NHS not fit for the 21st century

Sloppy Bob

I have a friend in London who works as a diversity officer for the NHS and is paid ~£56,000

She's a Uni drop out in her late 30's. Perhaps she has a senior position.
Even she can't believe she gets paid more than frontline staff and feels her role is ultimately pointless and adds little value to the NHS. Everything she does that's useful could be handled by HR.

Of course you have to get her a bit drunk to admit this,but it's just a small example of a wasteful, management corrupt, top-heavy system that needs drastically streamlined, prioritised and overhauled so people who actually know what they are doing decide on patient welfare.

krish

Since when is anything useful handled (or handled well) by HR?

Sloppy Bob

That's a good point.....

Enki

The Tories have taken rotten politics by weaponising the NHS to new levels, normally left to opposing parties to slug out, foreign secretary Boris and Chancellor Phil having a bit of a spat over NHS funding.

NorvernRob

Man using NHS as political weapon against the Tories complains about NHS being used as a weapon?

tapzilla2k

When my wife suffered a bleed and suspected miscarriage during her second pregnancy two years ago, she was left sat on a chair in the waiting room for 9 hours before she got a bed. Luckily the baby was ok, but she was so upset she walked out and got the bus home. Nobody noticed she’d gone until 6 hours later.

When I had my car crash 18 months ago I went to A&E at 7am on a Sunday morning, there were no more than 3 or 4 people waiting before me and I was still waiting for close to 5 hours.

I try and avoid anything to do with the NHS like the plague because you can pretty much guarantee it’s a full day gone.

EarthRod

I had to call an ambulance for a friend last night, it took about 20 minutes to arrive. He was seen fairly quickly in A&E and discharged that night (I went home as I felt I was intruding when his parents arrived). Still in a bit of shock about it, but I can't fault the NHS for the care he received last night. Might have been a different story had it happened on the weekend I guess.

My long standing fury at the Home Office continues to rise (Doctors from outside the EU) -
Doctors blocked by Home Office from taking up vital NHS jobs

This is where you'd think the PM would have stepped in, bashed heads together to get this sorted out either within Government or through a change in the law in Parliament.

rustybin

This is the political sub-forum so it's quite understandable, especially if you ignore the "normally left to opposing parties to slug out" bit in @Enki's post.

weaviemx5

I think what we're seeing anecdotally at least is a real disparity of service depending on where you live.

Without going into too much detail, my wife has had the same situation you've described (although with less pleasant outcomes) twice in the last 4 years. Both times she went from midwife to Early Care Clinic at Bolton hospital in less than 2 hours - seen and scanned almost immediately, everything sorted within a 3-4 days. The service was again incredible.

When we were in the hospital the following year for the birth of our first son, two of the nurses who'd worked with us the year before popped in to congratulate us, as they had recognised our surname. They came in to say they hoped it was us given what we'd been through. Again, incredible service and we were very touched.

Enki

If you're unhappy with the care you've received, don't go to A&E.  Personally, I'd still rather have the option of state-funded emergency care for all than fully privatised care for only those who can afford it.