The NHS

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

1 in 3 public pounds goes into the NHS yet people cry 'underfunded'. It's poorly run with a frontline team left to piece it together and cover the cracks.
Everyone I know who has worked in the NHS mentions the amount of money wasted. It's an absolute shambles.

It’s about 18% but that is from official government figures and not a chat with some people you know, so you’re probably right.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

The nhs pay £100 for stuff you can get on eBay for £10

Not after October 31st!

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

It's all private here and fucking fantastic compared to the shite back in the UK.
Oh and it costs me 243ch per month. That's £196 or £2352 per year. How much is the average cost per capita in the UK? More ;)

Odd that the per capita spend in Switzerland is the second largest in the world at over $8000, twice that of the UK. A good example of getting what you pay for.

 

[yerwot?]

The nhs pay £100 for stuff you can get on eBay for £10

they pay agencies 500 pounds a SHIFT for cover nurses, much more for theatre staff, hundreds to change a light bulb, market forces? nah corruption and incompetence from the board room and a tory government desperate to sell it to their co-conspirators from the murky world of private equity. No chance of being "too big to fail" unlike the robbing bastard banks, but then shareholders piss all over the public in toryland priorities.

 

[hilts]

they pay agencies 500 pounds a SHIFT for cover nurses, much more for theatre staff, hundreds to change a light bulb, market forces? nah corruption and incompetence from the board room and a tory government desperate to sell it to their co-conspirators from the murky world of private equity. No chance of being "too big to fail" unlike the robbing bastard banks, but then shareholders piss all over the public in toryland priorities.

Do you think if Labour got their hands on it this wastefulness would be better? Genuine question.

 

[shak]

Do you think if Labour got their hands on it this wastefulness would be better? Genuine question.

Nobody should get their hands on it. No politician is going to make the NHS work because it needs long term planning and politicians cannot do that in our system, not their fault they get elected for having different ideas so they have to act on them. Needs a budget agreed for the next 10 years or so and ring fenced for those 10 years - and to be left alone with a permanent undersecretary / someone actually invested in it.

Strategic Defence Reviews aren't by any means a perfect system but it might be a useful example of a middle ground that would be beneficial, would at least allow some mid term planning.

 

[hilts]

Nobody should get their hands on it. No politician is going to make the NHS work because it needs long term planning and politicians cannot do that in our system, not their fault they get elected for having different ideas so they have to act on them. Needs a budget agreed for the next 10 years or so and ring fenced for those 10 years - and to be left alone with a permanent undersecretary / someone actually invested in it.

Strategic Defence Reviews aren't by any means a perfect system but it might be a useful example of a middle ground that would be beneficial, would at least allow some mid term planning.

My concern is that say labour get in and have two terms they will throw money at the nhs, it will get better but will it be improved enough to justify the extra expenditure. Say you increase funding by 10 % and the general improvement is 3%. Good value for money?

Personally I would increase NI so like for like we are putting in similar amounts to the best in Europe, do this for 10 years. If we don’t see the results then have a grown up discussion on changing the NHS.

Will this happen? Not a chance.

 

[Rascal]

It would certainly help if the NHS took greater responsibility for its own organisation. The NHS is always being reorganised externally by politicians, never by itself. No wonder they dont work.

It is being reorganised by itself in Manchester through an organisation called Innovation Health Manchester. It is able to do this because it now controls some of the health budget and can allocate resources in a way that suits Mancunian needs. I know this is the case because I am currently involved in the overhaul of dermatology services across Salford, Bolton, Wigan and Leigh. Long term planning to include the rest of the Greater Manchester districts is in the pipeline. Devolution is working for Manchester as our needs do not necessarily mirror those elsewhere. That is why a centrally planned NHS run from Whitehall is slow to respond to patient needs. Manchester has problems that are not relevant in Surrey and vice versa. The organisation is in its infancy yet it is already making a difference by approaching things in a typical Mancunian way. As Tony Wilson said, we do things differently here.

The long term plan is to make Manchester a centre of excellence across certain areas such as Cancer, Dermatology and Neurology. This is possible because we have an elected mayor, which initially I was against but I now see its value as we have in effect a champion for Manchester who is willing to back the innovation required. Other areas with elected mayors are watching Manchester very closely because the model that is being applied is unique in that it involves partnerships with the Universities and business. Manchester University medical research department is one if not the best in the country and the plan is hoping that by becoming centres of excellence across certain areas it can attract the best of the best to Manchester. I recently accompanied a young lady from Chile to a workshop who was over here finishing her studies under my Prof at SRFT, she was attracted here because it is one of the lead research and clinical dermatology institutions in the world. The same also happens with Christies, its another world leader and proof that Manchester is leading the change and innovation that for some reason people do not believe is happening. Of course what Manchester is doing gets little media coverage and
it is very frustrating that attitudes are that it is impossible to change. That of course suits an agenda, I know what it is, its not rocket science to guess.

