Work done?

[candycane]

Health care in the UK is going downhill very fast. I have a fairly serious health issue and now horrible arthritis as well. Since covid my consultant has left the local hospital and I haven't been allocated another so haven't been for a check up for 2 years, GP not really bothered and not re-referred (hospital will do it - they haven't). If I could afford to go private I would. No one cares if you're ill to be honest.

CC

 

[maymorganlondon]

Health care in the UK is going downhill very fast. I have a fairly serious health issue and now horrible arthritis as well. Since covid my consultant has left the local hospital and I haven't been allocated another so haven't been for a check up for 2 years, GP not really bothered and not re-referred (hospital will do it - they haven't). If I could afford to go private I would. No one cares if you're ill to be honest.

CC

I firmly believe that if there isn't a root and branch overhaul of the NHS model and what is included in the free at point of delivery offering it will implode.
We have some of the worst paid healthcare workers in Europe, we have one of the worst doctor coverage rates, and poorer health outcomes compared with our European peers. Throwing more money at it without re-clarifying the principles and what it covers will not fix things.
One of the biggest longstanding problems is the demarcation between primary healthcare budgets and hospital budgets. Everyone jealously guards their own budget to the detriment of patient care, in my opinion.
I'm so sorry you are in the predicament you're in CC. It must be so worrying for you, and feeling out of options. And the arthritis must be so painful.
If we continue with downward sliding standards we will end up in as bad a way as US patients who cannot get insurance. We'll be entitled to treatment, but there will be sod all medical staff to deliver it.

 

[Deleted member 21838]

Covid and the Pandemic in general closed doors to people relying on NHS ongoing care or with new issues, literally. I walked through the QMC when my wife was near to death in April 2020 and it was surreal. The place was virtually devoid of anyone other than staff. ED empty when usually it would be heaving with people with some minor ailment or other, bringing themselves and their whole family for a ‘night out’ there. And making it more difficult for the genuinely seriously ill to be dealt with.

My wife was still ED nursing in 2020 and 2021. Her view on the newer nurses (the ones who didn’t learn their trade ‘on the job’) was that many displayed an unjustified sense of entitlement (as so many in all walks of life do today). She felt this worsened with the relentless media portrayal of NHS staff as ‘soldiers’ ‘on the front line’ ‘superheroes’..the Thursday night claps. When the actual truth of it was, hospitals had essentially shut down and lines of nurses were dancing around empty corridors, doing the conga as there was nothing else to do. No visitors allowed to see the dying. Old people dying alone. EDs empty. Many older nurses like her were embarrassed at seeing other nurses taking freebies, grabbing the plaudits and behaving like warriors even.

Whatever your view on the Pandemic, and whether the tyrannical dystopian state we found ourselves in for two years or so was justified, or an exercise in money making for some, and experimentation in population control by media driven fear, what it definitely has done is to make worse an NHS that was letting so many down beforehand, but now with the added in constraints in even being able to access it at all at the first point of use - your GP.

 

[boffy]

Well I think you summed it up quite througly. And as grim as it sounds its the truth. Therein lies the rub: without the pre pandemic NHS we are in very serious trouble. Some of what your saying is quite heartbreaking and deeply disturbing but I fear its the reality. No fluff and puff. Just facts.

 

[Koala]

I quit nursing in 2008 completely , disillusioned with the profession.
I use the word profession ironically because for me that’s where nursing lost its way.
I agree with the earlier summary of some nurses having a sense of entitlement because it was there when I trained.
The ones who preferred to let others get their hands dirty or were always available for the doctors ward round. The clip board nurse I referred to them as.

The problem with the NHS is while it remains a political football it will never get the true reform needed.
I want to scream when I hear people talking about it needing more money.
My daughter works for a law firm dealing with medical negligence and she has been on secondment in the NHS and saw firsthand poor organisation, apathy and some insight into why the NHS is such as mess and that was just on the non clinical side.

 

[rubia]

Covid and the Pandemic in general closed doors to people relying on NHS ongoing care or with new issues, literally. I walked through the QMC when my wife was near to death in April 2020 and it was surreal. The place was virtually devoid of anyone other than staff. ED empty when usually it would be heaving with people with some minor ailment or other, bringing themselves and their whole family for a ‘night out’ there. And making it more difficult for the genuinely seriously ill to be dealt with.

