Tuesday 27 January 2015

Are you happy with a sick NHS donkey being beaten by an abusive government with a big stick?

I wanted to write something about how the figures have been used simply to prove a point. It's more than that, though. This is a disgusting misuse of public funds. Daily Mirror article - NHS Bonus Fiasco
The pay scales for nurses and health workers, ambulance staff and paramedics are so off beam. And when you think that the government instigated an international recruitment drive to get Australian medics into the NHS because they couldn't find the staff in the UK, you have to question the motives.
It's not just the Tories.
Every government, since its inception, has attempted to squeeze the NHS of funding and force the issue for private "partners" – yes, even Labour has attempted to re-route funding and reduce “waste”, but without actually having any real plan. Sticking plasters on suppurating sores don’t work. They don’t work on broken bones, either!
This is not a stealthy government plan. This is a very open abuse of what British people not only believe in, but rely on and cry out for. From a nation that cares we are rapidly becoming a nation that needs caring for; not because we are incapable of doing so ourselves, but because the governments that are supposed to provide the best available service for the majority of the population see the NHS as a massive drain on resources, rather than a supplier of health. As such we need protection from our own government.
Here’s a quick thought. The healthier the population, the stronger the economy. The lower the waiting times and faster the treatment, the quicker the available workforce gets back into the economy and the less money is required to make that happen. It's not rocket science. The longer something is sick or broken, the longer it takes to help it mend - especially where bi-pedal, carbon-based units are concerned.
Nobody wants to stay sick (alright, according to the Daily Heil there are millions of scrounger scum who want welfare benefits blah blah blah), nobody likes being ill. No, you can’t blame it all on parents and babies or the elderly, or immigrants. Sometimes people just get sick. That’s how it is. So help them to get better quickly and they stop being sick and get back to being, in the words of John Malkovitch in Con Air, useful mammals.
So pay the staff properly, give them the training they require and the benefits they earn. Provide nurses, doctors, health visitors and all the staff with the proper tools to do their jobs to the high standard that we all expect and you’ll suddenly find that waiting times will drop, sick people will get healthy faster, more people will want to work in the NHS, thus cancelling the stress and strains of overwork on the incumbents. I don’t know if anyone else can see the benefits. I hope so.
I’m not suggesting a blank cheque – do that and Jeremy Hunt and his cronies will be swimming in cash they don’t deserve. I am suggesting that rather than cutting the funding, a revolution is required in the NHS; a proper change in thinking; a refusal to continue with outmoded, outdated, extravagant and unnecessary policies and procedures.
If someone can’t do the job they’re doing, provide them with the training and support they need or move them on to something they can do. Not everyone can take charge. Not everyone can do everything. People with skills should use them. People without those skills necessary to do what they’re employed to do should be given the opportunity to learn or to move on. You cannot have people who can’t do the job in post. You wouldn’t expect a boxer to do brain surgery, so why should a crap manager remain in post? If they can’t do it, they shouldn’t!
Yes, I know, but I’m talking about a revolution in thinking. I’m saying it’s right, I’m saying it’s time for a proper change. Can we afford to pay for it all? Can the government take a chance on this? Can we? Well, in answer to that, I can only ask can we afford not to?
There are empty wards in hospitals that are closed because there’s, apparently, no money to run them. And yet patients are sleeping on trollies in corridors because there aren’t enough beds. MRSA and C-dif are now commonplace, rather than the rarity (or non-existent problem) that they should be. Why is that? Procedures that don’t work are being forced on a crumbling structure because no one will take the initiative.
Every single person in this country should be utterly disgusted with the treatment of public services by successive governments. The refusal to see the long term benefits of good public service has led us into a situation that requires not money - well, not on its own, anyway – but a radical change of approach.
Pay our nurses, firefighters, police officers, health workers, social workers etc a proper wage and give them the support they need. Don’t work them until they burn out. You won’t do it to a Turkish fecking donkey, so why is it alright to do it the basic working population (this goes for the whole country, actually).
Say no to the old ways. Kick out the rubbish; the policies, the procedures that confuse and deliberately make things difficult.
A healthy health service means a healthy population. Free health care at the point of need is a basic right in the UK and it should be. So we need to stop looking for a short term fix -cutting budgets certainly isn't it, it's a long term mistake. We need to stop looking for alternatives and actually make a go of it from the start.
We should be able to proud of our NHS, not spend our time grumbling that we can’t see a doctor; that waiting times are too long; being fearful that we might die because we can’t see a doctor. We should be proud of our nurses and doctors not berate them because we’re not being treated. They do an incredible job with little help or support. And it’s not like people spend their time saying thank you, either!
We all need to make a stand on this. I don’t know what the perfect answer is. But I know what it isn’t . And it is NOT the way our current government is taking us.
We live longer, but not more healthily. We are, in fact, the drain on the NHS. We are the reason the NHS is in such a desperate state, because we are the ones who require its services, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from the cradle to the grave (and beyond, in some cases). So it really is up to us to force our policy makers to make the right choices.
And we have to start, as I have repeatedly stated, with a change to way in which the NHS is run and organised. We need to change the way it is funded – not on a profit and loss basis but on an extrapolated health benefit basis. A healthy workforce provides greater input to a greater economy. Thus providing more accessible funding and developing the health of a nation.
I know that what I have said is not to everyone’s taste. I’ve probably got things wrong. But rather than just close off and refuse to consider other views, I welcome them. But I start from the point of view that the NHS is not only worthwhile and, indeed, viable, but actually absolutely necessary to safeguard the health of the Nation. And I don’t really think it needs to stop there. What’s wrong with a strong public service sector, as long as it is run properly?
And that’s the crux, isn’t it? Run things right and they very nearly run themselves. Put a pillock at the helm and you’re going to hit rocks.

Long, wordy and heartfelt. (Probably should be my epitaph, that.)