Nothing? Absolutely nothing? Not saying all of it is, because you're right, it isn't, but nothing?

Righto.

You can't blame everything on Labour and the pandemic. Extremely reductive and obviously not true.

Here's an interesting summary of the current issues with the NHS, from (shock horror) someone experienced that actually works within it.

For those who don't fully understand what is up with the NHS, here is a thread for you that might help.

I'm a consultant physician working as a doctor in the NHS in Yorkshire and Wales for 32 years now. I have experienced the NHS at its best (2008.) and its worst (2022).

Over at least the past 15 years, we have seen a relentless increase in demand, both in primary care and in hospital care. This has been absolutely predictable by social statisticians for decades and is based on the fact that our elderly are surviving much longer.

Our elderly use a very large percentage of NHS of resources, unsurprisingly because they are more prone to disease, frailty, and dementia. They need more social care and hospital care as they get older. And they are living longer.
(Immigrants, by the way, use much less care).

Over this period NHS funding has, broadly speaking, risen about 1-2% over inflation. If NHS funding increases with inflation yet demand increases, then clearly spend per person will drop. Demand has increased considerably above 2%, which is why the NHS is failing to manage it.

Secondly, the NHS is not responsible for social or community care. When elderly folk come into hospital they decondition very quickly and require physio and OT to get back on their feet. Often a care package is required, sometimes even a care home place.

This is the responsibility of the local council to sort out. But council funding has been cut and social workers are dealing with huge case loads. So there are big delays. And we can't send the patients safely home until their care package is sorted out. So they wait. And wait.

And they sit on hospital wards waiting. Often bored and frustrated. About 33% of hospital beds are filled with 'fit for discharge' patients. UK hospitals can do nothing about this. We are effectively working on 66% capacity. Which is one of the key reasons why A&E is rammed.

So when I do my 'emergency take' ward rounds I am seeing patients in chairs, in corridors, in the back of ambulances. There is little privacy and dignity is impaired. We all do the best we can but it is a poor environment. This has become much worse over the past 5 years.

No self-respecting doctor or nurse enjoys working in this environment. No care worker likes to deliver poor care. Salaries were frozen for 7 years of austerity, and have never caught up since. Doctors and nurses now leave university with large debts to pay off.(Not like me!)

One of the biggest perks of the job was the NHS pension. In 2015 this was rearranged to save money, and ensure people have to work longer. It was not done well and this has led to some facing bizarrely massive tax bills - 5 figure sums are common.

If the pension is no longer an incentive to remain working for the NHS then medical and nursing staff can leave the NHS and do agency work. It pays a much higher rate, and you can work as much or as little as you want. It gives you control back - very attractive for parents.

So lots of folk are leaving the NHS to do agency or locum work. Once this happens we have a tipping point. There are lots of vacancies in the NHS that have to be filled by agency nurses who cost much more to employ - there are agency fees as well.

Those of us left are working in jobs with constant colleague absences. So we must work harder, often covering extra shifts at short notice. Because we have to. There is moral pressure to cover oncall gaps because the service cannot be allowed to collapse. We are all so tired.

We cannot recruit. About 30% of new consultant jobs in UK cannot be filled. There are simply not the people to fill the posts. The nurses are striking because they have to. Not just because they personally are not paid enough, but because they need the vacant posts filling.

They know that if they do not improve pay and working conditions very soon, morale will collapse and we will face mass resignations and retirements. Because when you can earn more driving an HGV than running a ward, you know your profession is in trouble.

They know that if the government wins this, nursing will collapse anyway.

The junior doctors are militant. A strike vote very soon. This is about money. But it is also about working conditions. Because if conditions don't improve, the NHS will fall. The staff have had enough.

Please understand that the RCN has NEVER supported strike action. These are not militants. They are striking out of desperation. To try and make this morally bankrupt government understand that enough is enough. Because they cannot do this anymore.

I am taking my pension in 3 years. I have worked for the NHS all of my life. I have never known it anywhere near as bad as it is now. And this government are trying to blame it on the nurses. Shame on them.

Finally, don't be fooled by the comments about cost. The NHS needs more. If it doesn't get it, YOU will end up paying it somehow. Either through a new state insurance scheme. Or private insurance. Remember the UK spends 9% of GDP on healthcare. The USA spends about 15%.

All these people tweeting about how expensive the NHS should take a look overseas and see what people get for their money. Whatever happens the taxpayer will pay.

I mean - who else is there?

Edited by SW19 CPFC (03 Jan 2023 10.32pm)

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

With homage to Croydon Proud.

The Financial Times’ annual survey of leading economists has revealed that the UK will face one of the worst recessions and slowest recoveries in the G7.

More than four-fifths of the UK-based economists surveyed expected Britain to lag behind its peers in 2023, with a “significant minority” saying the country was “suffering from ministers’ outright incompetence.”

Except in Wales of course where their Labour government has seen the Welsh NHS perform worse than in England

Whether the blame for the demise of the NHS can be laid at this Governments door is debatable, albeit they have played their part by not sorting an age old problem out.
The NHS has been going to the dogs for 30 years or more.
Selling NHS properties, getting rid of beds, allowing Management to take over and ruin the hospitals - the list is endless.
However, these hospitals and trusts saying they are in a critical condition need to look inwards rather than blame everyone else.
They have been given more money by the sackload year on year for as long as I can remember but like every public service they waste the majority of it.
The fault of this and any other government is allowing that waste to happen without any recourse.
Let's not blame one party or the other because they are all guilty as charged.
People living longer, no care homes for them means beds get blocked so people can't get in; GP's not doing their jobs well enough over the last two years - it is a vicious spiral into something that looks like a third world country's health system - broken and corrupt.
Nothing can be done with the flick of a switch about the situation we are in now but long term the Tories should sit down with Labour and come up with a plan for the next 20 years that both agree to fund and control regardless of who is in power.
It is the only way forward.
As a Conservative I have to say that I am not happy that the PM isn't even talking about it - that is faintly ridiculous and he needs to lead now and do what he can to help even though it will not be enough.
If hospitals don't have beds or enough clinical staff they cannot take sick people in and you can't change that overnight sadly.

Agreed so why do some on here get so upset about bankers bonuses.

One more point

So what?