NHS 75th

[Observer II]

Seems our NHS has taken on the role of a kind of religion, with a special service being held on it's 75th anniversary, allowing the politicians to virtue signal in spades.  But they all deny the fact that the NHS isn't fit for purpose, and has become an insatiable consumer of funding, allowing it's managers to engage in a range of non-essential expenditure and expectation fulfilment.    We're now in a position where initial access into the system requires an 8am phone call to your GP and a phone queue of up to 20 people or in an emergency a trip to A&E and hours of waiting to be seen.   The NHS can be seen as a victim of it's own success, in the sense that modern medicine allows the technology and innovation to promise resolutions to a whole range of issues, some of which could not be described as life threatening.  So perhaps the starting place for reform is to decide the scope and scale of it's mission, should it be in effect an Inter-National Health Service, treating foreign visitors, should it be involved in gender reassignment surgery or fertility treatments ?    Should the numbers and salaries and woke activities of it's over staffed managers be curtailed ?   Add to this the need, with an aging population the need for a functional care service.   The one thing that should be sacred imo, is the principle that access to the NHS should be free at the point of need,  which makes the comment of Tony Blair "that folk should be allowed to pay to jump the queue" so distasteful  and revealing of his political beliefs.   

[Gary]

On 7/5/2023 at 1:38 PM, Observer II said:

Seems our NHS has taken on the role of a kind of religion, with a special service being held on it's 75th anniversary, allowing the politicians to virtue signal in spades.  But they all deny the fact that the NHS isn't fit for purpose, and has become an insatiable consumer of funding, allowing it's managers to engage in a range of non-essential expenditure and expectation fulfilment.    We're now in a position where initial access into the system requires an 8am phone call to your GP and a phone queue of up to 20 people or in an emergency a trip to A&E and hours of waiting to be seen.   The NHS can be seen as a victim of it's own success, in the sense that modern medicine allows the technology and innovation to promise resolutions to a whole range of issues, some of which could not be described as life threatening.  So perhaps the starting place for reform is to decide the scope and scale of it's mission, should it be in effect an Inter-National Health Service, treating foreign visitors, should it be involved in gender reassignment surgery or fertility treatments ?    Should the numbers and salaries and woke activities of it's over staffed managers be curtailed ?   Add to this the need, with an aging population the need for a functional care service.   The one thing that should be sacred imo, is the principle that access to the NHS should be free at the point of need,  which makes the comment of Tony Blair "that folk should be allowed to pay to jump the queue" so distasteful  and revealing of his political beliefs.   

The big question is why does no other country have an NHS like ours? Answer - it, unfortunately, doesn't work properly.

[Evil Sid]

given my experience with the NHS over the last week i can say that at the ground level the staff are doing a great job and i, for one, could not praise them enough.

yes there are problems with the system but it is these problems that get highlighted rather than the parts that work well and that gives the rest a bad name.

[Bill]

I’ve always had nothing but praise for the NHS in the way both my wife and myself have been delt with over the years, but since the recent troubles began, all that seems to have changed. When others complained about the service, I used to joke and tell them they didn’t clap loud enough during lockdown. I don’t think I’m on my own when I say that I don’t think I would have clapped so loud if I knew that twelve month down the line they’d be out on strike.

Fortunately, I’m not desperate or suffering severe pain but I can’t walk much more than 100 yards these days before my left calf aches so much that I have to sit down and rest. On the other side, my right arm still isn’t working properly 18 months after the operation, and I’m forced to hold my pint left-handed. 😊

I’ve been waiting for a hospital appointment since the beginning of the year, but it’s been cancelled three times now due to the industrial action. In desperation, I’ve bought one of those Revitive Medic machines in an attempt to sort my walking issue. Just over a week in with it now and there’s no noticeable difference.

 

Bill 😊

[Evil Sid]

I have often wondered about those type of machines Bill.

especially when you see the adverts, cant walk five feet to striding up ben nevis with a fridge on your back in a week. (pinch of salt time)

If they worked as advertised then they would be recommended by doctors rather than ex cricketers.

I know it may be a long shot but could it be a side effect of any medication you are taking. I used to get bad leg cramps at night until my doctor reduced the dose off my statins down from 40mg tablets to 10mg tablets.

still not found any medication to ease the arthritis though, tried every propriety brand and the stuff the doctor prescribed at the time. i must be immune to painkillers or something so i just find ways of dealing with it.

[Bill]

Take you point about why doctors don’t advise them. but really it’s just a variant of a tens device without the need to stick patches and wires all over the place. Tens devices have been around for years and are a proven method for pain relief and used quite a lot in hospitals. The one I bought is just a variant specifically designed to be convenient for people with foot and leg issues even down to it having a remote control, so you don’t need to bend over to adjust it. The design and build quality is top notch and I’m well impressed but whether it’ll fix my problem remains to be seen.

