Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: beet1e on December 03, 2003, 06:36:05 AM
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I have just finished reading a serialisation in the Daily Telegraph about the state of the NHS. The author, Harriet Sergeant, spent 11 months interviewing folks at various levels in the NHS and reports on what’s really happening in there, and how our money is being spent. It was a long read but well worth it.
Some of the issues that are revealed are these. - The NHS hospital system has 185,000 beds… but the NHS employs 270,000 managers!!!
- The NHS couldn’t work out why it had so many managers, so they spent £500,000 in consultancy fees to try to find out – LOL!
- A hospital porter who was interviewed says he spends his days wandering around doing nothing. In the past, he reported directly to the matron. Now, he reports to 20-30 managers “who don’t know what they’re doing”.
- Standards of hospital hygiene have sunk to the levels that existed before the days of Florence Nightingale.
- Many people are dying from infections received at NHS hospitals.
- Patients press their call buttons, but the nurses don't attend to them. They might be at the nurses' station listening to Radio 1 and tucking into a box of chocolates, or listening to a Rolling Stones album.
- Nurses who are untrained in patient care - the basics, like emptying urine bags etc.
I could paste the text in here, but I’d end up pasting the whole thing.
Remember how Labour throughout the 1980s and 1990s promised to cut NHS waiting lists? The lists have got longer. Labour used the NHS as the centrepiece of its manifesto – and yet it is in a worse state now than it’s ever been.
So about a year ago, Tony Blair stands up and says something like ”if you want a decent, functioning hospital service, you’re going to have to be prepared to pay for it”. Erm… I thought we were already paying for it?
So what happened? Labour put up employee National Insurance from 10p to 11p in the £ - and put up employer’s NI up from 12p to 13p in the £, and abolished the employee NI ceiling.
And what do we see for these tax increases? (That is, after all, what these costs equate to – Blair used the term “tax rises” himself.) And the answer, in terms of hospital improvements, is bugger all. So where is all the extra money going? Just as we thought: Wage settlements for NHS managers, consultants and other employees, and another 4,900 managers (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/28/nhs28.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=128023). Yes, that's right. And that came about two months after the NI contributions went up. Note - not more doctors, not more nurses, not more hospital beds. More managers.
There's only one type of promise that Labour can be relied upon to keep. And that's a promise to raise taxes.
Here are the links to the serialisation. Even if you're not a regular DT reader, I urge you to give it a read. It's an eye opener, but at the same time no big surprise, given Labour's track record. - Middle Managers (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fhealth%2F2003%2F12%2F01%2Fhmidman01.xml)
- Nurses (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fhealth%2F2003%2F12%2F01%2Fnurse01.xml)
- Hygiene (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fhealth%2F2003%2F12%2F02%2Fhnhs02.xml)
I shall be continuing my BUPA membership, regardless of cost! The care is very good at facilities like the Princess Margaret hospital in Windsor. They give you a nice dinner in the evening, and even include a glass of wine!
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Many people are dying from infections received at NHS hospitals.
I don't know what you're speaking about ( I can guess enought to understand :) )
The point I've quoted is not uncommon, the nosocomial deasese is a huge concern for all hospitals not only the NHS's one.
For the rest of the post => no idea :)
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Originally posted by beet1e
- A hospital porter who was interviewed says he spends his days wandering around doing nothing. In the past, he reported directly to the matron. Now, he reports to 20-30 managers “who don’t know what they’re doing”.
- Standards of hospital hygiene have sunk to the levels that existed before the days of Florence Nightingale.
I shall be continuing my BUPA membership, regardless of cost! The care is very good at facilities like the Princess Margaret hospital in Windsor. They give you a nice dinner in the evening, and even include a glass of wine! [/B]
I spent a few weeks in a NHS ward before being transferred to a BUPA ward last year. The NHS is disgraceful from my experience. The staff are great, but the system is just a mess.
The porters are great people, really nice, but if you need to go anywhere in the hospital you have to wait ages to go there.
Another waste of money - they had to take me by TAXI to another hospital because they did not have an (MRI? the tube thing) scanner at the hospital i was at. Not only did the taxi have to wait 45 mins outside while they got someone to accompany me in the car, drive for 30 mins to where i was getting it done. But then had to wait another hour or so while they fugged about with the results before driving back to the original hospital.
You say about bad hygiene - a personal experience of mine while there was the bathroom for our ward. Some old guy pooped all over the place in there, and rather than get it cleaned up - they simply shut it. It was still shut when i got transferred 1 1/2 weeks later.
If i hadn't transferred to BUPA its a good chance i would be dead now. If you value yours and your family's health you will stick with it.