United Kingdom: National Health Service (NHS) news

My immediate thoughts exactly. Having worked for the NHS as an IT engineer for many years, during which I had to cope with frustratingly outdated kit, insufficient tools/software for the engineers to carry out our duties so that we had to buy our own, and dealing with big expensive 3rd-party systems that cost a lot of taxpayer money only to turn out not to be able to work as intended because the powers-that-be believed a salesman rather than consulting with the IT department as to whether the system would be suitable for purpose; and then being a patient for the past 12 years with a horrific incapacitating illness for which the only diagnostic procedure on offer was the same routine blood test over and over again which always comes back normal and they have no interest in investigating further (so that I finally ended up having to go private to get at least some help), I somehow can't see this self-same organisation being at 'the forefront of medicine'.

An old phrase involving the words 'piss-up' and 'brewery' comes to mind.

Sorry for the rant, ha ha, but I've had enough years of experience with the NHS, as both employee and patient, to call shenanigans.

 

Sounds like another excuse for shovelling loads of cash to companies for systems that will never work, but from which non-patients might profit, to enable them to have an excuse for failing to fund other areas, from which patients would derive immediate benefit.

 

'The NHS is finally saying no!' - this is what patients could no longer be able to get on prescription

My suggested alternative title : "How to make life even more difficult for the poor and sick".

A chart showing what medicines patients will be stopped from getting on prescription has gone viral.


It shows that for many minor ailments - such as conjunctivitis, sore throats, cold sores and constipation - people will have to buy the medicines over the counter.


The chart follows guidance from NHS England last year, recommending conditions for which 'over the counter' medicines should no longer be prescribed.


While this particular chart has been published by a doctor's in Northampton, CCGs across the country are now consulting with residents on their own proposals to cut down on prescriptions.

Each year the NHS spends over £550 million on prescriptions for medicines that could be purchased over the counter from a pharmacy, or other outlet such as a supermarket.



Article continues here : https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...criptions-over-the-counter-medicines-16035294

I could rant for ages about my experience of suffering some of these conditions, and how they aren't minor, but it wouldn't achieve anything, so I'll spare you all.

And I bet that life expectancy in the UK is going to drop substantially as people die from untreated "minor" conditions that have become fatal.

And I suspect that I'm going to be forced to discuss all sorts of things I don't want to discuss in public with teenagers doing a Saturday job in Boots, while there is a queue of people behind me listening intently. I don't want to discuss my health with random staff in public. Nor do I want to have to justify myself to a pharmacist for daring to ask to buy things they don't want to sell me without knowing my life history first.

 

We kind of have to discuss our private health ailments in public now; just in the GP’s waiting room.

If we go in person to make an appointment, you have to tell the receptionist what you think is wrong with you before being allowed an appointment.

What happened to confidentiality with the GP? What’s the point in that if 20 people sitting outside already know what’s wrong with you before the GP does?

I’ve spent years fighting with power tripping pharmacies just to get my migraine drugs. It never gets any easier or less annoying. One pharmacist insisted on calling my GP first while i stood there for 15 minutes waiting. I’ve since learned to just lie and tell them what they want to hear.

 

"The NHS is probably the most efficient health service in the world, but we’re determined to keep pushing further. Every pound we save from cutting waste is another pound we can then invest in better A&E care, new cancer treatments and much better mental health services.”

hmm

 

Is that their new term for the chronically ill?

 

I'd give you a dozen likes for this if I could!

 

NHS Blunders Saw 621 Patients With Wrong Body Parts Amputated, Surgical Tools Left Inside Them, And Other 'Never Events'

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...dy-part-amputated_uk_5d7f50d5e4b03b5fc88656b6

 

This right there is why I would never let anyone cut anywhere near my spine even if it had a 50% success rate of modest improvement.

Incredible.

 

I would go further.

Thousands of years of human experience suggests that letting people with sharp things insert them into you is a bad idea.

The small number of occasions when something more beneficial has occured to the person having holes cut in them than the person doing so is probably statistically insignificant.

For instance, what happens when your fruglinstan is damaged in the process.

This is quite likely in some situations, as it's a vital organ that hasn't been discovered yet.

 

"...Two men were mistakenly circumcised..."

 

Am unable to access the Huffington Post article, if anyone else has a similar problem this is from UK's ITV News https://www.itv.com/news/2019-09-16/hundreds-of-patients-suffer-due-to-nhs-errors/

Yikes. Am scared to ever let anyone from the NHS near me again, especially with a scalpel. Who were the worst offenders?

UCL made it into the top offenders list, interesting.

 

Those two fields probably have much worse numbers but since adverse outcomes are mostly subjective, rather than something that everyone will agree on (yup, this definitely is the wrong toe), it's very difficult to take proper records. If a patient says they are massively worse off and the attending psychiatrist says in their opinion there has been improvement, only one perspective gets recorded and it's not the accurate one.

Just need us to serve as an example, we add up to an incredible number of clear adverse reactions and yet on record it all adds up to zero evidence of harm because we have been arbitrarily, and without evidence, stripped of agency (unless we "admit" to being recovered, obviously).

Which makes the whole project of fobbing off chronic health problems onto a psychological frankly insane. But I guess this will be the experiment to remove all doubt, even though it's likely the abysmal economics of it all that will end it.

 

Aren't they using absolute numbers rather than percentages though? So larger hospitals will seem worse when they may be better than some of the smaller Trusts.

 

NHS chief Simon Stevens blasts homeopathy as 'dangerous' and blames the industry for fuelling antivaxx myths

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-blames-industry-fuelling-antivaxx-myths.html

I can think of other treatments that fit that description

eta: btw I found this on MS twitter feed

 

Interesting. Has Mr Stevens informed Cochrane of this? Why rely on Cochrane about ME but not about homeopathy? Hm. Seems a bit inconsistent to me.

 

I don't know if the UK Society promotes products for various specific conditions, but practitioners selling homeopathics in Canada do.

Homeopathics are also sold in health food stores in this country.

 

I saw this today, in case it is of interest to anyone?

It would be good to have representatives from the ME community involved.


Get involved in NHS England Genomics, NHS Digital work, and vaccination services by applying for Patient and Public Voice (PPV) positions. Various deadlines in November and December 2019.

 

https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6901

eta: not sure how accurate this information is.