If you are unfortunate enough to have to go to a British Hospital today, you will most likely be shocked - and rightly so. I am reminded of third-world countries; at best, it is organised chaos. We are in this predicament for many reasons, primarily because of consistently failed policies from all political parties. Most of the beds are taken up by people over sixty-five.
My solution would be:
1) To have more local cottage hospitals that can deal with minor injuries.
2) Better care facilities for the elderly.
3) More specialised Doctors and GPs - and who are not over-paid.
4) Bring back the State Enrolled Nurses or SENs
5) To charge everyone who uses A & E £10-00 and the same amount for every Doctor or Nurse's surgery appointment, kept or missed. The fee would be waived if people live in a family below a given combined income threshold.
These sixty-five-plus hospital patients have been paying their NI contributions all their lives and deserve better - as we all do.
We need to deunionise medical care practitioners and make it a rewarding profession - where the staff feel valued and rewarded, are not living in a cauldron of stress every day and are fairly paid but not over-paid.
We have seen successive Governments from all parties grapple with the NHS to no avail. The NHS has now become this sacred cow which will be its downfall. It is the elephant in the room that no one is prepared to tackle.
The NHS should be De-Politicised - we should have a clear policy.
When Nye Beven and the Clement Attlee Government envisaged and created the National Health Service in July 1948 - it was never meant to do everything we expect of it today. It was created so the poor who could not afford Health Care could receive proper health care.
The extraordinary scientific leaps in medicine over the past seventy-plus years mean that the NHS cannot be all things to all people. It does not mean that care for poor people has to be sub-standard or inferior.
It simply means you can't have first-class seats if you're paying economy fares. The plane is well-maintained and gets there anyway. That is what is essential and what we should be paying for.
The NHS is like a rose that has never been pruned. Like any business, it needs care and attention - leadership and a consensual direction by our combined lawmakers.
With a mix of medical insurance and personal income, even if heavily subsidised and free for those with little to nothing to spare, we could have a first-class medical healthcare system that worked for everybody.
All we need is some strong and imaginative leadership. And this goes to the essentials of good government; Our Defence, Our Healthcare, our Education system and our infrastructure.
Having said that; I would favour renationalising our Water, power supply, railways and roadways.
Just blindly sticking our heads in the sand will not change anything. Why would you expect a different result if you continue doing what you've been doing?
Rikki - Suffolk - UK - 12th February 2023
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