The NHS today

[curethenhs]

Cure the NHS is a campaigning group from Mid Staffordshire. The group is mainly made up of relatives whose life has been harmed by their local hospital.

Most of our group are mostly elderly many of them still grieving for the loved ones they have lost so cruelly.
Despite this we have campaigned over the last 18mths for better care for others who may need the hospital in the future. We know we have lost and that we cannot change but we strive for better care for those who need the hospital in the future.

I started the campaign after spending 8 weeks caring for my elderly Mother, frightened to leave her alone.
during those weeks I saw things that still haunt me and I fear always will. I didn't for one minute expect to have the struggle  I have had since.

No, naively I expected that once I had told what I had seen there would be a public outrage. Heads would role and those responsible for such horrors would be exposed and punished. The vulnerable and elderly in our community would be cared for, treated with respect get better and return home.

We are now 18 months on, still fighting for basic needs to be met in the hospital, still hearing of dreadful experiences and no one has yet been held responsible.

Cure the NHS believes our hospital isn't alone the elderly and vulnerable are suffering in others throughout the country. Ours was driven by financial incentives and not patient care because of foundation status, is yours?

Ironically, people say to me "well done you have achieved so much". And still basic needs are being denied our most vulnerable within the hospital!

The NHS is crumbling and something drastic needs to be done to save our NHS.

Cure the NHS is now planning to step up our campaign, despite all our efforts we haven't achieved the change we wanted to ensure safe patient care.

We are hoping to join up with others to protest for the care our vulnerable and elderly deserve. Any suggestions would be welcome, we believe by all working together we will achieve much more.

[patrick pool]

yes i agree

[Hells Granny]

Many of us cannot afford private healthcare. The NHS was set up to give all of us free medical care for the whole of our lives.

Back before the Government of the day started selling shares in our nationalised industries,  these industries created a central pool of money which could be diverted as required.  Basically they sold off the nation's assets, so now we don't even own our own industries. Britain is now Foreign owned, and  there is no longer that pool if money to support the NHS..

Cheers, Hells Granny

[Ivanhoe]

Since the 80s, the NHS has been run down due to the former Tory government of the right wing persuation not believing in it's principle.

Since 1997 New Labour have adopted the right wing stance of the former Tory government, so the NHS has continued to be funded by a low income tax agenda on UK workers, because income tax was also cut by the Thatcher government, and New Labour have continued this policy.

We all know that the principle of funding through general taxation all our vital services including education and the NHS is of paramount importance in a civilised country.

But until we all wake up and realise that the right wing in politics believe in low income tax which is what we have today, we will continue to be run rough shod over.

[Wrinkles]

Don't forget the other reasons for this lack of resources, two worth the mention are waste in every area from drugs to cleaners rubbish bags. Items sold to the NHS are generally overpriced and then wasted in huge amounts eg cheap ball point pens that I could by for 5p the NHS buys for 10p and as they don't work over 50% are thrown away.
Over Staffing, Not at the sharp end where it's needed but the upper echelons and admin. It was once described to me as the staffing structure being like an upside down triangle with the nurse at the bottom and although that may(?) be an exaggeration it is not so far from the truth. 

[Ivanhoe]

Waste is not the problem, gross underfunding is.

The Tories never believed in the concept of a National Health Service, so they cut income taxes for all in the 80's and underfunded our NHS in favour of white suits, a policy that New Labour have continued.

[Papaumau]

Not trying to stand "on the fence" here as I don't ever make that choice, BUT...I feel that BOTH are actually important to a good NHS.

It is true that during the Thatcher years the NHS was starved of funding and it was opened up to the so-called free market, but all that did was generate a bunch of expensive number-crunchers and managers that had nothing whatsoever to do with clinical services. The damage done at that time is still being felt today !

( Watch what happens if the Tories get back in at the GE ).

With this in mind I also agree that there is some terrible waste in the NHS when drugs companies can hold the NHS buyers to ransom for more and more expensive drugs and any equipment that is needed for the new Hi-tech NHS costs ten times more than it might have cost in normal commercial situations.

