How The Nhs Should Work ...

[sunny-dave]

Needed to chat with my GP about the herniated disc in my neck - just needed some more meds and a bit of discussion about future treatment (if any).

Logged on to their web service at 9:05, booked a telephone triage appointment for 9:22, phone rang at 9:23, all sorted by 9:28.

Which sounds (and is) a great service.


How the NHS shouldn't work ...


The trouble being that, once anything outside my own GP service is needed, you then have to deal with a wider NHS that has deteriorated alarmingly over the last three years, since the unwanted/unnecessary/doctrinaire reorganisation of 2011/12.

If I'd waited for the local hospital to scan my neck I'd still not even know what was wrong - 8 weeks wait for an 'urgent referral' MRI (this was under a fortnight in 2010). The NHS physio service that I would then need has a lead time of "at least 12 weeks" (a maximum of 4 weeks in 2010). That's a total lead time of over 20 weeks (under 6 in 2010) - without any actual treatment.

Fortunately I could afford £195 for a private scan (less than a week wait) and then £40 a pop for a couple of excellent physio/acupuncture sessions (no wait at all) and am well on the way to being pain free.

But in 2010 I'd have had the same (or even better) treatment on the NHS, in a tolerable timescale and still have had £275 in my pocket to spend on wine, women and motorbikes (other hobbies are available).

Labour may have been castigated for "chucking money at the NHS" - but it left a service in 2009/10 that was better than it had been in decades. The Tories have just chucked away all the progress (whilst saving virtually no money) for reasons that have more to do with dogma than doctoring.

I know who I'd rather have running the NHS from May 2015 ...

[whiskeryron]

At last the truth,unfortunately our Dave will deny all this ( should get to Specsavers sharpish) Please Oh Please voters do not elect this present useless shower again in May.

[wolf63]

My GP has always offered an excellent service. Other than that I normally use only the psychiatric services. They are underfunded and have too many patients.

Vets give brilliant service though, very important.

[maggiebee]

I have nothing but respect for the NHS. I get excellent service at my GP surgery and my care during and after my hip replacements has been second to none. Maybe I've just been lucky or maybe it's a postcode lottery?

[chrissa1]

Hang on. Wasn't it the Labour Government that boosted GPs pay massively, and at the same time allowed them to "opt out" of out of hours work, etc etc.

[Sqad]

I should bloody well think that you did get good GPS service......the Labour Government in 2007 gave the GP's a huge pay rise and at the same time reducing their hours of on-call.

Don't blame the present "lot" this has been going on for decades....money given to the GPS, diverted from the hospitals which were starved.

Yes..fantastic...a GPS referral, but *** all use if you have to wait months for a hospital referral or an investigation.

Don't blame "this lot".........blame Socialised Medicine.

[humbersloop]

Sqad, what do you man by //Socialised Medicine//? and it's a genuine question

whilse I may agree the 2004 GP changes were badly flawed, Lansley's "reforms" (what ever happened to no more top down reorganisation?) have been have been a complete dog's dinner

[Sqad]

Socialised Medicine.......a health service financed totally out of taxes and National Insurance.

ALL "reforms" will be flawed, whether Labour, Tory or whatevever, as the health service that the electorate demand is totally unaffordable from taxes alone.

ALL parties know this, they know what changes are needed, but they are " handcuffed" by YOU...the electorate.

[sunny-dave]

I'm aware of your "GPs are an overpaid waste of space - let nurses do imms&vacs, pharmacists dole out painkillers and everything else goes staright into the hospital system" views, sqad.

That's not the point here though - the point is that in 2010 the NHS was at a high-point in terms of ability to deliver - but has been hamstrung by dogmatic, politically motivated change since then.

[Sqad]

Sunny-Dave....if you think that the ills of the Nhs were at their lowest in 2010 and have got worse on the last 4 years...you are mad.......and I have never before considered you so.

I am off to my Club.

[Postdog]

Ditto to the OP

[Sqad]

"I'm aware of your "GPs are an overpaid waste of space "

That is a bit unfair Dave......can you show me a post where I have said that GP,s are " waste of space?"

Overpaid ..yes. Needs reorganising....yes.


"Labour may have been castigated for "chucking money at the NHS" - but it left a service in 2009/10 that was better than it had been in decades"

Really? What about the Mid Staffs Hospital,Scandal where death rates were unacceptable, old ladies left lying in the urine and faeces, unable to reach water and drinking out of flower pots?

Yes...you got good service at your GP's but I feel that to make a Political point out of it was inaccurate and unnecessary.

[Dizmo]

Hospitals are understaffed and are fined heavily when they don't complete procedures within a specific time period; MRI's for example - if an MRI isn't done within 6 weeks of it being requested, the hospital is fined. That's the only reason I've got my MRI tomorrow, because they can't afford to be fined. All because the machine broke down due to overheating. I don't think GP's are a waste of space either.