Ed Milliband And The Nhs

[emmie]

says that under Labour you will get a doctors appointment within 48 hours or 24 hours if urgent, needed. Has he spoken with anyone at all in the NHS recently, in the medical profession, governing body. Making a promise like this is a vote catcher perhaps but i can't see it as remotely feasible.
one of our surgeries has one and a half doctors, as related by the receptionist, one full time the other works 3 days a week, and a full time nurse, heaven help us

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-pledges-100m-per-year-to-target-nhs-waiting-times-scandal-9358502.html

[anneasquith]

hes a politician................they make it up as they go along,

[treetops68]

Another hot-aired rant that obviously hasn't been thought through in a desparate attempt to apear as though they have something to offer.

[naomi24]

He's grasping at straws again. The man's an embarrassment.

[anneasquith]

'' the man is an embarrassment '' I agree, so are david Cameron and nick clegg.

[emmie]

he will promise a lot, but how on earth is he proposing to do this,
the NHS says its short of doctors, and going on some of the shower i have come across in their out of hours doctors service, contract Harmoni,
i wouldn't employ them in the local supermarket

[kvalidir]

We have a very large rural practice where I am registered and their system works like this. Five of the Drs are on an appointment basis and one runs a walk in surgery every day. That means in practice that you ALWAYS get seen the same day if it's an emergency, and they have thousands of patients registered, so there is no reason this would not work in every surgery if it was set up correctly. Why more surgeries don't adopt this I have no idea, because the similarly sized other practice for the area have an appointment only system and you could honestly die waiting for an appointment- literally 2 weeks sometimes. It's ludicrous.

[emmie]

what a numpty,

Patients would be guaranteed a GP appointment within 48 hours under a Labour Government and those who need it would get one within 24 hours.

Announcing Labour’s plans for the National Health Service tonight, Ed Miliband promised that an extra £100 million a year would be ploughed into GP services, allowing an extra three million appointments a year, relieving pressure on accident and emergency units and preventing unnecessary hospital admissions.

[emmie]

many surgeries already do this, its called an emergency appointment, go to reception with your chronic pain, problem, and ask to be seen, generally you will be, and if its that bad as mine was i didn't bother with them i called an ambulance - A&E is not for the faint of heart, but they care, if things look bad they are on the ball.

[tamborine]

Another excuse to burst our borders with voodoo warriors & witch doctors.

[kvalidir]

So as you say many surgeries already offer emergency appointments, so how is it unfesable for people to be seen within 48 hours. It isn't so why are people chucking all this flack about? If some surgeries can do it ( you never have to wait more than 2 days for an appointment at mine either) they all can if organised correctly.I suspect it's because Ed Milliband said it. If the sainted David Cameron had come out with it it'd be everything marvellous.

[emmie]

i object to speaking with any nurse, doctor who's command of the language is so poor, how on earth can you express the problem if they don't understand or know how to treat you. our out of hours doctor service is staffed with people like this, that is a failure, i don't care who is to blame,
past or current governments, those who have made companies like Harmoni wealthy, whilst not providing a good enough service.

[kvalidir]

I thought we were discussing appointments not out of hours services?

[emmie]

you have to stand there and explain what the problem is to the receptionist, they make the decisions, if they don't think its urgent you won't be seen, told to make an appointment, which will be weeks away,
if you insist, then they will put you in for an emergency 10 minute maximum consultation. our surgery has over 10 thousand patients, and staff changing so often you can't keep up with it. i was given an appointment to see a GP in one months time, because that was all they had.

[emmie]

the out of hours doctor service is part of the whole package, as doctors surgeries are not open late, some may be, or at weekends. so don't fall ill at the weekend seems to be the case.
what does Milliband plan to do about that, surgeries open at the weekend, doctors, working longer hours, how are they going to pay for it.

[kvalidir]

If that is the case you need to write to the practice manager, you should not have to discuss your medical issues with a receptionist. We have about 8,500 with our GPs and you would NEVER be expected to discuss thins with the receptionist, that's disgraceful, but surely you can see that is down to poor management of your GP surgery and not something which needs to happen or which is applicable to every surgery.Staff clearly change because they are not happy there and things don't work well, our Drs have all been there for years so they know how best things work for our practice. It simply sounds as if you have a bad surgery that needs help in its organisation to be honest. I don't think you can say it's a crazy notion for it to be the norm to be seen within 48 hours because clearly it can happen. Sorry you are having such a horrible time, I would be in despair in your situation:(

[treetops68]

Sell some more gold?

[emmie]

actually you do, there is a notice up in reception giving the reason, and i have discussed this with any number of friends and my mother who says the same thing, they need to know what is wrong, so can determine whether you get seen that day, next week, next month, its the way it is.

[youngmafbog]

He does not learn does he? Brown tried ploughing money in but it failed spectacularly, and not because of him this time although Browns GP fiasco will haunt us for years.

The NHS is out of control, they keep employing more and more managers and it simply does not work.

Having said that I think it is down to local surgeries. I got an appointment (booked online) this morning at 7:40. Booked it last Friday.

[emmie]

i was asked what the problem was and had to explain something incredibly difficult, you try and whisper, but it just doesn't work, if i hadn't then i wouldn't have got to see someone, they ask, and the notice is up as to the reason why they do so. I haven't been to another surgery for over 30 years, so don't know what their policies are, but would say that they do so because they need relevant info to pass to the doctor, of course that doesn't happen either, because the first thing the doctor says,
now what can i do for you today, in other words receptionists make decisions on who gets seen.

[emmie]

most of the surgery changes have happened in the last two years, before that our GP's were constant. Now its a year, maybe less, i saw a locum in the surgery, something i have never known before.