % of them quit within the first year? What % graduate and what % go straight into work following graduation?
November 16, 2021
Why is it so difficult to find people to change beds, take temperatures, check blood-pressure, assist patients to the toilets, take meals to the bedridden, help them eat/drink, update notes for the above, fill in some online forms?
If they need highly qualified training why do we have patients wait days for consultants to say ‘yes discharge’?
November 17, 2021
The nurses with 3 year degrees start on grade 5 it is a good starting salary with overtime, shift allowances, great perks and benefits, the ambitious get on the job training paid and can move up grades (more men would be my goal, men will work more overtime, arenāt as picky over shifts, fewer will want part-time and they push pay rates up. Perhaps just the word ānurseā needs an overhaul.
Lower grades of nurses used to be called auxiliaries to do the more basic tasks. I donāt know why we are told it is too difficult to find carers perhaps things need to change in schools much earlier to identify empathetic, caring people who would have a flair for care. I have young nieces and other relatives that are carers that enable people to stay at home, my Nan was a hospital cleaner and loved her job, we have a hospital cook in the extended family although she is on sick leave nearly as often as she has been in work, my sister in law was a mental health sister retired recently at 60, a friend who is a 3 day a week nurse and a colleague whose wife just does bank nursing, more money, choice of days and shifts. When the work is talked down all the time, it is never talked of in a positive way then people are put off.
November 18, 2021
Yes we know a female who has worked 3 shifts of theory 12 hours as a working week, full pay. All breaks, which are taken, included. Actual work hours in department nearer 30, full annual leave, can go sick and does….
November 16, 2021
So short of clinical staff that the NHS uses the taxpayer money earmarked to provide front facing services, to ensure the Hospital Administrators have a fully staffed Diversity Department with a well paid head. This appears to be so the CEO and their staff can cope with being fair to all humans.
November 16, 2021
Nota# :
The NHS already is more diverse than the general population and hence does not need a diversity department.
Diversity is a device concocted by Marxists to stamp out meritocracy, one of the enlightened Westās most powerful tools for equality and prosperity.
It is intended to destroy our confidence in the NHS and thus the NHS itself.
November 16, 2021
The elephant in the room is immigration into the U.K.
November 16, 2021
Stop all access to the NHS for these immigrants. The French give them nothing, yet we give free NHS, dentistry, accomodation, 3 meals a day, phones and Ā£38 a week spending money.
Why does your government favour these people over English people ?
November 16, 2021
The entire Establishment favours these freeloaders over the British people, not just the CONs.
They are obviously confident that they will never impact on their cossetted, safe lives. The shock when one of their own was recently murdered resulted in an outpouring of sentimentality in the Chamber ….. but nothing else.
Move along …..
November 16, 2021
My thoughts exactly, MWB. Why are illegal immigrants treated better than EVERYONE already here, and why are failed asylum seekers still here after many years (like the Liverpool bomber), no doubt still getting all the freebies. Think of the UK lives that could be saved, not just from deporting immigrant terrorists, but by directing the money currently spent on illegals towards more deserving causes.
November 16, 2021
Great post Shirley.
November 16, 2021
The government is OBLIGED to treat illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers so absurdly generously because the COURTS force them to. For instance, the Home Office used to give these people less money (still too much, but less) but the courts ruled this infringed their ‘human rights’, so they had to be paid more. Oddly, given that France is signed up to exactly the same rights – which derive from the ECHR – over there it is deemed fine not to be so generous. The problem is obviously the marxist, activist, political extremists who in Britain masquerade as judges.
So this proves that NOTHING will be achieved until the government changes the law to (i) exclude migrants from all human rights legistation, and (ii) allow the Lord Chancellor to SACK judges who are considered to be influenced by left-wing politics.
Of course, the government has NO intention of doing either of these things, which is why the legislative changes they have proposed to tackle the problem of illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers will have ZERO effect. Boris the Traitor and Priti Useless know this, of course, and are deliberately deceiving their stupid supporters – and MPs!! – in order to pacify them. DO NOT BE FOOLED.
