NHS to get a big cash increase

Health & Diet Health & Diet: In The News
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21

Hi

Some facts.

NHS and Social Care are not combined financially and the Treasury has different rules for both.

The issue regarding increased costs includes the huge costs of the Private Finance Initiative.

Interest rates are low but the Treasury prevents them from buying out the PFI, because it then becomes Government Debt, which it is not at the moment, it is revenue expenditure which comes out of the NHS Annual Budget.

These PFI initiatives also include facilities maintenance, food, portering etc.

These costs are huge.

A report by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest in 2017 calculated that PFI companies had made pre-tax profits from the NHS of £831m in the previous six years.[123] They calculate that PFI payments in the NHS will rise from £2.2 billion in 2019–20 to a peak of £2.7 billion in 2029–30.[124]

Now, this stupidity was started by the Labour Government, but has been continued by the Tories.

Another major cost to the NHS is the lack of Social Care, which is funded by Local Councils.

This is blocking large numbers of beds, which delays turnover and patient services.

A bed can be blocked for months because of a lack of Care in the Community and Councils being required to use private care homes.

The whole thing is a mess and very expensive.

The recent Boris rise in NI will not fix it, he is lying again.

He will be increasing Council Tax Bills next year by well above inflation, to fund social care.

I don’t like the man, but at least he is doing something.

If others had addressed the situation years ago he would not be in this position.

I am very critical of Boris, but he is at last trying to sort out things that should have been done years ago.

22

Social care should come out of the NHS budget. Facilities provided should be NHS facilities. That would solve the problem. It should all be centrally managed so that there is no post code lottery.

23

Fine words, including some of the now common buzz-words which I have heard many times before.
I have heard so many promises of late from people in authority that I think I’ll wait for a couple of years or so, just to see what actually happens.

24

I had to read this essay in today’s Daily Mail twice before I even got close to understanding what is really happening in the NHS.

As I understand it now, the whole damned thing from Ministry level down, from top to bottom, needs to be thoroughly demolished and then rebuilt in order to be fit for purpose in today’s and future times.

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25

Nobody will listen.
Despite the fact that we know or suspect the honesty of the content, and the unquestionable integrity of the author, nobody will listen.
More-so because of where this is published, sadly.
It ought to be held under the nosesof Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid until they promise real reform IMHO.

26

I doubt it matters really where it was published, you’re right no one will listen or do owt. They’ll just keep on throwing shedloads of dosh at it until the whole shebang collapses under its own bureaucratic weight. :face_with_head_bandage: :frowning_face:

27

A former very highly paid CEO is complaining about the NHS employing highly paid CEOs?

Pregnant women carrying their own medical records to an appointment is a burning issue? My impression reading between the lines of this article is that he’s planning a company to provide “social insurance” at great cost to the NHS. Any system changes to the NHS are vastly expensive and no doubt seen as a gravy train, much in the same way as any other public sector projects.

28

Well I’m sure that I agree with that.

A bit of a shame that he didn’t think to mention it before he left the job!

29

The point is that he’s right; the NHS is a bureaucratic nightmare.
We all know it is, too.
There can’t be many of us that haven’t had to deal with it at one time or another.

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30

Read the essay again. He mentions several times in the narrative he had to battle with the NHS bureaucrats BEFORE he left the NHS.

Damned right we do. There’s a follow up piece in today’s MoS about it. LORD ASHCROFT: You will never fix the NHS by spraying it with cash | Daily Mail Online

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31

The ideas he had are odd. Asking pregnant patients to bring their medical records because the hospital can’t get its act together on information - how is that acceptable? What was his point about patient’s being sent letters and GPs being cc’d instead of vice-versa - what exactly is the difference when they both get a letter? I didn’t understand his logic so doubtless he was sat in a room of people who could not grasp it either. The suggestions seem a bit eccentric and in terms of social insurance there appears to be a business interest that is behind that.

32

When we lived in Italy, it was the patient’s responsibility to keep hold of his/her medical records, X-ray films, etc (I still have a couple of dental X-rays somewhere in my files); GPs, hospitals, consultants, whatever kept nothing like the amount of information our NHS is supposed to keep for us. Therefore, I do NOT see this idea as being particularly odd.

I have an appointment to see a vascular surgeon next month - I hope he has the full background notes and scans available on my surgery last year because this appointment is at a different hospital and surgeon but, I still have the post operation discharge summary which I will take with me just in case.

33

Italy is one of the most bureaucratic countries in the world but I noticed the times I have been there that their systems are also very inefficient. I wonder whether they still ask patients to do that in this day and age. What if the patient loses it on the bus? Seems a potty idea to me.

34

I couldn’t agree with you more. In fact, one of the reasons we came back to England was just this; I fell into a bureaucratic trap, it was like being stuck and totally lost in a never ending circular logic nightmare of a labyrinth with no lights available.

I wouldn’t know. All I can tell you is they guard them with their lives.

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35

Mrs Zaphod’s best friend is Italian and I can assure you that Italians do indeed still keep their own medical records because she commented upon that very thing just a few weeks ago.

36

I think it’s an excellent idea. I attempt to obtain and keep copies of as much information as I can from health professionals. The eye hospital, for example, now routinely sends me copies of the letters they send to my GP. Not that I expect the GP to lose them(!), but I appreciate having the information for myself as well.

37

Why do they do this? Some of the very ill must have a suitcase of records. What if they mislay them? Do they receive no access to care?

38

what does Marge think of this?

39

As it has been explained to me I think the “why” has something to do with Italy’s privacy laws and it’s the way it has been done for decades because of those.
They’re guarded with their lives and are not likely to be lost; Italians are scrupulous about these things because it’s the way they’ve been bought up. “If” though, I don’t know but I remeber asking something along those lines some years ago to be pretty much met with disbelief that such a thing was even possible.
Nowadays of course more and more Italian health records are being digitised and as I understand it things are moving towards this but slowly (as is the way in Italy), and those with digitised records instead of keeping their own records can instead request a copy. Apparently it is commonplace to request a copy as you make or confirm an oppointment.

40

Remember all the “Nationalised Industries” , such as the Gas & Elec boards, etc?

They were run the same way.

Get a problem? Throw more money & people at it!

Still got a problem?

Throw more!

Those other Nationalised Industries went down the pan, years ago.

See where all this is going, as far as the NHS is concerned?

It may not go private, but it will have to be run as a business model of some practical sort.