The political Left scream like banshees when the NHS is criticised and call NHS staff ‘heroes’, the government tells us to ‘clap in support’ of the NHS and gormless celebrities cheer it whilst avoiding using it if possible. In addition to that, too often our media, political and administrative classes will allow no real discussion as to whether the NHS is fit for purpose, or whether it should be replaced with something better.
We are told that the NHS is the ‘envy of the world’, despite no other country on the planet directly copying the way that the NHS is either funded or run. Nowhere else in what could be called the free world, has seen fit to create a system where the State both runs and funds hospitals, most sensible countries have systems based on insurance or ones where the State funds healthcare but the hospitals and other healthcare settings are run by non-State entities. Only Britain has such a quite frankly Stalinist system where healthcare provision is both funded and run from the centre with all the inherent problems that such a set up creates.
Britain’s unique healthcare system has not created an efficient, caring and innovative form of healthcare. Instead what it has created is a monster of bureaucracy, woefully inefficient, lacking in care and not set up to innovate because there are no incentives to innovate. What Britain has is a healthcare system with all the massive disadvantages of a nationalised industry with the customer, that is the patient, often being last on the list when it comes to priorities.
The NHS is also, in too many cases, unbelievably cruel in how it treats its customers. Even at the best of normal non-Pandemic times, the NHS is a mess. It suffers from long waiting lists, healthcare rationing and very poor patient care along with infection control that too often ensures that patients go into an NHS hospital with a treatable condition but die from a hospital acquired infection.
The story below from the Daily Mail shows the NHS at its worse and is a story that has only come to light because the family chose to publicise the poor treatment that their relative had got from the NHS. I know that there are others who because of grief or not having access to the media or the fear that by speaking out they would elicit some form of revenge from NHS staff and thereby compromise the care of other vulnerable relatives still receiving NHS treatment, have not spoken out. What happened to the vulnerable woman below is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude of NHS staff.
The Daily Mail said:
A devastated family has slammed a hospital after their 78-year-old relative with a broken hip was left lying on a mattress on the floor days before she died after contracting Covid-19.
Maureen Paterson was admitted to University Hospital Wishaw in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on December 16 after suffering from various cognitive issues.
Her daughter, Lynn Barrie, says Mrs Paterson called her in a ‘terrible state’ on New Year’s Day before it was discovered her stoma bag had ‘broken several times’.
Note well here that this lady went into hospital for a cognitive issue, something that afflicts many older people but suffered a catalogue of issues unrelated to her original admission. Her hip was broken, her stoma bag was allowed to leak faeces all over her and she contracted covid whilst in hospital. This is something that should not happen in a well run and clean hospital but is very representative of what can happen in the NHS. It was fear of poor treatment behind a relative of mine who was caring for another relative to choose to not leave the patient in a major London teaching hospital whilst they were being treated. She just could not just trust the NHS to provide either proper care or treat her relative with any sort of dignity.
The Mail added:
She then contracted coronavirus later that same month before her family called to check on her on the morning of January 28 – only to find she had taken a fall and broken her hip.
Mrs Paterson passed away on Thursday morning last week. Lynn has now submitted a formal notice of complaint over what she describes as ‘gross incompetence’.
The fact that Mrs Paterson suffered a broken hip whilst being treated makes me wonder just how this patient was being handled? Were instructions given by the family about Mrs Paterson’s limited ability to move merely ignored by NHS staff or were the staff pulling and pushing her about to such an extent that she fell and broke her hip? Sadly when it comes to the NHS either explanation could have some truth in it.
Mrs Paterson, who should have expected to be treated by the NHS with care, efficiency and dignity, ended up being placed on a mattress on the floor of a ward. She died in horrific circumstances in a hospital that seems no better than one in some third world shithole not one in an advanced Western nation.
So the next time some Government minister or some Lefty type tells you to ‘clap for the NHS’, go to the Mail article, look at this woman lying in pain and indignity on a mattress on the floor of a hospital and say ‘no thanks’, I’m not going to clap that. Over the course of many years, based on the experience of the NHS that family and friends have had and reading about a plethora of cases similar to that of Mrs Paterson, I’ve come to the conclusion that the NHS doesn’t need or deserve applause. Instead it needs killing off and replaced by something far far better than we are given at present.
