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The NHS is struggling and winter is setting in.
Jeremy Hunt is asking for "efficiency savings" - in other words he is making cuts when demand is rising steeply as a result of our aging population. This means that every year the NHS needs a lot more money, to just maintain their service.
Over the last 6 years Trusts have been heavily pressured by Jeremy Hunt to cut beds - "increase bed occupancy" - to become "more efficient". So there are fewer beds in the system to cope with the inevitable rise in winter admissions.
Social care budgets have been heavily cut in England so there is less of a safety net for frail people living at home - so more likely to end up in hospital.
Noro virus outbreaks in hospitals are already up on the last few years - and that tends to close whole wards.
Today I read that 7% that is one in 14 English people are waiting for non-routine operations. Suspect there aren't going to be many beds available for those on the lists. Longest waiting list for 9 years
www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/08/one-in-14-people-waiting-operations-demand-nhs-soars
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38263593
And is this a taste of things to come - flu closing school in Manchester? if there is a flu epidemic things are going to get really nasty. Best advice is, if you haven't had a flu jab yet, get one. They're about a tenner in a pharmacy near you, if you're not entitled to a free one!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-38241513
For anyone who likes looking at figures.
weownit.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ef1f3f5b8067610251b19fb6c&id=0c87832e0c&e=9b816f1393
Government tables for what your CCG gets now and what it will get every year up until 2020-21
No it isn't. This is.
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ccg-allocations.pdf
However, the weownit link is just as important.
That puts it into perspective. I just worked out that my CCG will get £1276pa per patient. That's just over £100 a month. That's one private 20 minute GP consultation a month plus a private prescription and maybe a test.
Errrmmm...so who pays for operations, hospital treatment or expensive medications?
We seem to be getting a very good deal.
Per capita, not per patient. The assumption is that lots of people never go anywhere near the NHS. I know people who never see a GP, let alone a hospital. I make up for them!
True!
The groups which cost most are children, the elderly and pregnant women.
I'm not sure how much I cost. I have to go to two diabetic clinics a year and pick up a paper bag of medications each month. I doubt if I could insure myself for that much if I lived in the US.
Not to mention psychiatric services dd which the government are supposedly improving.
In which universe is that?
I don't get any psychiatric treatment from the NHS.
Not you dd but my brother depends on community mental health services to keep him well which have been cut to barest minimum and crisis intervention.
There are good people working in psychiatric services but it sometimes feels a world away from physical health services.
Yes, I know they have, Lazigirl. I misinterpreted your post.
My town lost a whole MH unit two years ago. The service hasn't been replaced.
Trouble is with averages is that they tell you very little.
Some people are lucky with their health and rarely see the GP, and never need hospital treatment.
My late MIL, bless her, must have cost a fortune. She had 2 problem pregnancies, breast cancer, lymphoma (twice), three things wrong with her heart requiring long-term medication and some time in hospital, asthma, 2 replacement knees, 2 replacement hips, arthritis requiring morphine patches etc, repeated chest infections, pancreatitis (2 weeks in hospital) and in the last couple of years vascular problems with her legs requiring several admissions, visits from district nursing team etc. I will have forgotten some things. She never smoked, didn't drink and was only slightly overweight in middle age.
She belonged to a generation that grew up in the war. Her dad was a steel worker and needed the lion's share of rationed food, she slept in an Anderson shelter from about 1940-45 and was admitted to isolation hospital as a child with rheumatic fever. While she was there she caught diphtheria and the rheumatic fever caused one of her heart problems.
You'll be impressed to know she never complained, or even grunted or groaned when trying to remain mobile.
Her generation did not have great start in life as far as health was concerned.
And this is the generation now it their mid 80s.
This is a written response about STPs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what total level of capital funding is requested in the 44 sustainability and transformation plans for the delivery of those plans.
Hansard source
(Citation: HC Deb, 19 January 2017, cW)
Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) continue to develop, as each local area discusses their proposals with staff, patients and local people.
As a result, it is not possible to develop an aggregate total for the total level of capital funding requested to deliver the STPs.
Anyone else find that unsatisfactory?
They do not know capital funding requested, but you can bet your life that they will not get as much as they ask for.
The Lords are discussing the sustainability of the NHS.
For anyone who wishes to try and influence their discussion, weownit has a template for you to write to Lord Patel.
weownit.org.uk/act-now/lord-patel-protect-our-public-nhs-future
Was there anyone in London on Thursday night?
Did any of you see the 38 degrees messages about the NHS lighting up the London Eye, Marble Arch and the Houses of Parliament?
Incidentally I eventually had a reply from my MP saying everything is fine here! No problems our trust is doing ok. And in the same day is an article in the Times saying a neighbouring trust will be rationing hip and knee replacement operations.
My query was about the state of the NHS in general, not local but nationwide. This he chose to ignore. Typical politician!
I live in the area you mentioned durhamjen and e-mailed my M.P. I received a standard reply. The problem is no one listens to the invidual. Things only get noticed if there's a huge scandal and the media takes it up. Even then as with this article unless there's a hue and cry it will slip away unnoticed while individuals suffer. Thanks for the link though I'll write this time quoting the article. It'll probably do no good though.
MPs tend to respond individually to individual problems and issues - and sometimes they take up a personal case of injustice.
If you ask them specifically to ask a question to a minister, it will be referred and you'll get the ministerial response. This is worthwhile if lots of people are writing as they minister's staff will be reporting on numbers - 200 letters received about ...
If it is a general letter you will get a general response, often from a staff member, as MPs get 100s of letters every week.
I'll try that approach when he responds to my follow-up email Jess
www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/our_nhs
For anyone near London, there's a march for the NHS on March 4th.
www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/nhs_transport
Transport information for those living anywhere else.
This is appalling. 2000 more people setting up crowdfunding pages so that they can get medical help that is not available on the NHS. An increase from 300+ in 2015 to 2300+ in 2016.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/desperate-patients-rejected-treatment-nhs-9758457
What happened to the basic free at the point of need?
Who is playing God?
Difficult one Durhamjen. Of course every case is heartrending and has my sympathy.
However some of these new medicines are very often of dubious benefit - as in "may prolong life" with a not very well-proven track record. Sometimes they have been tried out and evaluated for a few years and found ineffective. They are sometimes described as "treatments" or "cures" but they are not.
Some are only useful in very specific cases. The new monoclonal antibody medicines are incredibly specific and hard to produce. Because they are not "drugs" but biological molecules that require careful culturing under incredibly careful conditions.
And these new treatments are all very, very expensive.
Charities often push for them to be approved - but often the charities are getting funding from the drug companies.
David Cameron muddied the waters with his fund for certain cancer drugs which were not approved by NICE.
I do not envy the task of the people in NICE who have an extremely difficult choice deciding which medicines should be approved. They really should not be approving things that cost a fortune but don't do much good.
The NHS is struggling because the funding is not being increased in line with the rising need due to the demographic tidal wave (baby boomers, living longer...). If money is set aside to possibly, slightly prolong the lives of people who are terminally ill , then basic care for children and old people will suffer more.
Finally some of these treatments on offer in the USA (and even occasionally here) are just fraudulent. There have been lots of cases.
So sympathetic as I feel for these people, who are desperate, of course, I would not donate.
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