The health Secretary has said a few bold and sensible things. He has said you do not just tip more money into the. NHS without reform. He has said maybe they need to buy in more private sector help to deliver more and better free care to patients.
More contentiously he has said the NHS is broken. Instead of getting on with mending it he now proposes a long and large consultation with staff and patients to see what to do. It’s like asking the audience on a quiz show if the contestant hasn’t a clue about the answer.
Patients will tell him they want less waiting time, easier access to GP appointments and better treatment when they need it. Staff will tell him they want more pay, better hours and better working conditions. No great need to go to consultation on that. Consultation with staff should start when he as their top boss decides what changes he wishes to make to working practices. Consultation with patients should start if he wants to change the way they access treatment.
His instinct that there needs to be change is a good one. History is littered with well intentioned Health Ministers who found guiding change was expensive and difficult. Wasting much of the first year on asking the obvious is not a good start. The NHS needs help now in spending its huge sums in the best way, and in hiring and motivating the right staff to get more work done. Firing the Chief Executive of NHS England would be a good beginning to underline the message that currently senior management are not boosting morale or productivity in the way we need.
October 22, 2024
Good morning.
Consultation means : Left boot – Tin can – Long grass.
If he does not know the problems with the NHS, then he should not be in his job. I can tell you one of the prime reasons the NHS is broken. Too many people accessing it. From the elderly, to those who should not even be in this country.
We do not need consultations. What we need is radical reform. I have mentioned here often enough that private companies and / or individuals should be allowed to have private medical insurance tax free. I believe MP’s get private medical insurance, so the concept and its advantages are not lost on them.
We also need to make sure that those that come here to visit and even work, do so once they have taken out private medical insurance. There are those who claim that the cost to the NHS of those claiming FREE healthcare from abroad is small, but it is not cost that is the prime issue. It is resources and the time taken up using them.
I do not expect things to improve not when those administering our affairs go largely uneffected by their poor performance.
And I have not touched on the number of FAKE healthcare (un)professionals that are in the system. That is another scandal that has been swept under the carpet 😉
Reply Yes, cut migration and require foreign visitors to pay for care are both important. MPs do not get private health care!
October 22, 2024
R to R
Thanks you Sir John. I was under the impression (from somewhere I read) that MP’s got BUPA Heathcare. Glad to be corrected.
October 22, 2024
The biggest issue is that the NHS is “free” at the point of use. Which means it is rationed by other means GP phone systems, delays, inconvenience, waiting lists… if you use the private system you pay four times over once for others, then tax/NI on the money you earn to pay you medical insurance, then the insurance premium then 12% IPT on top. A rigged system one Labour now want on private education too with VAT replacing IPT tax.
As I pointed out yesterday Wes Streeting is so daft he thinks that someone who could have been treated for £40 at a GP costs £400 for the same treatment at A&E so he is obviously rather dim. Are the A&Es 10 times less efficient than GPs for the same five minutes with a Doctor if so why Wes?
Why can they not get a GP appointment? Simple they are not paid for each appointment. If they were a dog or a cat no problem seeing someone the same day and getting MRI scans, e-rays, cancer tests…
Free at the point of use is the main problem, all who can afford to pay should pay something for appointments. People on waiting lists should get voucher for 30% of the cost if they can find the other 70%. The NHS saves 70% and it cuts the waiting times for other who cannot? But of course Labour cannot do anything sensible like that.
The net harm lockdowns, over medication & net harm Covid Vaccines have caused many health issue especially cardio vascular and blood clotting ones and have destroyed confidence in the profession. Especially as Sunak and the rest are still lying/pretending or misguided that the Covid Vaccines were safe when all the evidence say not. See the excellent film “Do No Pharm” – links on Dr John Campbell videos.
October 22, 2024
I would ask myself a number of questions.
1. What is the size of the task, is it geographical, how is it defined by speciality.
2. Do we have sufficient capital capacity, beds, theatres, CT, MRI, PROTON, scanners, and the professionals to use them 24 hours 7/7 , for as long as the demand is therre.
3. Is 47% of the NHS being none medical the right ratio. Could better computerisation and AI replace many.
4. To what extent is the NHS medical service blocked by having an inadequate after care and end of life service. Should this be free to the patient if and when required.
5. How effective is the NHS procurement service, and is waste monitored and controlled.
6. Is the balance of GPs, Medical Centres, Local Hospitals, A&E, and Specialist Hospitals, the right one, and is it all working for the benefit of the patient.
7. Is our laisse faire attitude to what we put in our mouths and the lack of early exercise in schools totally inadequate. To what extent should the food industry be regulated. The Nazis regulated UK food intake during WW2, why can’t we achieve it ourselves now.
8. Should so many vital services be in the charity sector, hospices, air ambulances etc. Is it to make us feel good in giving to charity . The service they offer is excellent, but are government avoiding financial responsibility.
9. Can the NHS be funded by a better financial system as would appeare to be the case in other countries.
10. Are we financially burdining and restricting those who might wish to join the medical services of the NHS.
Those are just some of the questions that need answers. Answers on which a reborn NHS can be based. My personal experience is that once the NHS takes you in the service is compassionate and effective. Getting through the door is the problem that leads to unnscessary failure for many. Curable becomes terminal. I give you a personal example. I have to wait one month to get a GP appointment for a letter to a private consultant for a knee problem here in the UK. In 2022 while resident in Spain I saw my GP in two days, was referred to my local hospital, had blood tests, a CT scan, a colonoscopy under anaesthetic removing a pollip, and a final clearance, all within two weeks. That is a health service performance we should aim for. Anything less is failure.