Have the Conservatives fixed our country?

[El Cid]

So recently announced plans, but not yet fully implemented?

 

I suspect allowing GP's to opt out of evenings and weekends, (along with mass scale immigration) is a massive factor of today's problems with GP's surgeries and A&E departments.

 

Hunt seems more worried about a 7 day NHS, which we already have, and we dont have the money/doctors to broaden.

[Guest]

Hunt seems more worried about a 7 day NHS, which we already have, and we dont have the money/doctors to broaden.

 

It has been a 6 years since I've had to use the NHS, but back then it didn't seem like a 7 day NHS. I don't recall any of the scans and various tests that had to be done over a period of time ever being on a Saturday or a sunday, or even in the evening.

[Cyclone]

It has been a 6 years since I've had to use the NHS, but back then it didn't seem like a 7 day NHS. I don't recall any of the scans and various tests that had to be done over a period of time ever being on a Saturday or a sunday, or even in the evening.

 

You think that hospitals were closed at weekends 6 years ago?

 

---------- Post added 11-08-2016 at 10:35 ----------

 

Oh, I forgot in the general list of things that the conservatives are ruining to include the huge increase in student fee's that they've ushered in, leaving graduates crippled with debt.

 

---------- Post added 11-08-2016 at 10:36 ----------

 

So recently announced plans, but not yet fully implemented?

 

I suspect allowing GP's to opt out of evenings and weekends, (along with mass scale immigration) is a massive factor of today's problems with GP's surgeries and A&E departments.

 

Did he explain where he was going to magic up the GPs to make this service possible?

 

I remember that he did take credit for training 25000 more GPs or something like that in his first term in power.

Then someone asked him how long training a GP took, and the answer was 7 years. Meaning that the 25k GPs all started training before the conservatives were in power.

[Guest]

You think that hospitals were closed at weekends 6 years ago?

 

 

Nope. They were open as ever for A&E and the treatment of inpatients, but the majority of radiographers and anesthetists etc were just not there in the late evenings and at weekends. It seems only if you are at death's door would they drag them in from their yachting weekends or whatever.

[unbeliever]

We've been through this at great length on the dedicated junior doctors strike thread months ago.

The virtue of extending normal working for the NHS into evenings and weekends is that you can treat more patients each week without forking out for more buildings and equipment.

At the moment, most of the operating theatres, tomography and labs are idle 50% of the time because the staff aren't around to operate them. If you want to provide a better service by extending normal working hours, you only need more staff. If you want to do it within the confines of current normal working hours then you need more people and more buildings and equipment.

It's highly likely that given that there would be less competition for use/attention of the operating theatres, tomography and labs at evenings and weekends that you can achieve substantial improvement just by spreading shifts out more so that there are always roughly the same number of working staff in a hospital at all hours.

This would all be rather obvious and happen automatically in the private sector. It's only because we're dealing with the public sector that we're even discussing it.

[El Cid]

This would all be rather obvious and happen automatically in the private sector. It's only because we're dealing with the public sector that we're even discussing it.

 

Thats an easy fix then, the Tories will sort it without any extra funding, altho they havnt managed to fix it in the last 6 years.

[Santo]

You rather undermine your weak arguments by resorting to pedantry and personal abuse. It's no surprise on SF.

 

The title of the thread is: Have the Conservatives fixed our country? And some commentators have jumped in and lazily and predictably claimed that the Tories are ruining the NHS. I contend, and have evidenced, that the NHS does a pretty good job in ruining itself. There is plenty more evidence out there. Only yesterday I was reading of a finance director in the NHS paying himself £47,500 a MONTH (£570,000 a year). He is not alone. And we could also get into the PFI deals bleeding the NHS dry or the absurd cost of pensions for NHS staff also taking a big chunk of the NHS budget.

 

But the biggest cause of 'ruining' of the NHS is the British people. The British people wilfully refuse to take good care of themselves and take a free health service for granted, and abuse it mercilessly. Almost two-thirds of Britons are now classed as obese and that massively increases their risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and many other conditions. Then there are two million visits every year to A&E by people misusing alcohol. All of which leaves the NHS to pick up the bill for what amounts to poor lifestyle choices.

 

The NHS was set up to reduce the terrible toll of diseases such as TB, and to provide safe, affordable medicines for everyday complaints. It has been a great success. But it never was and never should be a backstop for a lazy self-indulgent population dying of stupidity through their own self-neglect. Every penny spent on an obese diabetic is a penny that cannot be spent on care for those who are in need through no fault of their own.

 

It's very easy to trot out lazy rhetoric about how 'it's all the government's fault'. Some of what is wrong with this country may be the government's fault. But when it comes to the NHS much of what is wrong with it is entirely self-inflicted.

 

Jim, I took issue with you saying 'a licence to practice is a licence to kill' as I made clear. You heavily and shamefully imply doctors are free to practice sloppily with complete impunity. This is a baseless lie.

 

You flaunt your books in your signature so I had a look on Amazon. Is that unreasonable? You describe The Welfare State as an institution in the blurb of your book. It's not. It's a concept. Therefore I came to the conclusion that you haven't the foggiest idea what you are talking about and I replied to your post.

 

You replied to that post and put words in my mouth which I took exception to and I replied again. I asked for comparative statistics, which you haven't supplied. Now you claim we are off topic but it was you that derailed the thread by insulting doctors and instead of answering the questions you play the victim of insults. At the same time you further confirm you have no idea what you are talking about. Two thirds of the population are not obese. Two thirds of the ADULT population is overweight OR obese. There is a clinical difference. The figure for 20 years ago was a little over 50%. By 2020 it's predicted that one third of the UK population will be obese.

 

You speak about being on a NICE Committee. Bully for you. For those reading this, anyone can sit on a NICE Committee; you do not have to be an expert in anything. Since you don’t know the difference between obesity and being overweight I assume you were on the panel as a member of the public and not as a medical expert?

 

You mention 25,000 blood clot deaths. Scary! The figure for the US, which has a population about 5 times ours, is estimated at between 100,000 and 300,000 per year. Suddenly the 25,000 blood clot deaths in the UK don't look so bad, do they? Don't believe me? Here is a source.

 

https://www.stoptheclot.org/index/blood-clots-in-the-united-states.htm

 

Unless you claim all 25,000 in the UK die from blood clots as a result of poor NHS care? In which case, prove it.

 

You mention the Keogh Report (as it's generally referred to as the Keogh Review I further question your expertise). Since this review was set up to investigate the 14 trusts considered outliers for patient mortality rate why do you find its findings surprising? The trusts in question are OUTLIERS! Eleven of those trusts were placed into special measures as a result of the findings. That is the kind of accountability that you deny.

 

Perhaps you should refrain from defaming our doctors, manipulating statistics and outright lies?

Edited August 11, 2016 by Santo