Another A&E fiasco

How someone ends up with a situation that requires A&E attention needs to be treated. This is why I am happy to pay my natural insurance.

The day that we decide who should and who shouldn't be treated will be a very sad day.

As for Hunt, this smacks of I am alright fuck anyone else.

Sorry Trevor you don't pay national insurance for the NHS.  It just goes into general taxation like PAYE.  There are very few (I hesitate to say 'no') hypothecated - ringfenced - taxes in U.K. 

I think the phrase you use 'that requires a&e' is spot on.  I think many on this thread are saying that something needs to be put in place to ensure those that turn up in a&e 'require' its, and only its, services.  I particularly feel that using ambulances as taxis, when a family car or an actual taxi would do fine is reprehensible...and should be subject to financial,penalty but only after treatment.

Historical fact: we tend to sanctify our doctors these days but the only serious opposition to the setting up of the NHS in 1948 was.......DOCTORS!  When asked how he overcame their opposition Aeurin Bevan the Labour Secretsry of State for Health said "I filled their mouths full of gold".  Strikes me if Jeremy Hunt (like him or not) capitulated and did the same thing with the junior doctors today, their concerns over patient care would magically disappear........

What we have is a population of pathetic weaklings. I don't mean physically, but psychologically. My now deceased grandfather had three of his fingers ripped off in a threshing machine and had to be forced by his daughter, days after the accident, to go to A&E for treatment, otherwise he would have nursed the injury himself with his own bandages. That is the difference between the generations. It is the pathetic, the weak and the self indulgent who are ruining the health service. 

Edited by TimG

Typical perception of the NHS, largely through the eyes of Tory haters, is that the NHS woes can be solved by throwing more money at it. Truth is that the NHS is a post war dinosaur whose problems run much deeper than just funding. At the time of inception there was a much smaller population of people with lifespans shorter than we have now. Not only are people living longer, but medical science has advanced to the stage that death from fatal illnesses can be put off by months or sometimes years. This ultimately means that hundreds of thousands more people every year require lengthy treatment where previously it was not possible. That costs money. And lots of it.

People also need to take personal responsibility and not go to their GP / A&E at the first sign of a sniffle. I also think that people with self-inflicted illness should not be given the same priority that other people are given. While that last statement probably upsets some, the reality is that the NHS is no longer fit for purpose....no matter how much money you throw at it. Until we address who uses it, how and when, the system will continue its downward spiral.

It's time for difficult decisions, but I don't think the people of this country want to make those decisions. 

Almost exactly a year ago I got an infection in an old wound. I thought I would do the right thing and phoned the out of hours GP service. They advised me to go to a minor injuries clinic, despite the fact that I was unable to walk. 

I spent two hours at the clinic only to be told to go to A &E some 15 miles away. By the time I was seen I had such a bad infection I needed IV antibiotics and spent a day in an emergency bed. 

Two weeks of district nurse visits were then required. The individuals who looked after me were fantastic, but the system seems steam driven. 

A centre combining, GP services, minor injury and A and E  might help direct people to the right care. Oh and a trap door for the time wasters might be useful. 

The fact that Hunt recently told the Tory conference that the Tories were responsible for the introduction of the NHS tells you exactly how much Hunt knows about the NHS.

We face a really difficult choice in healthcare.  Unfortunately the introduction of “market forces” and PFI as well as devolved budgeting, is draining precious resources out of the NHS.  

Some people do abuse the system and need to be more responsible, but the problem goes much deeper.

The reality we face is that if we want properly funded public services they need to be payed for.  That means higher taxes something that the politicians see as a vote loser, and something that is anethma to Tory philosophy.

Optima Photography said

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A centre combining, GP services, minor injury and A and E  might help direct people to the right care. Oh and a trap door for the time wasters might be useful. 

we used to have these in every town they had an A&E Maternity plus general and specialist health care wards and centers they were easy to access now we have one huge hospital serving several towns and trying to provide the same services with less resources meanwhile the local hospital has been converted to a walk in center or closed and the land sold of for "development "