NHS Waste of money and resources

I remember reading of a scheme
In Norway where prisoners worked in a workshop repairing and servicing items such as wheelchairs, crutches etc. This was seen as a worthwhile scheme on many fronts- the items could be repaired and tested for safety etc and reused either in Norway or sent to Developing countries. The prisoners were performing a useful
task for society, not doing anyone else out of a job and learning transferable skills. I thought this was a good idea.

The NHS should charge people in hospital for food costs. After all if they were at home they would be paying out for food. I would think between £8-£10 per day would be reasonable unless they are nil by mouth.

Food is medicine. There's no point in giving people expensive priceedures if they arent getting food because they havent paid for it.

That would be a false economy. People wouldnt heal. Theyld get bed sores and they wouldnt fight off infections

I live in Buckinghamshire and now, well on the way to recovery, have had all my aids and equipment collected from home and returned to the supplier. As far as I can understand, they are cleaned and re-issued.

theres also the issue of patent. If some things are still under patent the NHS is not ALLOWED to repair it themselves, having to pay the supplier to do it.

There seems to be two separate issues being discussed.
The main issue raised is the wakefulness of hospital equipment/mobility aids. If some trusts are able and willing to recycle the vast majority then surely ALL hospitals and issuers of said aids should find a way to do the same? It seems absolute madness to chuck stuff in skips!!! I am sure I watched a programme about this very problem, maybe Matt Baker hosting??
The idea of paying for hospital food sounds like a minefield. There are far too many variables for this to work IMO. Not everyone has £5 a day to spend on food or spends that in the real world, I know I don't! Each person has different dietary requirements. There would be no guarantee the food would improve! My recent experiences of hospital food hasn't been wonderful, especially at the children's hospital.
I had to supply food for dgd because the food was so bad! She's a wonderful eater, but screwed her nose up at the bland processed slop served up masquerading as food!!!
Food at the adult hospital was no better.
Yes the NHS is struggling, no I don't know how to save it.

GillT57, please will you tell me what are those "things for pulling socks on"? My old friend was on the phone last night and told me of the very problem. She cannot bend to do so.

I think the NHS is struggling for two reasons.

One is that the tories want to privatise as much as they possibly can of it so they are running it down to a point where they can say that public ownership isn't working any more and it would be better off being 'efficiently' run in the private sector (and we all know how that works out, don't we?)

The other is related to the first. The tories, ever since Thatcher, have insisted that the national economy is like a household economy (even though, I suspect, they know that's not really true). Most people seem to have bought into this lie so it is easy for the tories to convince the populace that the country is just not taking enough money in taxes to be able to 'afford' the NHS. This is nonsense. We have a sovereign currency; we can create as much money as we like; where do you think the £345 billion in quantitative easing came from? Where did the £1.5 billion bribe for the DUP come from? Where are we going to find billions from to buy our way out of the EU (£300 billion I've heard mentioned)? That doesn't come out of yours and my tax yield, nor, as is popularly supposed, is it all 'borrowed'. Money spent by the government comes back to it by way of taxes.

I suggest that you read this:

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/05/27/its-time-centre-ground-politicians-stopped-peddling-dangerous-economics-that-could-crush-the-nhs/

First, spending has always to come before taxation, and not the other way round. If it did not the money to pay tax would simply not be available. To, therefore, ask where the tax comes from before doing more spending is to ask the wrong question as to funding.

Second, spending creates the capacity to pay more tax. The reasons should be obvious and yet apparently they are not. New government spending is, of course, someone's income. It is not poured into a black hole to be lost forever more. That means that some comes straight back in tax. And yet more comes back because the recipient of the extra income also spends, and so tax is paid, and so on. It is quite likely that over time new spending pays for itself.

And have a look at Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Which isn't really a 'theory' but an explanation of how 'money' actually works.

The 'thing to pull socks on' is a really simple contraption. My DP had one when he had his hips replaced. Anywhere that sells medical 'aids' should have them.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=aid+for+pulling+on+socks&oq=aid+for+pull&aqs=chrome.5.0j69i57j0l4.9564j1j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Oh, ‘ the Tories’ ‘the Tories’ ‘the Tories’.......time to put another record on.
The failings of the NHS are myriad , gross wastefulness on the purchasing of supplies front from administrators, too many people wanting too many procedures due to a rocketing population here, health tourism etc etc.
This is far too complex a problem to keep banging on about one political party.