I agree. Then taxpaywr should fund healthcare but hospitals should be privately run. This would IMO improve healthn ssevices here. When BT was state run it took weeks to get a oh phone in your home installed. I also think that the BBC should be sold off and the TV license abolished.
That’s very much my view. If every British subject got some form of health budget that they were allowed spend on whatever healthcare they wish and have it spent on hospitals that are not run by the State, then I believe that we would see healthcare outcome improvements. Bad hospitals would lose custom and would either have to improve or close and good hospitals could expand and treat more people. Such a system, especially if coupled with some form of scheme to return hospitals to the charities, religious orders and local authorities that had then stolen from them in 1948 when the NHS was created, might actually create a more diverse type of care. We might see a return of the cottage hospitals, the rest and recuperation centres and other facilities that the NHS has almost completely destroyed.
Opponents of such an idea would of course point to how dodgy characters such as John Bodkin Adams were created and sustained by a private medical system, but is one or two rogue doctors worse than the wholesale lack of care that we see from the NHS?
The NHS is a mess, it is a failed system,something that has its genesis in the 1930’s but which cannot cope with today’s demands.
Oddly, part of the problem is that the NHS isn’t universally bad. My local surgery gives an excellent service, the local hospitals are, I suppose you would describe them as satisfactory if you were filling in a survey. When the service is perceived as being free, well actually for some people it is free, satisfactory is all that you would expect. The general mediocrity of NHS service is also something that UK residents are just totally used to. Couple all this with horror stories about Americans and their terrifying medical bills and you can see what you are up against.
My family found that The Royal Free is a hospital with a good reputation whereas the Royal London and Newham were care-light dangerous shitholes. I would agree that the best description for the NHS is mediocre but I ask also whether we would put with a mediocre supermarket, a mediocre garage, a mediocre washing machine supplier a mediocre broadband provider etc etc? The answer is we would not put up with it, yet we put up with a mediocre healthcare system. The problem is I see is that the Left and those who see the NHS as some sort of secular deity have frightened people into believing that the only alternative to the NHS is the American system, which is not the case. There are a multitude of alternatives to the NHS that don’t send patients into penury because of medical treatment. In any case the major problems with the American system are because people either don’t buy sufficient coverage for medical care or don’t bother buying medical insurance at all. There are also, which the Left don’t highlight, schemes in the USA that cover basic medical costs for those who are indigent.
The cost of not going bankrupt over medical bills as is the case in the USA by having an NHS is paid by everyone who gets piss poor, mediocre or downright dangerous medical care from a system that although is free at the point of use, is also really not fit for purpose.
I’d rather every Briton got a personal health budget sufficient to cover the most likely serious conditions up to and including transplant surgery, geriatric medicine or even long term conditions such as HIV/AIDS or conditions related to some congenital or acquired disability which the patient can spend on whatever doctor or hospital they choose to spend it on. People should be able to add to this fund and get tax rebates for doing so.
It’s easy to forget that the NHS was originally conceived as an insurance based system but one that covered every citizen. There’s nothing wrong with that idea but how it went wrong was when the hospitals were nationalised and became,like all nationalised industries, places where the needs of the staff and management outweighed the needs of the patient.
Utterly shameful.
It is indeed. Yet still the morons will be out saying ‘but the NHS is fabulous, it’s free, it’s the envy of the world’.
I don’t want you to think that I am in favour of Soviet style healthcare just because I am defending certain aspects of it. The people that think that it is free fail to see that free basically means that someone else is paying. For those of us that have lead a productive working life, that in practice means that we are paying over the odds for our own healthcare and paying for hangers on, not only homegrown but from all over the planet. It is also interesting to compare the service that you get from the sainted NHS with the service that your cat gets from the local vet. Our cat doesn’t have to deal with waiting lists or terrible customer service, he gets first class healthcare on demand. Now why is that?
