United Kingdom: National Health Service (NHS) news

Wonko said:
So the NHS, an organisation with such outdated IT infrastructure that it can't even keep it's machines patched to block drive by ransomware, where critical parts of it's diagnostic lineup won't run on anything newer than window xp, where records are routinely either lost or have to be transferred on paper between departments/consultants because their internal e-coms is so unreliable, these are the people who are going to lead the world in genomic medicine?
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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 Having worked for the NHS as an IT engineer for many years, during which I had to cope with frustratingly outdated kit, insufficient tools/software for the engineers to carry out our duties so that we had to buy our own, and dealing with big expensive 3rd-party systems that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.
 
'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.

0_prescriptions2JPG.jpg


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. :mad:
 
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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? :banghead:

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
 
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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.
 
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/

The figures show doctors have operated on the wrong body parts and left surgical tools (including surgical gloves, chest drains and drill bits) inside patients many times over. One patient had the wrong toe amputated, while another had the wrong part of their colon removed. Two men were mistakenly circumcised, while a woman had a lump removed from the wrong breast and two others had a biopsy taken from their cervix rather than their colon. A further six women had ovaries removed in error during hysterectomies, plunging them into menopause.
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The figures revealed how several patients had procedures intended for someone else, including colonoscopies, lumbar punctures and laser eye surgery. Other potentially fatal mistakes included patients being given ordinary air rather than pure oxygen, and people falling from poorly secured windows. Some patients were given overdoses of drugs including insulin, while others had feeding tubes misplaced and put into their airways. Medics also transfused the wrong type of blood to six patients, while 52 people had the wrong teeth taken out. Overall, 270 incidents related to wrong site surgery, while 127 were “foreign objects” left inside people after operations, including specimen bags, needles and swabs.
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Yikes. Am scared to ever let anyone from the NHS near me again, especially with a scalpel. Who were the worst offenders?
Barts Health NHS Trust in London had the most errors, with 17 never events over the period, including eight cases of wrong site surgery. Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust had the next highest with 13, followed by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which had 12 each.
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UCL made it into the top offenders list, interesting.
 
NelliePledge said:
Do psychiatry and psychology put forward such reports about errors they make? If they want to live up to their claim for their side of medicine to be on an equal footing with physicians they should be identifying and publishing their errors.
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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.
 
EzzieD said:
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.
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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

The head of the NHS today launches an outspoken attack on the homeopathy industry for peddling deadly anti- vaccine myths.

Simon Stevens accuses practitioners of spreading toxic 'misinformation' about jabs, which poses 'a significant danger to human health'.

In a key intervention, he urges the medical watchdog to de-list the Society of Homeopaths from its official register of professional organisations, saying the body's inclusion sends a message to patients that homeopathic remedies are as safe and effective as clinically-tested medicines.

Mr Stevens describes some homeopaths as 'chancers' who are conning the public to part with 'their hard-earned cash'. He also warns that some therapists are pushing ineffective 'homeopathic vaccines' which leave patients exposed to deadly diseases such as measles.

But the Society of Homeopaths – the UK's largest group of registered practitioners – insists it does not promote any treatment contrary to NHS guidance, including vaccinations.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-blames-industry-fuelling-antivaxx-myths.html

But there is no firm evidence homeopathy works and two years ago, the NHS told GPs to stop prescribing the remedies, claiming they were a 'misuse of resources'.
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I can think of other treatments that fit that description

eta: btw I found this on MS twitter feed
 
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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.
 
Amazon has been given access to all “healthcare information” of the NHS in England except patients’ records, shows a government contract obtained through freedom of information legislation.

The technology company, which has an estimated market value of $900bn (£685bn), has access to all the information free of charge, despite the data being gathered at taxpayers’ expense.

The contract, obtained by the charity Privacy International and revealed by the Sunday Times,1 specifies that Amazon has access to “symptoms, causes and definitions” and to “all related copyrightable content and data and other materials.” It can use the data to develop, advertise, and sell “new products, applications, cloud-based services and/or distributed software.”
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https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6901

eta: not sure how accurate this information is.
 
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