#NHScrisis
Hmmm... so only a couple of weeks after (Hartman) #SteveBarclay was replaced as #Health Secretary, #VictoriaAtkins has helped broker a deal that the BMA will put to #consultants, to end their ongoing series of #strikes.
It seems pretty clear that Barclay was the problem with reaching a resolution, which also reinforces the notion that the #NHScrisis has been engineered by the #Tories, and is now being ended as they see mileage in ending the deadlock.... game playing with people's health!
A key driver of anxiety about #healthcare in England is a the chaotic communication(s) that confront most #patients (which I have experienced myself on many occasions while dealing with my wife's ongoing mobility issues).
We shouldn't be surprised that over-worked under-resourced staff in the grip of an #NHScrisis fail to always communicate clearly & effectively.
To sort this out, the #Tories wrecking of public health care needs to be reversed with the NHS fully funded
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/27/chaotic-communication-by-nhs-in-england-causing-treatment-delays
As the #NHScrisis continues, more people are seeking private #health insurance (& more firms are considering offering it), but because the number of #doctors is limited, private #healthcare sector may be about to become a victim of its own 'success';
James Daley, (MD Fairer Finance) points out: 'Either [private medical insurance] will take people away from the NHS & make matters worse there, or insurers will struggle to maintain the levels of service that people expect from a private policy'!
New research shows 'shows socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidity & learning disabilities are associated with an increased risk of developing non-Covid related sepsis & 30-day mortality in England';
yet more evidence that #health outcomes are related to #inequality - so any Govt. that fails to tackle (lessen) economic inequality, is by extension condemning many to worse health & premature death... which is then compounded by the ongoing #NHScrisis!
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/23/poor-people-much-more-likely-die-sepsis-study
From Matt in the ToryGraph, and it's all so true!
#NHScrisis #NHS #DoctorWho #DoctorWho60th #DoctorWho60th #UK
In other #AutumnStatement news... #JeremyHunt has not increased funding to the #NHS.
So, the any place for solving #NHScrisis remain un(der) funded.
Given the increasing public awareness of the founding problems in the #healthservcie, one can only presume that patients have been abandoned on the basis that anyone exposed to the NHS will now unlikely vote Tory in anyway... better to target money at #pensioners directly!
Another aspects of the #NHScrisis... with the pressure to free up beds & discharge #patients, the follow-up (and transitional care) is lacking leading to a increased possibility of readmission.
Again, whatever local reasons for these failings, its the #Tory defunding of the NHS that lies behind these failure... overstretched (burnout) staff are unsurprisingly focussed on the in-hospital problems they encounter daily, not what happens to patients when they leave hospital https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/19/patients-neglected-and-confused-after-leaving-hospital-says-nhs-watchdog
Dumped in A&E and left untreated for 5 days or more: Shameful plight of some of our most vulnerable patients | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/a-e-mental-health-wait-times-b2442570.html
#AAndE
#MentalHealth
#MH
#EmergencyCare
#RoyalCollegeOfEmergencyMedicine
#RCEM
#NHS
#NHSCrisis
#MHCrisis
#MentalHealthCrisis
Yet more data on the #NHScrisis:
The Care Quality Commission has found over the course of 254 General Hospital inspections that 7 were rated as 'inadequate' & 122 as 'requiring improvement'... just over half of all full spectrum hospitals inspected.
Key problems (unsurprisingly) were treatment in corridors, undiagnosed illnesses (especially sepsis & cancer).
The #Tories will claim this is anyone else's fault but their's but lets be clear; a long programme of defunding the NHS has got us here
One key aspect of the #NHScrisis & its worrying shift towards the problems of #American #healthcare is the plight of #maternity units.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) records showed it deemed two-thirds (67%) of them not to be safe enough, up from 55% last autumn.
And this is despite a number of 'strategies' in the last seven years to improve maternity care.
The #Tories mismanagement of the health service alongside its effective defunding is (as they want) wrecking the NHS
h/t BBC News
As a winter of further unrest among #NHS staff beckons & NHS leaders warn this will worsen the already serious #NHScrisis, this morning it would seem new #Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has a pretty simple choice.... she can either double down on the Steve Barlcay hard-ball approach or she can reset relations.
Without wishing to be a #gender determinist, I'm hoping she'll go for the reset & seek to reach out to NHS staff (and listen to them)....
Still on the other hand she remains a #Tory!