November 16, 2021
I have just stolen the following from a friends ‘twitter’ account. (real personal friend that is)
No amount of money will save the NHS it’s broken & dysfunctional it needs proper leadership not political appointments as a thank you for services rendered, it needs tough, compassionate, hard headed doers who will get things done it needs it’s morale rebuilding & cult status gone
Let’s be clear the catastrophic state of the NHS is not something that has been done to it, it is entirely self inflicted.
Money WILL NOT fix it
November 16, 2021
Alan Sugar springs to mind….
November 16, 2021
Dear Mr. Redwood,
In recent weeks you have drawn attention to many areas of government policy pointing out what the government could be doing on taxation, house building, energy policy, food production and transportation amongst others. Today, we have the NHS. I think that most readers of your blog would agree with the thrust of your arguments that we could be doing much more for ourselves to ensure that the country is placed on a more sound and self-sustaining basis for the medium and longer term.
However, this administration is failing. It has no direction. It just exists. Already, it has a whiff of decline about it. Voters are beginning to look elsewhere.
May I suggest that if this decline is to be reversed, the government needs to start putting its own people and the country first. At the moment we have the UK cutting off its nose to spite its face at COP26 as we close power stations down and our heavy industries struggle but Germany, for example, burns coal to fuel its very large manufacturing base. We have UK army personnel to help deal with migration at the Polish border but the English Channel is left undefended. We put illegal migrants up in 4star hotels but do not build enough houses for own people. We increase our foreign aid to 0.7% of GDP once again as other, richer countries divert their money elsewhere. We spend the NATO recommended 2% plus of GDP on defence while other richer countries spend less and contribute less when conflicts arise. I am sure readers can think of other examples.
Levelling Up? I’m sure some people would just like a fair crack of the whip. Unfortunately, this government’s priorities do not tally with those of its own people.
November 16, 2021
+1
This Government has had ” a whiff of decline about it” for over a year now. It had lost is way then and matters have become starkly worse since.
November 16, 2021
Do you mean ‘it stinks, and the way to the toilet cannot be found’?
November 16, 2021
Covid is now said to be endemic (meaning ‘in the people’), and was never a crisis or pandemic.
We have to get people back into work. Especially in the NHS. But also the DVLA and other Government offices.
The backlog is huge, and it appears that no thought was given to the repercussions of the Government policies. No risk or cost assessment taken.
Too much time (and money) was wasted by the over sensitive Track and Trace app that pinged people repeatedly taking 10 days off to self-isolate needlessly.
Too many ‘expert’ nudgers and modellers were given free rein to influence the Gov. response.
The Nightingales were a knee-jerk reaction that cost a lot and achieved absolutely nothing.
People are still cowed by the fear and confusion still being generated by the exaggerated Government response to the Covid, creating unrest and distrust of others.
Most people still wear face coverings in shops and the screens are still in place.
To be honest, how can we expect such a useless Government to restore order after so many mistakes.
Every year the NHS is reported to be lacking beds at crucial times of the year, notably the Autumn when the seasonal respiratory complaints ramp up with the onset of winter, closed windows and people spending more time indoors.
When will the NHS take this on board, and plan ahead?
What this country really needs is a Parliament that truly has the interests of the people,
rather than a bunch of self-serving career politicians (yourself, and a few notable exceptions excluded, of course).
We didn’t vote for HS2, unlimited Immigration nor the Green Economic Folly that will beggar the country and line the pockets of foreign firms.
Repeal the monsterous Climate Change Act 2008 and disband the trecherous Climate Change Committee or reveal to the public the full extent of its remit and the cost and impact it will have. Shouldn’t we, the public, have a say on this?
Repeal the Coronavirus Act 2020 and restore our freedom. Our rights are being eroded. We agreed ‘a couple of weeks to flatten the curve’ but, ‘give an inch, take a yard’ is how we have been taken for a ride!
Why are the experimental ‘vaccines’ (which neither prevent catching nor passing on, nor do they appear effective, if their protection is reported to wane so quickly that we need ‘boosters’) being mandated, enforced by coercion and fear?
Why are known anti-virals demonised and de-platformed (like Ivermectin)?
Where are the 5 year, 10 year, 30 year UK plans to ensure our security in Energy, Health, Immigration etc?
I guess we should be asking the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates, etc as they certainly appear to be pulling the strings, not just here, but all over the world.