 

[SilverFox2]

I think we all would like to give more money to help the good things that the nhs does well but unfortunately it would also fund the areas it does badly yet has traditionally taken the lions share.
Until the management can do its job to identify these areas and streamline them costs will rise faster than funding no matter how much extra cash is allocated.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Do people take enough responsibility for their own health? How much of the burden on the NHS is in the form of avoidable illness?

Huge point this.

As much as I think the Govt. are fucking up the NHS (on purpose, to later justify that it needs privatising); the self inflicted disgusting health of this nation through appalling diets, lack of exercise and smoking/drinking is contributing to the state of the NHS as much if not more than the Govt.

It starts with education in schools. The Govt. and schools are more interested in getting kids through exams and making them learn poems or algebra than they are about teaching them proper life skills. Food and PE are classed as minor subjects that not every kid has to do after Year 8 and those that do choose it are taught in the wrong ways about health and well-being. It’s, again, more about getting them through the exam at the end than it is teaching them the proper life skills.

Everybody in the country should be leaving school as experts on knowing how to shop well for food, what to cook, how to cook it, what types of exercise they should be doing, when to exercise, how to do the exercises well... to aid them in being the healthiest person they can possibly be.

However only about 10% of school leavers actually take Food or PE up to Year 11 and the curriculum doesn’t teach that 10% exactly what it should.

There are people around who do not eat any proper meat or fish. There are people around who don’t eat any fruit and barely eat enough veg. There are people around who never drink any water, ever. There are people around who haven’t done a moments exercise since their last Core PE (the one everyone has to do where you’re taught hockey or athletics) lesson at school. Because they don’t understand how important proper meat (as in, unprocessed), fruit, veg, water and exercise are.

Then there’s supermarkets that sell all the high sugar foods. Advertising companies that try and boost the sales of the high sugar foods. Sweets and fizzy drinks should be banned from being sold to children. There’s not a single ingredient in a sweet or a can of coke that a growing child should be consuming. Them consuming high sugar foods is doing their bodies just as bad as them smoking. If you have kids just think about sitting in the kitchen after tea with your seven and five year old and allowing them to light up a cig... you wouldn’t do it would you? Well the damage being done by high sugar food and drinks is just as bad.

And as well as providing little to no nutritional value to us, refined sugar is also highly addictive. And I’m talking about being proper addictive where your body literally reacts to it as a need, just like addictive drugs like heroin or alcohol.
https://www.addictionhelper.com/addiction/sugar/

Trying to stop eating refined sugar is harder to do than trying to stop taking cocaine as cocaine leaves less of a body dependent state on us than refined sugar does.

People are getting addicted to sugar from a young age and combine that with a lack of education of food, drink, exercise and well-being and you get the nation in the state it’s in.

Well-being isn’t just about being physically healthy neither. It’s about your mental state too and diet and exercise are proving to be huge factors when it comes to mental health. Depression is showing as many signs of being linked to diet and exercise as cancers are.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/diet-and-depression-2018022213309

The importance of diet and exercise (and too much stress) is so understated that it’s criminal. You can link many physical and mental ailments back to those three things as the root cause, even for those you don’t take back as the root cause you can link them as being contributing factors.

If the nation was educated on consuming the right and enough proteins, carbohydrates, fats (there are good fats and they are essential, and so many people just think of fats as bad when they aren’t!), vitamins, minerals and water; burning fat, building muscle, increasing cardiovascular health; and doing things to de-stress if you’re in a high stress job, the NHS wouldn’t be under as much pressure as it is. There are vitamins and minerals across many foods that will contribute to preventing illnesses before they even happen. And being fit and having little visceral fat around the organs will also prevent illnesses before they even happen.

To those who barely eat any fruit: did you know that oxygen in the air we breathe, while being essential for our function, is also poisonous to us? That’s why we have to eat fruits and veg as they are high in antioxidants that stop the oxygen permanently damaging our cells.

This is just one example of thousands of the importance of a good diet. I’ll say again, consuming the right foods and getting the right exercise will play a bigger part in not contracting illnesses, diseases or ailments through prevention than your need for the NHS.

There are other factors like immigrants coming into this country for the sole reason to use our free NHS, clogging up the system. And many of these don’t speak a word of English so huge amounts of NHS funding is being spent on translators in hospitals or surgeries to allow the immigrant and the Dr/Nurse/GP to communicate with the patient. Also the Govt. is to blame with their cutting of funds and purposely hamstringing the NHS (fucking cunts the Govt. are!).

But if everyone in the country understood about the importance of diet, exercise and stress and didn’t put so much pressure on the NHS, imagine how good the NHS could be for those who really need it in situations where their lifestyle hasn’t contributed to their disease, illness or ailment...