Are the above in Danger of Causing the Collapse of the NHS ??
My wife has a Carcinoma that requires removal ( GP decision ) it is 14months before she will be seen by a Consultant. To go Private will be 6 weeks at the cost of £250 for initial consultation we have decided to follow this route because of anxiety.
Recently she had to have an Ear syringed to remove Wax, Practice Nurse recomended a Private Clinic because it is no longer carried out at the Practice so £60 .
Now is the way forward have your minor procedure carried out Privately, But send the account to the Local Commissioning Group. You have saved increasing the Waiting List and saved the NHS money Job done miss out the Middle Man i.e. General Practice and NHS admin.This is rapidly becoming the case with Cataracts my optitian liased with Cataract Clinic privately, cataract removed paid for by NHS !! At the end of the day it is just an accounting procedure NHS or Private the amount paid iscould be the same. NHS reserved for Acute/Major Procedures, Private for Minor stuff.
ps If that dosen't work send the private account to your local MP afterall they are the paymasters of last resort.
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Prada47
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I agree that the NHS should contract out to private when it’s cost effective to do so and to reduce NHS backlog. The major concern is that our overworked NHS consultants will be the ones who have to step up to fulfill the extra work in the private sector. Net result more pressure on NHS in terms of waiting lists etc. with Consultants busy doing private work. Is it time to have full time NHS consultants who work solely for the NHS?
The nhs should be like the armed forces. They do not strike. The armed forces are there to protect us as is the nhs. We don't have private insurance, so that when a country invades us we have to use our private insurance to hire some soldiers to protect our personal homes. It is starting to get boring and iam fed up because it's our taxes and they should work for us.
Very naive I an afraid, there is one serious flaw in what you say, all medics can work legally privately whilst the military cannot work as soldiers privately in this country.
Do you really think that this would retain staff?
There is one comparison between our brilliant armed forces and medical staff and that is they are both seriously understaffed.
Some good practical suggestions 🤔NHS is a shambles sadly, and another strike is outrageous. I'd like a really good business person, like Deborah Meadon or Richard Branson to take it on! Sort out the severe wastage, staff contracts and customer dissatisfaction. Any school performing like this would be condemned, or another business would be closed down and put into liquidation 🤦🏽♀️ With billions that go into it surely someone could manage it 🤷🏽♀️🥺 Quite a controversial subject Im sure but an important one very close to our HEARTS ❤️🩹
Yes they are playing with fire and it will destroy the nhs. It should be against the law to strike when people lives are at stake.
Hi Felly12, I don't know if you have worked, or what that work entailed,but if you have worked in major industries, or for a large company or even in a shop, your contract of employment would more than likely have been negotiated by a Trades Union. Without a strong Trades Union taking employers on, you would be back to the dark days when employers could pick and chose who they wanted to work for them. People queing outside gates hoping to be selected, and being glad for the pittance they were being paid. This government are intent on shutting down the NHS in its present form. It is obvious that by having to outsource treatment, it is only a short step to increase that outsourcing of work until it finally becomes PRIVATISED. If you take a look at what has happened to previously privatised industries, Rail, Water, Energy, you can see what is likely to happen to OUR NHS. The Health Service would be in the hands of SPECULATERS who are only interested in how much money they can accumulate, and pay their shareholders.
For the past thirteen years, our NHS staff have been lagging further and further behind other workers. They have not been apreciated by those in power, who let's face it, most of the government MPs have no need for it. They have no realisation of how much normal people rely on our NHS, because some of them may well have private health companies to look after their medical needs. I have seen first hand how many SUITS there are on the NHS bandwagon when I was chair of our PPG. Most of them are not there for our benefit,only their own. If you had sight of how many suits there are, and how much they are being paid,( upwards of £100,000 in some cases), you might then understand why these strikes are taking place. Some of the suits are employed by more than one section, or area of the NHS, and some have their own business that is used by the NHS. Doctors and nurses are leaving the NHS in droves because they can find work on a Supermarket Checkout for more money than they are presently paid. Newly qualified Doctors, who when they are qualified and out of contract, look to emigrate for better wages and conditions, and less stress. I am sorry for going on about this, but our NHS is something I feel passionate about and have had to rely on throughout of my life. Finally, did you CLAP for them during the Pandemic, if you did, then sit and think how hard they worked to keep us SAFE. Stand up for our NHS, SUPPORT it or LOSE IT.
Unfortunately we have a two tier system. Yes I worked, I worked for 40 years. Worked through the virus that carnt be named and possibly that has caused alot of my problems. Getting up going in never knowing if I would catch it and live to tell the tale. I have had my fair share of trying to negotiate wages and work conditions. But never in forty years did I get much more than inflation. Unless your working practices completely where turned on its head. Never been on strike. But we did not have people's lives as cannon foder. Yes they work hard in the nhs especially the nurses and front line doctors. I do except some of the things you have written. But 35% pay rise? No that is ridiculous. Unfortunately I now need the nhs but it has come about at the wrong time. With it in turmoil. It is not an easy one to solve but if the nhs have too many suites that basically do nothing then they need to be removed and replaced with nurses and doctors who deserve to be there. But you carnt play with people's lives.