November 16, 2021
“The NHS should also consider the balance of work between highly qualified doctors and nurses and other staff to see if more assistance can be safely given to the medically trained to provide great service to more patients.” – This is a point I have been making for a few years. In Italy, for instance, a patient who uses the call button next to his bed is NOT attended to by a nurse, but only by an auxilliary, who asks what he wants and then decides if a trained medical professional is required. Only in Britain do we allow highly-trained staff to waste their time on non-medical matters, such as bringing a patient a glass of water!
November 16, 2021
It’s similar in Spain X-Tory. Family members have to do the donkey work. Nurses just nurse. If you have no family, you hire a nun.
November 16, 2021
we have a neighbour whose elderly German mother had zero Spanish, living there with family and looked after well. Once in hospital zero conversation, family formed a rota, taking meals in, assisting all personal care, holding necessary dialogue with nursing staff, doctors.
Got a bed but that was about it.
November 16, 2021
UK GNI per capita is back at its 2005 level; 17% below its peak in 2008. UK life expectancy has flat lined since the start of the austerity decade in 2010. There is a saying; if you bugger about with something often enough, eventually you will break it. That is exactly what the austerity decade and constant political interference has done to the Health Service.
The UK government is spending circa 10.4% of GDP on Health currently. Slightly more than France and slightly less than Germany; but, its output is somewhat lower than those two countries. UK Hospital discharge rate is 72% of that which France achieves and 52% of what Germany achieves.
France has 13% more Doctors and 30% more Nurses; Germany 50% more Doctors and 60% more Nurses. For every Hospital bed the UK has France has 2.4; Germany 3.3. For every CT/MRI Scanner the UK has, France has twice as many; Germany over three times as many.
November 16, 2021
BTW. US Senate Foreign Relations Committee @SFRCdems
“Threats to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol will harm the people of Northern Ireland. I call on United Kingdom to respect the protocol & protect the Good Friday Agreement. I reiterate: a US-UK trade deal is simply not possible if either the protocol or GFA is rolled back.”
November 16, 2021
GNI is it now acorn?
You love vague and dodgy stats
November 17, 2021
Does that mean you donāt know what GNI is and are too %@#Ā£& to look for its definition?
November 18, 2021
No it doesn’t mean that heffy but thanks for asking in your usual grumpy manner.
November 16, 2021
Too much money is slashed around by government just so they can brag about it and claim it solves problems. The more money is given the more is there to waste by recipients. Thankfully I have not had any recent hospital use for myself but have visited friends – a few years back – and at the time it struck me that the hospitals were over equipped, there was kit of all sorts all over the place which seemed over engineered and got more attention than the patients. In fact that is a consequence surrounding equipment when introduced by a bureaucrat, practices are concocted so that it is used when it could be done without. Nurses don’t know how to ‘nurse’, that is to demonstrate care and comfort – they behave as if patients are just a nuisance.
November 16, 2021
There was an excellent Channel 4 Dispatches documentary last night about the miserable failure of Tory pensioner Brexit for many small businesses.
Masses of pointless new Brexit bureaucracy. Tariffs. Jobs lost in the U.K. Businesses relocating to the single market.
You should all watch it. Particularly those that promoted this economic turkey which has harmed so many lives and livelihoods.
You have hurt us. Hereās a promise. We will eventually hurt you back. With interest.
November 16, 2021
Oooh threats !
Young andy in his caring sharing cuddly lefty mode.
Hilarious
November 16, 2021
At the same time there is a boom in worker’s pay and jobs on offer to all the unemployed. Lorry drivers can finally expect to be paid what they’re worth and it looks like they’re going to get toilets too !
You were told time and again, Andy. There were many votes that showed discontent before we got the referendum and indeed caused the referendum.
You wouldn’t give any ground. Nor would the EU.
The working classes were unhappy with cheap imported labour being dumped on them and their factories moved to Poland, however convenient that may have been for you.
Brexit WAS revenge. What on earth are you talking about ?
November 16, 2021
Andy I’m quivering with fear.
November 16, 2021
Andy : āYou [Brexit voting Tory pensioners] have hurt us. Hereās a promise. We will eventually hurt you back. With interest.ā
I believe you would if you get the chance as our long history has shown.
