NHS had 24 hours to live

Well, seems that is what B.Liar said when he came to power. If it were moribund then, it must have the survivor assets of Jack Bauer. The Guest Blog sets out to explore ways that what we have left may be improved.

First off, there needs to be realisation that money allocated to Health goes into a bottomless pit. Demand is created for, say, IVF for women of 50. That is achieved and the women of 55 start knocking on doors for their chance. Then along come the 60 year olds. Medicine can possibly do everything given enough funds but at the moment we do not seem to have any machinery for evualating just what should be done. We have NICE messing around ruling on drugs but nothing seems to happen on the really major, broad brush, questions. It has to be taken on board that left to it's own demands, the NHS will swallow every penny abstracted from us by way of taxes. Every day people are given the devestating news that they have the big C and that nothing can be done to prevent their death in x months or weeks. They accept that and most go away to settle their affairs and look for a dignified and pain-free exit. The same 'telling it like it is' needs to be adopted across all illnesses and medical demands. Childless at 50? Well, sorry. The NHS will do nothing.

Having done something to limit the financial demands, there needs to be better finalcial planning. Big industry manages to get it's budgets right. We do not read that XXY Inc has run out of money just two thirds of the way through the year and is having to stop functioning because there is no money. Cars are not made and set aside because there is no money to buy wheels and tyres. Yet, regularly we read of NHS Trusts having to suspend operations as the money has gone, buildings are falling apart for lack of funds or that doctors and consultants are being laid off as they cannot be paid. This must cease. Having a firm grip on what is to be done is a prime essential to budgetting so the two things I reckon we need are conjoined.

Will we get it? I doubt it. Politicians are driven bythe need to get re-elected. The public will want Auntie Ruth aged 60 to become, overnight, Mummy Ruth with the threat of, at least, twins. Telling her she has left it too late will not go down well with the tabloid press who will highlight the political fallout. And so it goes on.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG

How can we improve the NHS? Good question.

Messing about with the NHS

The Wizard Of Con is at it again. Here he uses two reports to announce changes in the NHS. Just how many of the 'driven-past' hospitals have spent how much in upgrading facilities that will now be ignored? Concentrating resources in a few hi-tech locations may be outwardly sensible but there is the 'all eggs in one basket' syndrome. MRSA, union problems and local utilities can put a expensive and dedicated site out of use very quickly. One of the strengths of the last Christmas Rush on intensive care units was the ability to shuttle patients around from receiving hospital to one which had bed space available.
In addition, there is the perfidy angle of this gubmint. Very soon, they will produce their usual slanted statistics 'clearly showing' that the driven-past hospitals really do very little and can be closed. They will need to do something to find a saving that will permit their desired 66% pay rise for those democratically elected to serve the populace. Yeah – tell me about it.

Two reports by government advisors, Sir George Alberti and Professor Roger Boyle, published today, both conclude that traditional A&E departments are not the only option when dealing with life-and-death situations. Professor Boyle, the national clinical director for heart disease, found that specialist centres providing hi-tech treatment, which may be further away for the patient, could save an estimated 500 lives of people suffering heart attacks.

These could help prevent 1,000 further heart attacks and result in 1,000 more stroke victims avoiding death and disability each year.
His colleague, Sir George Alberti, the national clinical director for emergency care, also said there should be fewer hospitals trying to do everything, and "more convenient and appropriate care closer to home" for people with less serious conditions. Mr Blair described the reports as a "compelling and vivid account" of ongoing hospital reforms.

A separate report by the left-of-centre thinktank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), argues that campaigns to save services at local hospitals could cost as many as 1,000 unnecessary deaths a year.
The thinktank, which is close to Downing Street, says patients with heart attacks or severe injuries are more likely to survive if the ambulance takes them past their local district general hospital to a more distant specialist centre.
It says that the expensive and complex treatments and highly-trained staff needed to deal with these emergencies in the most effective way would be better concentrated at regional specialist centres, rather than spread more thinly around local facilities.