I called my surgery this morning-been ill for 2 weeks. 29th in the queue. When finally got through they had no appointments so refereed me to the local hospital. Nice doctor there,but we have some serious issues with the #nhscrisis . When will the government get a handle in the issue? Hint: a cabinet reshuffle is not the answer. But glad Barclay is gone - although his replacement gives me no confidence.
Aha, #SteveBarclay has departed from #Health to take up #Environment.... will that free up a more sensible #Tory (I know, not that likely) to take a more consensual approach to the #NHSCrisis in all its dimensions?
Immediate update: its Victoria Atkins... who?
here's the wikipedia article for #NHS watchers to digest & read the runes from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Atkins
If you wanted a clear example of how the UK's #NHScrisis & #healthcrisis intersect with the #housingcrisis, all compounded by #inequality then this story of children admitted to hospital from respiratory problems caused by damp times would be it....
I know I've asked this before, but how have we come to this?
[its rhetorical; 13 years of #Tory Govt. that's how!]
While the #Tories indulge in #culturewars, internal party #politics & manoeuvring around the future of the party, urgent policies & work is not getting their attention (not that it ever did really).
We all know the country's #socialcare system is in melt-down & the knock on effect are compounding the #NHScrisis, but the Govt.'s attention is elsewhere.
One of the areas where the problems of the US privatised #healthcare system are most obvious is in infant mortality, where the US' record is lamentably bad compared to other rich & developed countries.
Now, due to the #NHScrisis compounded by continuing (growing) health #inequality, the UK seems to be going down a similar route.
The #Tories wrecking of the #NHS always was aimed at reproducing the US system, and here is the cost in stark infant mortality rates!
Aha, so #RishiSunak's plan, on his claim he would reduce waiting lists as part of a strategy to address the #NHScrisis, will be to blame the NHS strikers for causing the hole in the budget that will now delay operations to reduce waits for surgery.... while also refusing fun find to make up the emerging shortfall.
So don't forget; the strikes were caused not by NHS staff but by the actions of #Tories keen to wreck #publichealth...
For this of yo who think #racism is a thing we've largely put behind us in this country (OK, I know few of you really think that), this story will just make you angry (it did me).
The #NHScrisis is made worse by racist micro-aggressions aimed at non-White medical staff by patients (but also really worryingly by fellow staff).... this country needs to put is house in order!
So yeah the UK are really leaning in hard to the whole bad teeth thing; told by my NHS dentist they weren't taking appointments due to the post- #COVID backlog and that they would contact us when they were taking NHS appointments again. You can guess what happened. No contact and now we've been booted off for not making appointment. #NHSCrisis #dentist #MakeitMakeSense https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/81/health-and-social-care-committee/news/196443/fundamental-reform-of-nhs-dentistry-needed-to-end-a-crisis-of-access/
The #LabourParty seems to be feeling its way towards a workable policy on the staffing aspect of the #NHSCrisis;
They seem to be exploring student debt forgiveness for #nurses & #doctors entering the service (with a form of 'golden handcuff' condition of minimum length of service)... its a relatively simple but effective route to address at least some aspects of the #NHS' problems.
A key Q. is whether this might also work in other parts of the #publicsector suffering recruitment problems?
I face a two week wait for a GP appointment in Royston, for an urgent medication review. And then it's a phone consultation at any time between 8am and noon. This is the new normal for England's healthcare system, and low expectations have become normalised.
There are so many dimensions to the #NHScrisis, but access to GPs is near the top of issues that compound other problems in the UKs #healthcare system;
so, its not real surprise to see that areas with the highest proportion of deprivation have the fewest number of GPs per patient - making access harder & GPs work more stressful;
Put this together with the JRF's report (posted a couple of days ago) on destitution & it clear the #Tories have plunged us back to Victorian #inequality & #poverty
Who needs a medic? All one requires are copies of Grey's Anatomy and the British National Formulary, a craft knife set, and some needle and thread. Sorted!
The BMA/Consultants have agreed to pause #strike action(s) while they talk to #SteveBarclay, who has reassured #Tory backwoodsmen that 'headline pay will not be on the table'.... but that word 'headline' will be doing a lot of work.
If Barclay is acting in good faith (but he *is* a #Tory), then this might be the first step to de-escalate the aspect of the #NHScrisis related to the withdrawal of labour.
Much of this is initially going to be about what each side thinks the other is offering!
Dr Ian Walker, from Cancer Research UK (CRUK):
'It should not, in this day & age, be that your likelihood and outcome of a cancer diagnosis is significantly impacted by where you live, how much money you’ve got, what your background is. It really shouldn’t. There’s a real injustice to this. It’s a really important problem that we’re trying to help move in the right direction'!