The EU showed they were no different, which is why we were indeed fortunate to be able to take the opportunity to leave.
November 16, 2021
Yes staff are leaving as soon as they can because their jobs have become intolerable. They all burn out eventually. Management is politicised and deaf to staff concerns, just forcing through the latest initiatives which rarely help and often make things worse. Everyone outside clapping was cheap but the appreciation didn’t extend to decent pay rises did it?
And you expect trainee nurses to get themselves into tens of thousands in debt to qualify?
I know a couple of long serving nurses who will be leaving in the new year. Why take the stress of working on the wards when they can come back as agency on more money on hours to suit themselves, or just collect Ā£200 per day for giving vaccine jabs?
November 16, 2021
This is what Boris said in his manifesto ‘Between 2018 and 2023, we will have raised funding for the NHS by 29 per cent. By the end of the Parliament, that will be more than Ā£650 million extra a week. And we will ensure this money goes to the frontline so that you and your family get appointments more quickly and experience improved care.
We believe that the best way to improve the NHS and meet rising demand is to invest in its most important asset ā its people. That is why we are devoting additional funding, on top of our existing record settlement, to hire and support more doctors, nurses and other health professionals”
1. Did they get the money? How much has spending increased from 2018 to 2021 (the halfway point)?
2. How much more per week are the government giving the NHS right now over Ā£350m extra per week? Was it given to the frontline?
3. Which people within the nhs are responsible to ensure the money is spent wisely to meet the government’s goals/aims?
November 16, 2021
A huge problem I’m afraid to say is the rejection of male applicants to become doctors and other medical professionals.
They are less likely to opt for part time or early retirement.
It is also noticeable that white male candidates are being discriminated against as they are so unrepresented on med school courses but that’s another issue.
(The Fire Service has now started to recognised the menopause as a reason to put firefighters on daytime shifts.)
November 16, 2021
Identity politics and the political ideology of diversity will destroy this nation but then that’s its purpose. To stoke resentment, to stoke division, to purge institutions, to destroy culture, to undermine meritocracy and then take control to assert domination over those they despise, to silence them and then destroy them. All of this is happening right in front of our very eyes, day after day and aided and abetted by Marxists and extremists
When you can be arrested for asserting your identity then you begin to realise that we have entered into a world that is utterly beyond repair for the majority
Note. The Tories have been in power since 2010 and have embraced of of Labour’s extremist ideology surrounding race, gender, sexuality and religion
The aim is to destroy identity of certain peoples. To turn them into faceless, meaningless, soulless, rootless vessels. Welcome to MARXISM and all due to those who vote Labour and Tory and endorse the every growing power of the now all-dominant progressive fascist class
November 16, 2021
Juno does they pay get cut if they no longer do the night shifts?
November 17, 2021
No. Their pay doesn’t get cut but even if it did there are now firefighters who can’t put out your fire or pull you out of a car after dark a) when they have child rearing to do and now b) when they hit menopause. So that’s two thirds of the career being out-of- full service.
This is one reason why (in many areas) there has been mass recruitment and training but there are still staff shortages.
November 17, 2021
Juno, I donāt understand why they are paid the same as their male and other female colleagues who have to do the shifts that is hardly fair is it. I thought we were all about equality now. If someone canāt take a fair share of the burdens of the job they shouldnāt be on the same grade.
November 16, 2021
We should look to the French system and take the best examples from that.
November 16, 2021
Yes let us all practise shrugging shoulders, ignoring and turning away.
November 17, 2021
I guess that would be quite a reasonable reaction to have in front of a Brit like you, donāt you agree? (a mickey and a half?)
November 18, 2021
A long time since I travelled in France, and always avoided Paris if possible. Your reaction to someone detected as non-French from accent etc bears out my opinion mon ami.
November 18, 2021
You in a bad mood again heffy?
November 16, 2021
Today’s debate in the House in which the government cringingly backtracked and allowed Paterson to be found guilty displays all that is contemptible about the current Conservative Party. Spineless and stupid, that’s what they are. I said from the start that they should have made the point that they were NOT trying to help a guilty man evade justice, but were trying to help an *innocent* man *obtain* justice.