Hi, I am sorry if my reply appeared to indicate that you weren't gratefull for what trades unions had done for you, but having been on strike twice and winning good wage rises,I know what being in a union can do for people.I'm afraid that some people only think about themselves when a strike affects them, they probably have no idea nor care how their current work situation was achieved. The 35% wage rise does seem too much, but that rise is only to bring their wages back to where they should be if they had been awarded rises to keep up with inflation. I hope that you can get over whatever your health issue is, and good luck for the future.
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately we are going through unprecedented times. And I don't know what the answer is. The one thing I will say the accident and emergency department we have in the UK are brilliant. But they do seem to be carrying the can? It's seems that alot of things are referred to the hospitals when they could be done in a doctors surgery? It just seems that way. Any way you take as well.
Sorry this crap about Drs and Nurses getting paid less than Supermarket checkout operators is just that crap. My niece a Radiographer packed in the NHS and went to an agency for a higher salary. So she will be listed as one of those "leaving in droves" but she never left !! A friend left the NHS to work agency 2 nights a week for the same salary as she had full time NHS, same Hospital same Ward.
Lets face it a lot of these leaving in droves is not really true., would you walk away from a £30000 a year salary ?? I did clap for the NHS during the pandemic but that was for them doing their job. I would also have clapped for Bus Drivers, Undertakers, Supermarket staff etc in fact anyone who worked during the pandemic. Nurses are not Angels they are people working in a job they chose to do. Ask yourself the basic question why hasn't anyone else copied the NHS model ?
If they hadn't linked a 35% pay rise to the urgent need for change I probably would have supported them to. You have to ask yourself why can Australia, NZ, Canada, USA all pay more is it because non of them have a model based on the NHS model ??
Our friends from Australia say how much of a decline they are seeing in the Australian Medicare system so it's not just us.
Sorry I have difficulty in believing someone making patients suffer because they want a 35% rise are telling the truth ( they know the Goverment won't cave on this one ). 35% this year with say a 5% uplift for the next 5 years is one hell of a wage especially with the Thousands of extra Nurses / Drs etc that they are demanding. Unless we modernise the system will be unaffordable. Should pensioners start to pay more afterall we are the major cost associated with care.
I think we carnt solve the nhs problem. But I just saw a you tube channel which is by an American who lives in the UK. And it scared me how the American system seems to work . It seems that everything has to be paid for? Families have to set a side 1100 dollars a month for health, old age pensioners need to ensure they have 295000 dollars set a side for health care. If this is the case that is criminal. We are lucky to have the nhs we really are. But it is a shame that we the patients become a pawn in a political game. Yes 35% is in my opinion a bit much. But I do not want an American system to ever come into this country. If you are lucky enough to have private health care and can afford it so be it. But you always had the right to pay private, for consultations. And then get put back on the nhs. But we need to remember we all end up needing the nhs when it comes to Accidents and emergency which is free and when giving birth. I think the nhs is wonderful institution. I hope we don't go to A private health care system. Just hope that this government and future government take the nhs seriously.
Hi Prada47, We OAPs are the ones who have paid our dues over many years, but we appear to be the ones who are first in line when it comes to the government wanting extra funding for NHS treatment. In my previous reply, one of the main costs in the NHS is to pay for the many tiers of management. When the government decided to split the local NHS into small groups, the cost of running those groups were astronomical. Where we live, our local GPs were in two differant groups, one with 16 members, the other with more. In each of those groups, there was the Senior Manager, a Finace Officer, a Chief Nurse and extra clerical staff,plus a Lay Member. All of these posts needed paying,and I am not saying they were paid peanuts. The Senior Manager in the area would expect a salary nearing six figures, so in our small town, that meant being part of the two groups, the NHS were looking at having to pay out arund £500,000 just in wages. There were FIVE of these groups in our county where there used to be just the ONE, so I will leave you to work out how much that was costing the NHS. The LAY groups met monthly in various locations in the area. At these meetings food was provided and the rooms had to be paid for. There were two lay groups, so that doubled the expenditure. Add on the cost of printing and postage,travel expenses for all of the members of the groups, and the costs just kept rising and rising. Work out how many of those individual groups there were around the country, and you can see how much that particular exercise was costing the NHS. There wasn't any perceived medical advantage or treatment, it was just a talking shop.
Everyone seems to have forgotten that there is a little war going on in Europe and it has caused fuel prices to go up. Inflation to go up interest rates to go up. The markets panics like they do and we are all left to carry the can . Companies think I know we will get on this band wagon and put the price of our products up. Insurance goes up. Let's see how much we can squeeze out of people. Yes people strike to ask for more to compete with constant price rises. Until this little skirmish in Europe ends we will be constantly having prices rises. But it does not help when they use peoples lives to bargain for more money.
I have my ears suctioned ( Can't have syringe because of previous perforation) every 3 months at our local ENT clinic. However have just been told that further hearing tests will have to be at Specsavers.
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I did it !!! My private doctor got me a referral to a nhs doctor to be considered for for surgery. 
Do NHS cardiologists accept & act on the results of private scans or do they have to be redone on the NHS?
Expected life of a bypass and a stent.
No further forward 
Care after your Cardiac Operation