The #NHScrisis in #cancer as elsewhere is compounded by (and compounds) #inequality!
Hmmm.... so #KeirStarmer's 'plan' for the #NHScrisis is to start off by 'encouraging' staff to work overtime to help start to clear the backlog, while they wait for investment to kick-in.
He claims the staff are 'up for this because they know that bringing down the waiting list will reduce the pressure on them in the long run'.... OK... but presumably only for the short time before his long(er) term plan comes not focus...
Getting already burnt out staff to work (even) harder is a big risk!
It may not seem like it at first, but this tragic story of travelling abroad for #medical treatment is all about the shadow of the #NHScrisis; both the rationing of treatment(s) and the costs of #private #healthcare for those who are desperate for treatment.
the shadow of the crisis is wrecking people's lives, while the #tories continue their programme of wrecking as long as they can
This petition will almost certainly not go anywhere, but how many supporters do you think it might get? I've signed, will you?
#ToryCorruption #NHScrisis #AsylumMatters #asylum #NHS
The problem #bedblocking where #patients are well enough to be discharged but there is insufficient #socialcare capacity to discharge them to, remains a key aspect of the #NHScrisis;
although this year things have improved (still) over 50% are not being discharged by the end of the day making it difficult t admit from A&E or from referrals.
To be clear, this is not the patients' fault (as the term 'bed blocking' can sometime imply), its a major structural problem that remains unresolved!
As Torsten Bell notes, a key problem behind so many issues is a lack of #investment - from the #NHScrisis to #RAAC in #schools, from our #productivity problems, to the state of our #infrastructure; so much would be different if the UK invested at the rate more normal across #Europe.
But notably behind the UK's seeming short-termism is, to me, a wider problem:
in the UK we have just stopped believing in the future... with devastating effects across society!
Two charts that suggest even #Tory voters have had enough of this government - with the two issues the #Tories are seen by most as failing on, being the very issues that #voters now regard as key.
However, while that may be good news on the #NHScrisis - people may appreciate its an Govt, engineered crisis... the issue of 'handling' #immigration may be less positive result if that means a tougher stance is preferred (by these voters)
(the poll is of people who voted Tory in the last election)
NHS crisis: UK seeks to expand virtual wards for patients
The war of words around the #Doctors #strike reaches a new low with #SteveBarclay acusing striking consultants of withholding #cancer treatments;
But, as Dr Vishal Sharma (BMA) observes: it was “incredibly rich of the secretary of state to invoke time-critical procedures when his government has overseen a steep increase in waiting lists that saw them reach record levels even before any strike action took place”.
Its the #Tories that have caused the #NHScrisis not the doctors!
Yes, I think that's right... the reality of the #NHS (and #NHScrisis) would put many off pursuing a career in #healthcare in this country
The aspect of the #NHScrisis caused by staff shortages will only be resolved when the #workforce planning has an answer for non-completion of training; a new Nuffield Trust study shows:
only 50% of GPs who take up 'trainingships' go on to practice full-time;
In 10 yrs to 2021, the number of #doctors who took a break after first two yrs of training doubled to 70% & nearly 20% don't return;
For #Nurses, 12% drop out during training & a further 20% leave the profession within 2 yrs!
Not good!
There's an epidemic of #stress in the #workplace; I wonder why?
#Costoflivingcrisis
#housingcrisis
#NHScrisis
#energycrisis
& that's before we get onto the UK's bullying & dysfunctional management style, the general perception that the UK's state institutions are failing, and that the #climatecrisis now seems inevitably damaging to everyday life...
that people are stressed should be no surprise; stress is about seeing a desired end & having no agency to get to it!
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/26/number-of-workers-taking-sick-leave-hits-10-year-high
Doctors' strike leads to 100,000 cancelled operations, health chiefs warn
https://inews.co.uk/news/doctors-strike-leads-to-100000-cancelled-operations-health-chiefs-warn-2631573
#NhsCrisis
The #NHScrisis is being compounded by the failure of the #workforce plan to 'encourage' #nurses into the profession.... I mean why would you apply to be a an underpaid, overstretched nurse who the Govt. has abused & insulted who has to take on a significant student debt for the privilege?
The #Tories plan to wreck public #healthcare continues apace....
You'll notice the problem is actually an English issue, the devolved nations seem to have much less of a problem... hmmm, I wonder why?