They should have pointed out the obvious flaws in the report (which I have listed previously) and the bias of the Commissioner. They should have attacked her judgement and her bias against Conservatives and Brexiteers. They should have fought on the FRONT foot, not the back one. And having won the vote, and hence the battle, they should not have backed down, but DOUBLED down. Christ, what a useless shower this government is. Utterly beyond hope of salvation. Paterson deserved better. We ALL deserve better.
November 16, 2021
In any normal business an increase in customers wanting to use your services would create excitement in the business.
More revenues, more profits, more opportunities for expansion.
But in the topsy turvy NHS world it is a terrible problem.
November 17, 2021
Agreed Peter2. But in a normal business your rewards go up the busier you are in overtime or profit share, higher than expected pay increases. In the NHS how are they funded? Per visit, per treatment, per hour?
November 16, 2021
It is now seven years since the Express ran the headline that ā UP to 80,000 British students are turned down for nursing courses each year even though the NHS is hiring thousands from abroad.ā
It went on to say, ā Figures from the Royal College of Nursing revealed around 100,000 students apply for training courses each year but only around 19,000 get places.
Yet hospitals in England recruited almost 6,000 foreign nurses over the past year, in particular from Spain, Portugal and the Philippines, to meet the shortfall in staff.To train a nurse costs around Ā£70,000 over three years. For about the same amount of money, hospital trusts can recruit three foreign qualified nurses on a salary of around Ā£23,000.RCN chief executive Dr Peter Carter, who revealed the training figures, described the situation as ālamentable workforce planingā. ā
The article can still be found online. Yet in all that time, nothing has been done to rectify the situation ā¦
November 16, 2021
+1 – Par for the course with this government. Why bother training UK workers when you can get ready trained foreign workers?
November 16, 2021
But we need all those foreign staff to deal with all the foreigners here or coming over for treatment free on the NHS.
November 16, 2021
Barbara when you say qualified foreign nurses are these at the same degree level as a British nursing graduate who starts on grade 5 Ā£25,654 basic + for many working in the NHS additional income is earned by working unsocial hours including weekends, evenings, Bank Holidays and overnight. This is worked out for each hour worked. Each enhancement is added to the monthly payment.? Or are they not as well qualified?
November 18, 2021
Why is NHS mostly a Monday to Friday organisation? Staff want weekends off, or paid overtime – I know, I have been in RBH over a weekend. The staff I met loved it, partners doing whatever or in similar shift working, so weekend ‘volunteering’ at overtime is wonderful. Operations done after 9-5, or at weekends? Whatever next !….all that kit switched off.
November 16, 2021
At the risk of being a harbinger of doom, the NHS will never work in its present form. It needs competition at the sharp end, with medical staff being paid in a competitive market and patients, through insurance, being given a list of options as to whom they use.
Imagine Amazon or Tesco giving out stuff free of charge and without any competition. They would also end up in this sort of mess, albeit less important as our lives wouldn’t generally be at stake.
November 16, 2021
The NHS needs to be dismantled. The only reason for its existence is to provide employment for people with no useful skills ie Arts graduates. Healthcare is a local matter which should be managed accordingly. When an organisation has too many administrators it is wont to make too many wrong decisions especially if it is hierarchical because the administrators believe they should be doing something rather than nothing when most of them are far less intelligent than the medically qualified who they organise. The same applies to education whrer the education system we had sixty years was superior that which we had now because ‘educationalists’ and stupid politicians could not stop tinkering and making things worse.
November 16, 2021
Sir John,
The number of hospital beds has been reducing year-on-year for as long as I can remember, regardless of the colour of the rosettes worn by members of the Government at preceding General Elections.
The NHS has ALWAYS been ‘at or near capacity’ and it experiences ‘problems’ EVERY Winter. 2020 & 2021 are nothing exceptional in regard to that (readers may like to search out the various Freedom of Information Act requests sent to the nation’s Funeral Directors and Local Authorities – some of the latter are quite accommodating, and some clearly wilfully obstructive in supplying those data).
The Nightingale Hospitals were a farce, although the idea – had it been followed-through properly – was an excellent one. Military Quartermasters’ mentality springs to mind, in that “yes we have plenty of {{insert asset name here}} but if I give them to you, or we use them, then we won’t have any left in the inventory”.
