NHS waiting lists get longer

[rov1100]

How is this possible when Cameron promised to maintain funding?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14111452

[Sqad]

^^....it would NOT be given to another Consultant.

[rowanwitch]

Day or up to 36 hr stay..using the short stay facilities proper ops up to large lumpectomies/hernias/VVs etc anything that can come in early saturday and be gone before close of play on sunday...proper lists consultant teams (although probably done by senior registrars) and paid for rather than suffer 18 week DTT breaches by taking these patients from the waiting population it shortens the waits for the other patients

[DrFilth]

>> Only British nationals, should be eligible for NHS treatment. <<

if this was a rule think how it would effect the english when they are abroad.
every country could put there people first

[Sqad]

rowan....so a registrar does the operating and i bet an anaesthetic registrar does the anaesthetising and they get paid extra......correct?
Remember, Birmingham is a teaching unit and not all hospitals have spare registrars, the Teaching hospitals getting fully staffed draining from the district hospitals.

[rowanwitch]

I feel Medical treatment should be on clinical priority decided my the patients clinicians ... not position on an 18 week pathway as set up by the previous government and still in force... I'd be really angry if a major op for a loved one was cancelled in favour of something less serious that was about to breach

[NoMercy]

The Consultants are not always happy for their Registrars to do lists in their absence, possibly due to the lack of generic cases on their lists. Registrars can't do joint replacements, for example. Yes, extra lists are possible. We have the POD (or T9 as it's sometimes called) which gets used for, say, carpal tunnel lists, but only when the fancy pants agree to fund it. For the majority of the time, it remains unused. If that theatre were used working day of the year, just think how many more cases we would get done.

[Zeuhl]

<<Only British nationals, should be eligible for NHS treatment>>

When I visit my local hospital or GP I prefer not to have to step over all the sick and injured 'foreigners' lying on the pavement outside.

Or is there some alternative way of dealing with them?

BTW when i do visit medical facilities the vast majority of patients appear to be from the indigenous population - the 'immigrants' are generally the doctors, nurses and cleaning staff who are serving people.
.

[rowanwitch]

We are lucky...I agree it must be incredibly difficult for smaller trusts without the financial stability to flex up as needed... and I know a lot of our registrars wouls have consultant posts at other centres but stay longer to learn more of the highly specialised surgical procedures etc

[NoMercy]

Interesting what you say there, Rowan. I think we can pretty much agree that the 18w pathway is unsustainable.

We've now been told that we have to work Chronologically, save for the odd exception.

[Sqad]

So do they get paid extra....or don't they?

[Sqad]

NoM.....what is 18W pathway?

[NoMercy]

18 week pathway, Sqad. We have 18 weeks from the date we receive the referral to admit and treat/operate on the patient. If a patient cancels two OP appointments or surgical dates, we can remove them from the list altogether and they would have to go back to the GP to be referred again, and the clock would be restarted from the beginning.

[Sqad]

NoM...;-)....right.

[NoMercy]

Unless of course it's a cancer patient - they have to be seen within 2 weeks.

[rowanwitch]

and they have either a 62 day referral to treatment pathway or a 31 day decision to treat to treatment pathway for second or subsequent treatments

[rov1100]

All very interesting but why has it deteriorated since the Tories took over? I assume they had these internal problems before they got elected.