#SteveBarclay condemned the #doctors strike as being 'coordinated & calculated'.... so unlike the #Tories policy making, then.
Meanwhile, the Govt. is looking to invoke the anti-strike law on minimum service levels to 'force' doctors & #nurses to work... Well that's certainly going to to further inflame the #NHScrisis.
The right-to-strike is not only a #democratic right, without it employment starts to look more like authoritarian control than a transaction between #workers & employers!
Consultants in England are taking life or death decisions in an NHS that is falling apart. This can’t carry on
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/18/consultants-england-life-death-nhs-cuts-burnout-pay-strike?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
#NhsCrisis
On Wednesday, the #NHS #strikes reach a crescendo with the two separate #Doctors walk-outs dovetailing so all doctors are out on strike.
I know I keep saying this, but its worth repeating.
The #Tories are not only engineering the general #NHScrisis they are goading the Doctors into continued action, to serve the political Tories narrative...
Don't be taken in... this balme for these strikes lies with the Govt.
The #NHS is slipping ever further into deficit... the #Treasury has required 'efficiency gains' in return for more cash this winter, there is a new #Coronavirus variant gaining ground (and causing a growth in hospitalisations).... and still, the #Tories won't make a serious attempt to resolve the #doctors' strike... the wreckers are having one more go before the #election.
#NHScrisis is not an accident, its smiling be-suited engineers sit in Downing St.
Ramping up pressure on the #Tories over the #NHScrisis, consultants are staging a 3 day walkout during the #Tory conference.
This follows the 2 day strike starting today & further #strike action in October.
As Ministers & MPs go on news programmes to express their 'disappointment' in the action(s) & claim their offer to the BMA is 'reasonable'...
ask yourself, who do you trust more: #politicians or #doctors?
This is a crisis engineered in Westminster!
Another article of the crisis in the #NHS that has engulfed our #healthcare.
I almost didn't post this as I'm getting numb about the continuing avalanche of evidence on the #NHScrisis...
We know this is caused by the progressive defunding of the NHS, we know that somehow we need to re-focus on preventative #medicine, while condoning to deal with the fall out from its absence...
But, the only light I see at the end of the tunnel is a train hurtling towards us...
Today the latest strike by #JuniorDoctors starts;
a lot of people will be angry about the disruption to the #NHS.
Don't blame the doctors; they've been pushed by the #Tory wreckers until this seems like their only option.
If you need to blame someone for your cancelled consultation, or delayed operation, then make sure you blame the #Tories!
This strike (as with the #nurses previous action) is a direct result of an #NHScrisis caused by Tory defunding!
In advance of the #JuniorDoctors' strike, we need to be clear what is going on here.
A group of #health professionals have been pushed & pushed until they see no alternative but to strike; while a Govt. that is trying to find ways of distracting us from what is really going on will seek to blame the #strikers for the disruption.
So:
The #Tories have engineered the #NHScrisis, of which these strikes are merely a symptom.
#SupportTheStrikes
#supportourNHS
#GTTO
& revive of #healthservice
@mathowie Many British people voted to leave the European Union.
Thanks to those who voted for #Brexit the British economy has tanked & is getting worse. There's no money now for the famous free-to-all National Health Service.
This neatly paves the way for the "only solution" which is the US American insurance based system. This is exactly what #Brexit supporters like Nigel Farage and Arron Banks were dreaming of.
If you only read one thing on the #NHSCrisis today, make it this:
Seven people working in & around the #NHS explore the scale & scope of the #healthservice's difficulties - they pull few punches & tell it like it is - this is powerful stuff & needs to be widely read;
once you've read it please boost this (or your take own it) so as many people as possible can clearly understand what the #Tory wreckers have done in the last decade.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/11/nhs-dying-statistic-crisis-healthcare-75th-anniversary
So what is the latest wheeze from the #Tories to address aspects of the #NHSCrisis?
yes, appeal to volunteers to help with discharging patients....
So, their workforce plan is to go head-to-head with #NHS staff over wages, while reducing investment in other aspects of the #healthservice, and then expect unpaid, volunteers to replace paid professionals;
Seldom has the #Tories defunding strategy been so blatantly applied;
we need to urgently stop the wreckers!
Today #KeirStarmer will declare the #NHScrisis to be the key issue for the next #election; which merely follows it growing place in people's priorities & concerns.
While it looks like he'll pledge to improve performance & reduce waiting times across the system, the real issue will be how he's going to do that?