If I recall correctly, the Birmingham Nightingale Hospital opened and then closed again WITHOUT A SINGLE BED HAVING EVER BEEN OCCUPIED.
Sir John, I wonder if at the next opportunity you might ask your colleague – The Health Secretary – Sajid Javid how he imagines that sacking 100,000 health workers is going to ‘help’ with the staff shortages that we currently have ? He may like to expand on his reasoning by explaining how sacking them on April 1st (good date huh?) following the Winter ‘Flu season (substitute ‘Covid’ if felt necessary) and all that that entails, ‘helps’ with keeping patients ‘safe’ if those workers currently present a risk – and will for the next 5 months – through refusing to be vaccinated?
Perhaps you would also be kind enough to ask him the colour of the sky on the planet on which he lives? Because it certainly isn’t the same planet as the rest of us.
Thanks.
GW.
November 16, 2021
G Wheatley
All this is proving that Labour and the SNP have to do three fifths of naff all and win the next general election. The Tory Party are imploding and will continue to do so with what we have passing as a government at the moment. Such die hard Tories around my part of the country, Shropshire have decided not to vote or vote Reform they are so hissed off with everything that is going on. There has got to be a seismic change they have got to go before they totally destroy this country. These youngsters just don’t understand let alone hack the responsibility to what they are doing.
November 16, 2021
”…to encourage qualified people to return to its employment….” Speaking personally, I wouldn’t return to an employer who was likely to dismiss me out of hand simply for insisting upon my bodily autonomy/integrity. Perhaps those who are soon to be forced out should rather be persuaded to stay. Especially now that everyone is aware of the similarity between ”jabbed” and ”unjabbed”.
November 17, 2021
If so similar why give up your employment?
November 16, 2021
Sir John
Just abouts sums everything up.
My wife listening to Farage on GB News has just heard about yet another U turn by Boris has just screamed at the screen “ffs the man is a complete p### and needs to be thrown out”
Being a mere man I totally agree with her.
November 16, 2021
lack of beds also leads to the NHS sending patients home who should clearly be in recovery beds after procedures.
telling patients to “bring towels in to sit on, in the taxi home afterwards, as you will be bleeding significantly” is not first world healthcare. if you are expected to be bleeding that much after a procedure then you should be in a hospital bed. it also restricts the service to those who can afford a taxi home, or get a lift, as getting a bus or train home bleeding so badly is unlikely to be possible, the drivers will simply refuse to let you board.
November 17, 2021
Certainly, it is scandalous that the Government has not forced the NHS to use the Nightingale hospitals for COVID-19 patients, which would make the threat of COVID in mainstream hospitals much less. It is a knock on effect of this that has clogged up the ambulance service. Ambulances are not now allowed to discharge patients into hospital corridors for fear that they may come to harm, so patients arriving at a hospital must wait in the ambulance until a bed is available.
Now that nurses are more highly qualified, can not doctors delegate some of their tasks to nurses, and others to pharmacies? I get the impression that doctors have made a rod for their own backs by failing to delegate. I don’t know much about medicine but I do know that in the Gulf States many medicines can be bought over the counter at pharmacies, these same medicines needing a prescription in UK. Is not one of the NHS’s problems that its management and doctors are power crazy?
November 17, 2021
Nightingale hospitals were always a rubbish idea.
They didnt have scanners, X-Ray machines, or so many of the other testing equipment that complex patients need.
They were only ever suitable for the simplest non infectious patient who only needed bed rest, or the other extreme of patients given no hope and expected to die and only needing palliative care. And could not be used to mix both of those types of patients, as risk of cross infection from those on palliative care to those only needing bed rest is too big.
The way the Americans did it of commandeering hotels, so patients got individual rooms, and then adapted the air con to keep air pressure negative in each room, radically reducing cross infection, was a far better way to do it. Where they did use hangers they put individual tents around each bed, again with air con which made the air pressure negative and significantly reduced the chances of cross infection. Our approach of sticking infectious people in a big open ward to cross infect each other with airborne particles is bad.
The biggest NHS scandal is that we now have significantly fewer normal hospital beds in England than we did pre pandemic, our capacity for treating the sick and injured has been constrained by bed numbers even more. And people who should be in beds are routinely sent home, or not treated at all.
November 17, 2021
air pressure positive I meant of course