Do your bit too! (NHS in general)

Name: David J. Rogers

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	NHS in general
Date:	30/04/02 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Always there in an emergency., Best care

Disadvantages: Waiting, Waste, Misuse

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a frequent user of the NHS service, needing over 100 visits in the past 4yrs, my opinion is based on experience and information gathered while using the services.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The simple truth is our N.H.S. is good, it does work and we all know that it will be there at a time of real emergency. What is not so sure is how long you will have to wait if your problem is not an emergency and much of the uncertainty is down to us. The reason we are forced to wait to get into hospital is the lack of spaces and the lack of staff, right? Well in part that is true but there are other factors that make this problem bigger. Factors caused by people not turning up for appointments, not calling in to cancel their operation, and bed, for whatever reason and people that are simply not in need of the bed they are in.

I would bet most of us know someone that has failed to attend an appointment, either at the hospital or their doctors, and forgotten to call in and cancel it. Or someone that has decided, no matter why, not to go in and have the operation planned but again failed, or forgot, to tell the hospital thus preventing them calling in someone else that is waiting. We also know about the older folk that are in hospital, not for health reasons, or because they wish to be, but because there are no places for them in nursing homes. The term “bed blocker” is used to account for these folk, not a term that is true nor fair. Most, indeed almost all of these people would rather be anywhere than sitting in a hospital ward all day long with nothing to do but watch the time go by. However, it is a fact that the bed they are in is one that cannot be used to get someone else in for treatment. But I feel that these people are not there by choice and would exclude them from the rest I have listed above, the ones who simple do not turn up. I have tried to get resent figures of missed app
ointments and surgery but they seem hard to come by, all I was able to find out is that the number runs into tens of thousands a year. Think of that, tens of thousands of appointments that could have been offered to people waiting, tens of thousands less on that endless list. So there is a lot we can do to reduce some of the delay, attend your appointment or call in and cancel it. Advise anyone you know who is not going to keep their appointment to do the same and ask them to follow suit, in no time we would see the waiting lists drop and could then really put pressure on the management of the trusts to do their bit too.

As of this moment in time there are some *1,050,400 people waiting to go in to hospital. This number includes those that are new to the list as well as those that have been waiting a long time, but it is a marked improvement to the *3,000,000 or so a few years back. I do not feel that any government can claim credit for the reduction, other than for the pressure they have placed on managers to offer value for money… at last!! What is happening is that many people are now getting perfectly good service by the use of day surgery, I have opted for this method myself on a couple of occasions, feeling, as I do, that my recovery would be quicker, and cheaper, if done at home. It is true that people are also not being kept in hospital a long as the once were either, and this has, on occasion, caused some problems whereby people have had to be readmitted due to complications. However there are a huge number of people that went home quicker and made a full recovery in the comfort of their own home, and that has to be a good thing, and a step in the right direction too.

*The National Health Service was set up in 1948 to provide healthcare for all citizens, “based on need, not the ability to pay”. I believe this is still the case, and more to the point I believe that it will remain so for many years to come yet.

As
with anything there are limits to just how much can be done in a certain amount of time and with people living longer, advances in medicine and care hospitals are, of course, struggling to keep up. We all expect to get treated as and when we want it, rather than when we need it and that is not possible today. Because of the pressures placed on the service there have to be priorities set and those in most need will, and should be seen first. Because that list changes daily, while many illnesses do not, it will, unfortunately, mean some people, and I have been one of them from time to time, remain on the list longer than seems fair. I happen to feel that if someone has a life threatening illness they have every right to bump me down the list again, it is not nice, it hurts and it means I will suffer my pain longer but I will live. I am currently awaiting surgery to put right problems from my last operation, back in the summer of 2001, but it is not something that is life threatening and so I have no choice but wait. In England the people that have waited more than a year for surgery is around *26.000. A lot of people eh? Or is it? In the scheme of things this is much better than it has been in many a year and should be seen for what it really is, a massive improvement but, as in my school books, a could do better mark.

It is not often reported but there is a major fact about our NHS >>

* “It is recognised as one of the best health services in the world by the World Health Organisation and is now the largest organisation in Europe.”

That is a major thing when you consider the fact this organisation looks at, and works with, medical services all over the world. I happen to believe that we should be very proud of this fact and support, no knock the service.

Other facts that have recently been released are lists from the public, of what they see as the priorities for the service: - *

1. More and better paid staff -
more doctors, more nurses, more therapists and scientists.
2. Reduced waiting times - reductions in waiting overall, for appointments and on trolleys and in casualty.
3. New ways of working - including 'bringing back matron'.
4. Care centred on patients - action on cancelled operations, more convenient services.
5. Higher quality of care - especially for cancer and heart disease.
6. Better facilities - more cleanliness, better food, getting the basics right.
7. Better conditions for NHS staff - reward and recognition for the work NHS staff do.
8. Better local services - improvements in local hospitals and surgeries.
9. Ending the postcode lottery - high quality treatment assured wherever people live.
10. More prevention - better help and information on healthy living.

I have to say that the list amazed me somewhat, in the fact it is so broad and yet offers no real benefits that may come from the choices made. I accept that everything listed is desirable but wonder just what any of this will do to reduce the waiting times, or indeed speed up the service in any way at all. There is no mention of management, its role or its size and cost. I am sure everyone would accept that unless the management is improving the service, or making changes to the good, their huge salary is something that has to be a priority. Indeed the sheer numbers of management has to be a concern taking, as it does, a fair amount of the money being put into the NHS, money that could be better used if directed to patient care.

There is also no mention of the vast sums of money spent on patient transportation, something I do have knowledge of, using it, as I have to, on every visit to the hospital.

For the disabled, frail or those simply unable to make their own way to hospital, for clinics or day surgery, or indeed to go in, and then return home after surgery, there is a car service that is paid for by the trusts. This service w
orks very well for the people it was set up for but has now become abused by many. In London, where I have to go for my treatment, I see, every time, people, perfectly able and mobile, using the service as a free taxi. Many live only a short bus ride from the hospital, and others even closer, but because they have been allowed to abuse the service continue to do so. Again hundreds of thousands of pounds are wasted year in and year out. Drivers tell me, often, of trips to places as far away as several hundred miles were wasted because nobody bothered to tell the transport company the appointments had been cancelled. Many of these wasted trips cost the service several hundred pounds and are far from uncommon. This, I suggest, is another area of waste that is seldom talked about in public debate, probably because it is something so easily rectified by the managers employed to run the transport. The savings to be made in this area are, I feel, massive.

All we have been promised, even after the announcement in the budget, is: - *

“A 10yr plan promises…
More power and information for patients- more hospitals and beds- more doctors and nurses- much shorter waiting times for hospital and doctor appointments.- cleaner wards, better food and facilities in hospitals -improved care for older people- tougher standards for NHS organisations -and better rewards for the best.”

Is any of this really going to alter the service for the better? Is it not far more important to look at the cause of the problem first? Is it not fair to ask if we, the people paying, are getting value for money from the management in the NHS today. I was always taught that to ensure value for money those responsible for the spending of it have to be closely monitored and taken to task when they fail. It seems to me, from all we hear, that failing managers in the service are being paid even more of our money to leave. My feeling is that a major audit of every
hospital should preceded any big injection of extra funding, and that any extra money should be accounted for to the last penny.

* http://www.nhs.uk/default.asp

 David J Rogers 2002

Summary: