BBC1
A serious look at the NHS .
Long waits are driving people to go private which make for a two tier society those who can afford it and those who can’t .
A meeting with a consultant £200+
A hip replacement private is 11k
A heart valve 20k
People who are desperate resort to crowding on social media .
Going private is all very well IF their lists are also not too long. I tried that approach for a much needed heart op and that panned out to be the NHS was actually quicker and I’m on the 14th to be sorted out, making just a 3wk wait where private was around 5wks with one from the same cardio team.
Do you think this is a good time for an NHS reconfiguration? :
Extracts of the King’s fund analysis :
"Clinical commissioning groups, which have been the primary budget holders for NHS services since 2013, will be abolished. In their place, ICBs will be established as ICSs are put on a statutory footing to support multi-agency planning and delivery of health and care services…
The changes to how clinical services are procured sit within a wider package of reforms that aims to place collaboration, rather than competition, at the heart of how health care services are organised. Yet there are concerns that these changes, particularly where new services are being commissioned or services are being substantially changed, would allow contracts to be awarded to new providers without sufficient scrutiny, opening the door to private providers. In practice, though, the changes are framed by a duty on commissioners to act in the best interests of patients, taxpayers and their local populations, and will be informed by a new NHS provider selection regime, which is being developed by NHS England to support commissioning organisations and will include safeguards such as transparency expectations…
There has also been concern expressed about the potential for private providers to hold seats on ICBs, the main local planning and funding body for NHS services. The legislation does allow ICBs to choose their own members, and therefore, where major local services – for example, community health services – are run by a private company, that company may be invited to be a member. However, the same is true if a major service was delivered by a VCS organisation…
The involvement of the Secretary of State in local service reconfigurations would significantly increase. Reconfiguration describes the management of service change in the NHS that has an impact on patients. Currently, most service changes are delivered and implemented locally, developed by commissioners in consultation with clinicians and other system partners…
The proposals in the Bill would require the Secretary of State to be notified of all changes, no matter how large or small, temporary or permanent. This would include, for example, even emergency changes such as the response to the flooding of Whipps Cross Hospital in July 2021. This could mean any service change in the NHS could land on the Secretary of State’s desk, risking a decision-making log jam, placing a significant burden on local and national NHS bodies awaiting decisions – and delaying changes to services that clinicians have already concluded would benefit patients. The intention to use these powers where there may be a temporary change to manage immediate operational pressures would dramatically reduce the ability of the NHS to manage its services day to day…
Beyond reconfigurations, the Secretary of State would also have a general power to direct NHS England beyond the objectives set out in the NHS Mandate, the annual list of priorities that the Department of Health and Social Care issues to NHS England and for which NHS England is accountable. This additional power is said to recognise the increased range of functions NHS England holds following its merger with NHS Improvement, which the Bill formalises. Some limits are identified on how this new power could be used, but to protect the operational and clinical independence of NHS England, we have argued that much more specificity should be provided on the scope of these powers, the circumstances in which they might be used and the oversight and scrutiny in place to review how they are used…
Taken together, affording such broad powers to the Secretary of State is at odds with the stated intent of the reforms to reduce bureaucracy and empower local decision-making. They instead risk increasing ministerial involvement in operational issues and seeing decisions to improve services politicised and delayed.
CBs will take on the NHS planning role currently held by NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and some functions from NHS England. ICB membership will include, at minimum, a chair, chief executive and representatives from local NHS providers, primary care services and local authorities…
Together, ICBs and ICPs will set the strategic direction for systems, identifying priorities and, in the ICB’s case, allocating resources within the NHS to deliver those. How these two bodies interact will be key to where power lies within ICSs and the legislation goes some way to defining this relationship by including a general duty on the ICB to pay regard to the integrated care strategy produced by the ICP. However, there is not a specific requirement for the ICB’s ‘forward plan’ to enact the integrated care strategy. A key determinant of how power is exercised within ICSs will be the behaviours, cultures, and relationships that leaders seek to foster…
Tangible differences in patients’ experiences will depend on how local organisations, leaders and clinical teams implement these changes. It will be important for services to be afforded time to capitalise on the opportunities the Bill presents."
I think that going private for such a serious things as a heart operation is pretty risky anyway .
woops
If everyone starts going private then the private waiting lists will just go up too. They only have so much capacity and a lot of their consultants are employed by the NHS on different days.
All very concerning . Some may have little savings , what happens then , especially those in great pain . Not everyone has large savings or private pensions . How very scarey
Panorama? I won’t be watching this because I fully expect it to turn into a “let’s bash the Tories” programme.
I am in for a heart op very soon and the NHS offered me a quicker surgery than private as my case is considered life threateningly urgent. I’m in Thur 30th for scans and then the actual op in 2 wks time. In between is the obligatory C-19 test followed by home isolation.
I notice that one of the GP apps my surgery uses now has “services on the NHS that your GP provides” and then other services with £ signs next to them. So if you put in a condition you may get an option with a £ sign popping up. Just mentioning this as I see digitech developments like this as a hint of things to come. I have usually been right.