My wife was still ED nursing in 2020 and 2021. Her view on the newer nurses (the ones who didn’t learn their trade ‘on the job’) was that many displayed an unjustified sense of entitlement (as so many in all walks of life do today). She felt this worsened with the relentless media portrayal of NHS staff as ‘soldiers’ ‘on the front line’ ‘superheroes’..the Thursday night claps. When the actual truth of it was, hospitals had essentially shut down and lines of nurses were dancing around empty corridors, doing the conga as there was nothing else to do. No visitors allowed to see the dying. Old people dying alone. EDs empty. Many older nurses like her were embarrassed at seeing other nurses taking freebies, grabbing the plaudits and behaving like warriors even.

Whatever your view on the Pandemic, and whether the tyrannical dystopian state we found ourselves in for two years or so was justified, or an exercise in money making for some, and experimentation in population control by media driven fear, what it definitely has done is to make worse an NHS that was letting so many down beforehand, but now with the added in constraints in even being able to access it at all at the first point of use - your GP.

True on so many levels well said

 

[peterwoods]

Just caught sight of Ali Keenan, who I haven’t seen for ages.We know she seems to have gone down the route of having facial work done.Her eyes have a slanted upwards look & cheeks filled up.I don’t blame anyone on TV or media having the odd tweeks but why do they end up looking so obviously ‘done’?Added to that the huge trainers worn with the dress?reminds me of Minnie Mouse.She is a slight build and just looks silly, but so on trend?

The trainers, in my opinion, are the result of recent foot or ankle surgery. On ladies with slender legs and large feet, however, white trainers always look enormous. Bad decision. She typically looks gorgeous. She's likely had cosmetic work done on her face, and too much lifting can make your eyes appear slanted. She seems to be a decent woman, however she can be a bit 'pushy'. Always yacking and interrupting too quickly.

 

[Patsy]

I quit nursing in 2008 completely , disillusioned with the profession.
I use the word profession ironically because for me that’s where nursing lost its way.
I agree with the earlier summary of some nurses having a sense of entitlement because it was there when I trained.
The ones who preferred to let others get their hands dirty or were always available for the doctors ward round. The clip board nurse I referred to them as.

The problem with the NHS is while it remains a political football it will never get the true reform needed.
I want to scream when I hear people talking about it needing more money.
My daughter works for a law firm dealing with medical negligence and she has been on secondment in the NHS and saw firsthand poor organisation, apathy and some insight into why the NHS is such as mess and that was just on the non clinical side.

My hubby worked in the NHS before retiring. He wasn't a doctor he worked in IT and he always said money was wasted and too many managers on huge salaries.
The dept needed some cables and he was told he needed to use the "approved" company.
He went to see the head of the buying dept and asked if he could use a company he had used in a previous employment as the cables were exactly the same but tens of pounds cheaper. The company opened an account with the hospital and was pleased to get the contract and their name was passed to other hospitals in the area.
Thing is if it is work for the NHS the prices charged are disgraceful it's " they've always used us and we can charge what we want" . It's the same with the pharmaceutical companies .

 

[ERICS MUM]

My hubby worked in the NHS before retiring. He wasn't a doctor he worked in IT and he always said money was wasted and too many managers on huge salaries.
The dept needed some cables and he was told he needed to use the "approved" company.
He went to see the head of the buying dept and asked if he could use a company he had used in a previous employment as the cables were exactly the same but tens of pounds cheaper. The company opened an account with the hospital and was pleased to get the contract and their name was passed to other hospitals in the area.
Thing is if it is work for the NHS the prices charged are disgraceful it's " they've always used us and we can charge what we want" . It's the same with the pharmaceutical companies .

That’s down to a lazy attitude to procurement. Unforgivable, hospitals could save millions fairly easily. To quote QVC, the NHS has the buying power yet seems to pay over the odds for supplies. Is this down to laziness and smugness at the top or some sort of ‘you scratch my back & I’ll scratch yours’ between NHS managers and their opposite numbers in supplier companies ?

 

[Patsy]

That’s down to a lazy attitude to procurement. Unforgivable, hospitals could save millions fairly easily. To quote QVC, the NHS has the buying power yet seems to pay over the odds for supplies. Is this down to laziness and smugness at the top or some sort of ‘you scratch my back & I’ll scratch yours’ between NHS managers and their opposite numbers in supplier companies ?

Exactly laziness sums it up.