I don’t take any medications at all other than a chewy vitamin supplement once a day. The doctor did ask what I did for pain relief to which I replied, “I just don’t walk too far then it’s not a problem.” She also said that It’s possible that it may be a circulation issue made worse by many years of smoking, but they won’t really know until they’ve done more tests. If I have to wait as long to get my leg seen to as I have for my arm, then I’ll probably be needing a Zimmer frame by then. ☹

I have got what I think is arthritis in the fingers of my right hand which is bloody annoying and like you I’ve not found anything that seem to ease it. My handwriting has always been good but these days it looks like that of a five-year-old. 😊

 

Bill 😊

[Evil Sid]

oddly enough i found one of those tens machines when i was clearing out the father in laws stuff. it still works or at least the lights come on.

My idea of pain relief is to shout OW and add a few choice words under my breath. doesn't ease the pain but makes me feel better....🤣

[Bill]

The Revitive device does come with pads that can be used on other parts of the body although I’ve not tried that yet. I’ve got plenty of other aches and pains so it might help out elsewhere if it doesn’t fix my leg. It does say it takes time before you notice any change (normally the week after the guarantee runs out 😊) so I’ll just have to be patient.

I can’t get my head around how the thing works. Clearly it’s applying different pulsating patterns of voltages to the footpads, but each pattern seems to cause different muscles to respond. One pattern feels just like a blood pressure test increasingly squeezing the ankles while other patterns get to the calves, heels, and soles of the feet. The whole thing is designed to rock about, but it’s the involuntary muscle responses that cause it to bounce about. I use it twice a day for half an hour at a time while watching telly so it’s no big inconvenience to use it.

I didn’t hear any choice words from Fred and Sheila. Maybe they edited those bits out. 😊

 

Bill 😊

[Observer II]

I guess, if we were dogs, they'd put us down !    😑

[Bill]

Well I'll have to watch it then, because I'm barking mad at the moment 😕

I’ve been waiting since Christmas to get my arm checked out but everything seems to take ages. I’ve already had two appointments cancelled due to strike action, but today I finally got to see the surgeon who did my operation. He had a quick feel of my arm and told me he needed an Xray, but because it’s the Xray staff’s turn to strike today, I have to book yet another appointment.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Woof woof  

 

Bill 😊

[Observer II]

Tried A&E,  it was like an Airport lounge,  so gave up;  I'm going private.    😢

[Evil Sid]

thought they ran a walk in x-ray system these days, sure i read that whilst visiting the hospital.

A&E has nearly always been like that obs. partly due to advice given by the 111 people and partly due to the difficulty getting to see your own doctor

Easier to get to see the dentist these days.

[Bill]

They do have a walk-in system where you can go anytime that suits, but it has to be prearranged by the doctor otherwise the Xray people wont know just what bit they need to focus on. I suppose I’ll just have to wait for them to finish their strike, then for the doctor to contact me and give me the go-ahead. All a bit bloomin annoying because it means another drive to Whiston.

 

Bill 😊

[Observer II]

The problem with A&E is that, as the main door to NHS services. it suffers from high demand issues.  With many, especially immigrants, not being registered with a GP, it's their only access to medical treatment.  This demand is outstripping supply, with staff shortages.   The key to any medical reception system is triage, which means identifying priority treatment from the get go.  So instead of everyone piling into a non-prioritised queue, medical priority needs to be assigned from the moment you book in or are stretchered in, which can involve the booking staff or in obvious trauma cases, a senior consultant.  Trivial cases can be refered to lower nursing ranks.   Following this initial triage approach, you then have the onward allocation of appropriate treatment regimes, from emergency surgery to bed allocation, all of which requires adequate staffing levels and organisational protocols, which can involve care services to guard against geriatric bed blocking. So instead of diversity officers, there needs to be a clear route through the demand to appropriate levels of treatment.     

[Bill]

You may be right about the immigrants that don’t have a doctor, but I suspect that that only accounts for a small percentage of the folk that turn up at A&E. I think you have to look at how it was in the past to see the problem with what we have today. Back in the day if you felt unwell, you made a doctor’s appointment and got seen later that morning and you’d only go to A&E if you’d had a serious accident. It was pretty straight forward, everyone understood how things worked.

These days it’s increasingly difficult to get to see a doctor and I suspect that today’s generation who seem to want everything right away are being steered to a host of various options that are essentially just electronic forms of triage. It’s not so straight forward these days and all a bit too complicated and off putting especially for the elderly, so we end up with people just turning up at A&E with things that should be dealt with by a doctor or just not bothering and putting up with their problem.

 

Bill 😊

[Observer II]

Back in the day, I recall that it was the GP's surgery that was packed out, now it's A&E.