Well I can quite see why you are saying that lemon and bless them they’ve only been in power 8 years so it’s really really mean to think they have any responsibility at all for anything to do with the NHS. Some posters are just so mean about the Tories aren’t they?

lemongrove This government's failings go far beyond the NHS, though the state of the NHS and the social care system now is considerably worse than when it came into power.

Of course they are! And you have to understand that the Torys massively expensive top down reorganisation didn't contribute to the cost problems at all. That the number of GPs leaving the profession isn't their fault either. Nor are the increasingly long waits at A&E, or the missed targets for cancer treatment. But don't worry they know how to solve all these problems, their friends are circling and waiting the chance to cherry pick and privatise.

These same NHS failings were being talked about before the Tories ever came into power, so of course it’s not any one political party to blame, I don’t blame Labour for it.
The NHS has to stop being the political football it has become and needs to become a cross party effort now.

Sorry lemon the evidence is different
Waiting lists and waiting times improved dramatically under Labour and the number of GPs per head increased. However research by the National Audit Office suggests that inequalities in access to GPs between more and less deprived areas were not fully eliminated by 2010.
Other significant improvements in healthcare quality, according to the ONS, included better post- operative survival rates and reductions in avoidable mortality. Overall patient experience scores were high in a range of service areas. According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, public satisfaction with National Health Services rose from 36 per cent in 1997 to 71 per cent in 2010.

Goodness knows what the level of GPs in deprived areas is now

The trouble with taking a partisan view and blaming all ills on a particular party is that it gives a blinkered overall view of things.
From all I have read on the NHS it is not simply about throwing money at it, but rather how money is used.
Also since 2010 we have had massive increases in population using all NHS services.We have also had (almost) a financial meltdown, due to the banking crisis.It was always going to take a long time to get over that.
It has been the popular cry ‘oh the Tories’ or ‘Oh, Labour’ for everything under the sun, ever since I can remember.
The NHS cannot keep grinding on the way it has always done, because this country is not the same as it was in 1958,
Or in 1998 come to that.Therefore it needs a proper overview, free from any political dogma/slant as to the best way forward for it.

Ah now it's inevitable and no-one's fault. Except it massively is. If things improved between 1997 and 2010 (and presumably there was a population increase then) why have they not improved 2010-2018?

No, it’s not ‘now’, go back to my earliest post today MaizieD where I stated it was too complex a problem to blame any one party.
Circumstances have changed in all kinds of ways since 2010.
Narrow party politics has got to stop.

What circumstances have changed lemon other than relatively the NHS budget has decreased and the population has increased ( and oh yes the Tories in power).

When my OH broke his ankle and needed a wheelchair for a short time, we were able to hire or borrow one from our local branch of the Red Cross. I can't remember how much it cost. It may just have been a voluntary donation. Why not offer any spare equipment to them?

Why on earth does 'narrow party politics have to stop'? That's the way the country has been run ever since the inception of 'parliamentary democracy'. While ever we have First Past the Post as our voting system our governments will veer from one ideological stance to another.

And while ever we, the people, cling to this absurd notion that the national economy can be run like a household budget and mainstream parties perpetrate it because they don't dare propose any other way for fear of losing votes of 'the people' who believe it, nothing will ever change.

The problem is Maizie that the posters who support this government just cannot accept that they do any wrong at all - their uncritical adoration means that they should never be held to account.

OK lemon I'll stop "narrow party politics" when this Tory government makes sure the NHS is properly funded, promises no more privatisation, reinstates nursing bursaries and listens to the experts in all medical areas. Until then I will stick to supporting the party who began the NHS and have proved over the years to be the only party which fully supports a National Health Service that provides good care for everyone.

After I broke my ankle in 2009, my equipment was picked up around 3 months post op, cleaned and reused.

In 2012, after my right knee replacement, I kept items in my shed and was able to use the lot this time when I had my left knee replaced.

SS are lending me a trolley and they do not want it back so my that will be going into the shed also.

I had 2 pairs of crutches from 5 years ago and I took them with me for this recent surgery because I did not want 3 pairs of crutches. At least if friends need to borrow anything after I have finished in a week or two, they are here. I have a feeling my little shed maybe over loaded.

It must depend which part of the country one lives in whether the items are reusable or not. I live in London.