The NHS is a black hole for finance and not until it is sorted by someone who has his or her priorities right will this money be spent more wisely.

A perfect example of this is the use of ECMO machines. These machines are able to clean and oxygenate the blood of a baby or an adult while their heart and lungs can rest and recover and yet there is not even ONE in Scotland in use for adults as they cost £40,000 a year to run per patient.

(Source ): http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/pressoffice/pressrelease_00129

The Americans use these machines routinely even if they have to be paid for through private insurance. I would hope that we might never have to go down THAT line.

I guess it is all about priorities and it seems that many hospital trusts and government departments seem unable to get these prorities right

[Ivanhoe]

Cutting waste would free up more money, but cutting waste is a "one off", the NHS needs sustainable investment through taxation, but since the 80s that sustainable investment has been from a low income tax agenda from the British public.

[Papaumau]

No, actually, cutting wasteful spending and keeping cutting the same wasteful spending every year adds more money to be spent every year and not just once.

Waste is waste wherever it happens and I have found - in my experience -  that if people are allowed to waste money - that was not theirs in the first place - they will continue to waste it.

One of the most insidious policies is whereby each department is encouraged to keep spending at last year's level so that next years budget is not cut. They do this by finding ways to throw away excess cash not spent just before every budget revew is due.

[Ivanhoe]

I agree entirely with what you say. 

But my main point however is true, there has been for almost 30 years care of this and the former Tory government, crass underfunding of our NHS, so no matter if waste was stopped, the underfunding centrally would still be there, because the Tories never believed in the concept of The National Health Service, and neither do New Labour having adopted core Tory policies since 1997.

[Papaumau]

I think that we basically are singing from the same hymn-sheet as I too think that during the Thatcher years the NHS was starved of cash.

Since Labour came to power there has been more cash put into the NHS than ever before and this cash is increased in real terms year on year.

I can bet you anything from a tenner to a million that this cash injection will STOP once the Tories are back in power. They have said just about as much.

The ideal situation has got to be to keep funding the NHS as it should be while wielding that paring knife so that waste is kept to an absolute minimum. Who we can trust to do this job properly I cannot say, but it certainly has to be done !

[Ivanhoe]

Yes the NHS has received more money, but the money is still coming from a New Labour government with a right wing Agenda, including the same low income tax trickle down economics of the Thatcher/Major years, plus well paid beaurocrats running the NHS.

The only party in my opinion that ide like to see govern' this country are the Lib-Dems, but they are not the natural party opposition to ( Labour in the general sense ), but New Labour since the 1997 general election.

We have since 1997 been a right wing one party state.

[John]

Have you changed your mind about the Liberal Democrats yet?

The reason they are not the natural opposite is because not
enough people support them.

But I will acknowledge that they have support in some
areas, but do not have the leadership to capitalise on
it.

Nick Clegg makes some good retort at PMQ's. But
it always weakens out at the end.

[olly]

It really annoys me when people say that there are too many administrators in the NHS and not enough nurses.
In recent years many nurses have been given management jobs on very high salaries!
And why do people feel so much sympathy for the 'poor' nurses anyway - what about other professions in the NHS like radiographers , physiotherapists ,lab technicians??? Nobody ever mentions them!!!!

[Hells Granny]

Hi Olly,

There have been cuts in staffing levels in all departments of the NHS-Except management.

Physio, Occupational Therapy, Radiology, all have suffered cuts, but the bedface where the nurses stand has suffered most. I was a nurse until the nurse training was taken out of hospitals and put into Universities, then suddenly, my grade ceased to exist, despite the NHS saying that Enrolled Nurses would always have a place in the NHS.

Now, without trainees at the bedside, and all the Qualified staff 'Managing', the patients are at the mercy of poorly trained Health Care Assistants, with only NVQs to their names.

Nurses now do not do the practical training any more, they have no clue how to make a patient comfortable.

Patients are no longer washed, no longer helped with their food, no longer checked on their fluid intakes.

Hence patients in soiled beds, malnourished and sometimes dying from dehydration, Like one of my aunts did.

Cheers, HG