If (as Wes Streeting has already hinted) they're going to increase the role of the #privatesector then for many this will confirm the final capitulation of Labour to Toryism... lets see
The next step in the #Tory engineered #NHScrisis:
Some trusts are offering 'golden hellos' to #nurses to encourage them to apply & stay where there are staff shortages.
All this will do is move the staffing crisis more firmly into the most cash-strapped Trusts & reinforce the unevenness of #healthcare.
For the #Tories this looks like a 'market' working & they'll see it as part of the 'solution' not adding to the crisis!
Trusts fighting for staff is not the answer to any Q.
And just in case you're interested about how things look over the channel (remember Europe, we used to be in it); here's the regional variations in #Inflation.
You can draw your own conclusions about the claims from leading #Tories that the current inflationary period is an international phenomenon - nothing to do with #Brexit, or the labour market problems caused by the #NHScrisis' impact on ling-term sickness fo #workers... no no, nothing to see here
Ambulance waits in Health Secretary Steve Barclay's constituency have been revealed as some of the worst in the UK, according to #FOI data obtained by the the Liberal Democrats.
Category one patients (the most serious blue light calls) waited on average 14 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ambulance-waits-steve-barclays-constituency-29691359
#journalism #FreedomOfInformation #JournalismTips #InvestigativeJournalism #NHS #NHSCrisis #Healthcare #Health
This week's #FOIFriday: https://clairemiller.net/blog/2023/04/freedom-of-information-in-the-news-week-ending-7-4-2023-foifriday/
#JuniorDoctors #strike starts today, and so as before; when your appointment has been cancelled, when your #healthcare has been disrupted, please do not get annoyed at the striking #HealthService staff.
They have gone on strike as a last resort, after years of #tory attrition towards the #NHS and a radical decade long program of defunding of our health service.
Direct your anger & blame towards the #Tories & #JeremyHunt who have been instrumental in causing the #nhscrisis
So, the data indicates UK narrowly missed a 'technical' #recession, with growth (in GDP terms) just above zero in the last quarter.
Interestingly this 'growth' was flattered by an ncrease in the use of private #healthcare services according to the Office of National Statistics (Guardian).
Its the convergence of two #Tory strategies; a desperate attempt to try & convince us the UK is not in economic decline, alongside their engineering of the #NHScrisis to push people into private health care!
With thanks to Keep Our NHS Public for publicising this - please share as widely as you can. The more people who speak up, the louder we’re heard.
The #NHScrisis is increasingly obvious to everyone.. yet still, after twelve years the #Tories think 'efficiency gains' & introducing service charges will solve the problems that they have engineered through defunding!
Not only is the #NHS not safe in #Tory hands, the time to save it from catastrophic failure (and ever more unnecessary premature deaths) is fast running out....
#SajidJavid wants to extend the contributory principle' to GP & A&E visits;
of course, shifting to the 'contributory principe' has worked *so* well in #dentistry, hasn't it;
Every where you turn there are #Tories who claim to support the #NHS but whose suggested remedies to the #NHScrisis all involve patients paying;
I wonder why that is? of course nothing to do with the £800k donated to the party from private #healthcare firms, I'm sure (I mean that would like an accusation of #corruption!)
Government refuses to fund UK students at new medical school despite ‘chronic’ doctor shortage.
If this doesn’t waken people up to the truth about #Tory government claims to being pro #NHS and trying to fix the current #NHScrisis, nothing will.
So #RishiSunakPM has told #SteveBarclay that if he wishes to respond to the #NHScrisis by paying #Nurses more than previously offered, he can... the catch: the Dept. Health's budget will remain the same... so Sunak is essentially using the #NursesStrike as a way of doubling down on the defunding of the #NHS as money will be transferred from other budgets to payroll, thereby worsening the crisis... of course this has nothing to do with #Tory donors' interests (see other posts yesterday & today)
What will Sunak and the Conservative party do to solve the #NHSCrisis? #Brew4Europe
Bit of a desperate move, using Maths to distract attention from the #NHScrisis
This shouldn't be allowed to happen anywhere, let alone in the UK, where there is government money, but they just *choose* not to prioritise the NHS or the welfare system......
"Disabled boy loses overnight NHS care because parents cannot afford heating
Family unable to afford high energy bills left to provide 24-hour care after Welsh health board ‘stops guaranteeing nursing package’"
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/04/disabled-boy-loses-overnight-nhs-care-because-parents-cannot-afford-heating
_
#nhscrisis
#NHS
#uk
#Disabilty
#Welfare