Of course I understand. There are some parts of the NHS that are not absolutely shit. It would be good if it was, in balance,more good than shit. I completely agree with you that the NHS probably worked reasonably well when it was an insurance based service covering only the Britons who had paid in or were likely to pay in in the future. Opening it up to overseas freeloaders who either have not paid in or will never ever pay in does put the NHS under unnecessary stress.
I’m certainly with you on the comparison between a vets and the NHS. No waiting lists, a choice of what vets to go to and caring staff. Shame the NHS can’t be like that. I think the main reason why a vets is better than the NHS is a) the patient or rather the owner is a customer and b) the customer can quite easily take their custom elsewhere if they are not satisifed with the service.
Kitty benefits from the fact that, as a family, we totally have our shit together. We have pet insurance but that means that we have to pay the vets bills and then claim the money back. We are not rich but we are financially secure enough for this not to be a problem. Remember that there are charities like the PDSA who help those who are less well organised.
Another comparison that I think is relevant is that of looking after your car. If you live in the sticks like I do then the health of your car is pretty important. Again you have a choice of garages and you find the money, whatever it costs, to have it fixed and kept in good order.
I agree that British healthcare would be more beneficial with people paying in an insurance fund or such.
Some people may moan but it is a necessity and to sort it out properly will probably save lives and you will have a happier public due to having security and a better service.
The only thing that concerns me is that part time workers that also claim benefits to survive will struggle to afford insurance. Maybe if the government looked at these types not losing so much of their benefits if they work would help.
Also what about people whose income is basic benefits? If you have a service that gives freely to people on basic benefits then there would probably be little ambition on their part to progress off of benefits and we would be stuck with people refusing to work etc.
I will have a think tomorrow. It’s my bedtime and I am up early tomorrow so maybe something will come to me.
Meanwhile if any of you have suggestions let us know.
@Stonyground
“My local surgery” – is it open as normal like Boots, Tesco?
Assuming you mean GP Surgery – it’s not run by NHS, it’s a private business same as Dentists, Opticians, Pharmacies etc. However, to beholden to NHS due to funding model: money per patient, not per service
Only way NHS will improve is by breaking up and privatising with no local monopolies. Gov’t will not contemplate as ~400,000 jobsworths would be sacked among other reasons
If we’d stayed in EU it would have been opened up to private competition, although I’m glad we left
Talking of Vets:
Way back in 1991 vet took blood sample, nurse took away, 5-10 mins later back with results
2021: GPs still don’t have on-site test machines
Going back to my comment about how people on basic benefits could pay for insurance towards healthcare costs, it’s just a sudden idea of mine, and I don’t know if it’s any good, but how about setting up something for people on basic benefits who can work (and/or are supposed to be looking for a job) maybe a suggestion that if they do something like 10 hours proven voluntary work the government could pay into their insurance for healthcare.
Maybe something like that could be an idea?
Also the voluntary work could give them a taste for work or maybe lead to better things.
I am still thinking on other things. I will let you know if I get anywhere.
@F
Look at Singapore healthcare system
@Pcar
I see what you mean about Singapore healthcare.
I think that would be a very good idea to introduce to the UK.
First things first though would be to create more jobs so people can pay into such a system. We do have to consider the elderly, children and the long term sick who would probably not be able to work so with children they should come under both parents insurance until they are in the working world, the people who are approaching their 40s/50s would need to pay in more to cover their possible needs for retirement but I am not too sure about the long term sick. As I mentioned in my previous comment, those on benefits who are supposed to be looking for work could contribute by doing around 10ish hours per week of proven charity work or something and perhaps the government can then cover their insurance that way.
I don’t know what sort of prices the government pay for drugs etc for healthcare but they would need to get the best at the best value.
I also like the idea that people should take responsibility for their own healthcare although I think there will be a bit of a struggle to persuade the public that mandatory insurance would be in their own best interests.
Like I said, we need to create stable jobs and get the economy moving before venturing into changing things before everything is stable and progressing.