Hospital at home/Virtual wards

[kaz7]

I live on my own with nobody about to care for me , not sure i would qualify

 

[normskih]

A blanket approach, no. Individual circumstances yes.

 

[JASR]

I have been involved with some discussions about these proposals of late. They are happening though whether you agree or not. Your old fella or mam may be sent home from hospital and monitored at home by digital devices.

Last week I was in a meeting with some Govt advisors on Health Economics and we tore them to pieces. There is not a definition of what this new policy means, we considered it a ploy to free up hospital beds and reduce pressure on the NHS by transferring that pressure to you, me and your families and friends.

It also creates an issue around discharge from hospital in that those with the ability to pay can send their loved ones private, whilst the vast majority can not, by definition a two tiered health service. It also puts pressure on Doctors and other HCPs who have to decide who can go home.

To be clear, i am not against this policy as it has merits in certain circumstances, but it appears a carte blanche approach and that concerns me greatly.

Do you have any concerns about this?

The NHS is being privatised piecemeal - eg all the routine, repetitive, simple stuff is already outsourced , because it’s profitable (for the private company) with no real effort in their behalf.

The contracts are also generously weighted in the private companies favour. Eg they are contracted for X operations per month, if only X/2 operations take place due to lack of patients being passed on by the NHS, then they are still paid the full contract.

This just makes the overall ‘cost’ to the NHS even higher, paying a fixed price for something that could just be sitting there twiddling it’s thumbs and counting the money, rather than if it was still in-house, the slack would be re-distributed/re-used - nurses, docs, facilities - for other NHS needs.

Hiving off the ‘easy stuff’ means the NHS is left with the higher cost stuff only… whilst paying more for a less efficient (to the overall health provisions of the nation) private, tax haven hiding entities.

Dentists are also disadvantaged if they take on NHS patients, they even get penalised on their nhs patient figures, go over the contracted number of patients and the contract wipes out their ‘profit’, despite the public clamouring desperately to be registered anywhere for nhs dentistry.

GPs are similarly shafted with the shenanigans of the ‘market’ imposition.

Nurses lost their training bursary’s a few years ago, effectively removing a major incentive for many to not start training. Thanks to @KnaresboroughBlue For pointing out this was restored 2 years after removal.

Docs, have had their (new) pension shafted, so again disincentiving the people willing to spend long years (and accumulated education costs) training.
There are many docs who are getting hit with massive annual allowance pension tax bills, forcing them to go part/bit time, so reducing the whole body of workers available.

Brexit exacerbated the want of foreign NHS workers to even bother coming here, and caused further falls in workers available.

The aging NHS worker population, with more retiring (as normal, or with burnout due to all/some of the above), and with less coming in at the bottom for quite awhile, means hospitals are fighting each other for (any) staff.

So… in summary, the NHS is being set up to fail by the govt, so far, incredibly it hasn’t completely collapsed, but that is purely down to the staff working till they drop.

 

[Rascal]

The NHS is being privatised piecemeal - eg all the routine, repetitive, simple stuff is already outsourced , because it’s profitable (for the private company) with no real effort in their behalf.

The contracts are also generously weighted in the private companies favour. Eg they are contracted for X operations per month, if only X/2 operations take place due to lack of patients being passed on by the NHS, then they are still paid the full contract.

This just makes the overall ‘cost’ to the NHS even higher, paying a fixed price for something that could just be sitting there twiddling it’s thumbs and counting the money, rather than if it was still in-house, the slack would be re-distributed/re-used - nurses, docs, facilities - for other NHS needs.

Hiving off the ‘easy stuff’ means the NHS is left with the higher cost stuff only… whilst paying more for a less efficient (to the overall health provisions of the nation) private, tax haven hiding entities.

Dentists are also disadvantaged if they take on NHS patients, they even get penalised on their nhs patient figures, go over the contracted number of patients and the contract wipes out their ‘profit’, despite the public clamouring desperately to be registered anywhere for nhs dentistry.

GPs are similarly shafted with the shenanigans of the ‘market’ imposition.

Nurses lost their training bursary’s a few years ago, effectively removing a major incentive for many to not start training.

Docs, have had their (new) pension shafted, so again disincentiving the people willing to spend long years (and accumulated education costs) training.
There are many docs who are getting hit with massive annual allowance pension tax bills, forcing them to go part/bit time, so reducing the whole body of workers available.

Brexit exacerbated the want of foreign NHS workers to even bother coming here, and caused further falls in workers available.

The aging NHS worker population, with more retiring (as normal, or with burnout due to all/some of the above), and with less coming in at the bottom for quite awhile, means hospitals are fighting each other for (any) staff.

So… in summary, the NHS is being set up to fail by the govt, so far, incredibly it hasn’t completely collapsed, but that is purely down to the staff working till they drop.

Thanks for that mate.

 

[KnaresboroughBlue]

Nurses lost their training bursary’s a few years ago, effectively removing a major incentive for many to not start training.

My daughter is presently training to be a nurse at university and she still gets a bursary.

 

[bluebaja]

I worked in the NHS for 35 years. We used to have a system where the local councils ran units (care/nursing home type facility) where we could discharge patients to and they would stay for a period of days or weeks until they could be sent home or moved on. The ones we used closed in 1995. There are easy answers to these issues, they just cost money.

 

[JASR]

My daughter is presently training to be a nurse at university and she still gets a bursary.

Indeed, restored after 2 years. Presumably because the number of new nurses dropped considerably.
Ta for pointing it out.
Wow, well done whomever pressured the govt on that!

 

[Rascal]

I am attending a meeting tomorrow where myself and my research lead hope to get the true figures of community nurses from NHS England.

Hopefully the true figures will help shape our research and as a result make the NHS a better place

 

[mexico1970]

It's all about initiatives and meetings and change that doesn't benefit anybody. 30 years ago if you were lucky you might have gotten your child seen at an A&E be that booth hall or Pendlebury, Pendlebury was a disgrace, a small room crammed with children coughing and suffering without any space to breath and it hasn't really changed 30 years on.

The NHS isn't really going to change we will still have waiting lists that are too long, appointments for doctors and people sent away with life threatening conditions by medical professionals who don't seem to give a toss.

As for virtual wards? WTF!!

 

[Kirkstall Blue]

I am attending a meeting tomorrow where myself and my research lead hope to get the true figures of community nurses from NHS England.

Hopefully the true figures will help shape our research and as a result make the NHS a better place

They used to be called (district nurses) now community nurses can mean nursing whole areas they have a limited number of nurses so every time it’s reorganised it means more patients for less nurses
What will happen to people on there own with or without a family. It is true that elderly patients recover quicker at home but do not have help from a family.
Even young people have very serious long term health problems it’s a disgrace we are entitled to a NHS health service bought and paid for by generations of working people.

I worry about sick people being left on there own at home for eg: a young girl left at home during Covid who became morbidly obese and died, in the news her father was prosecuted for neglect.
Shame ful way to treat patients. Local authorities don’t have the budgets to deal with care in the community