So I was reading this thread, all the while asking myself what fucking planet Peston is on…
The comments reassured me I hadn’t suffered some mystery concussion…
The impression I get is that this is a government resigned to its fate. It knows it isn’t winning the next election.
I don’t undestand these examples much. While a one off payment of 1000 sterling is very helpful in a pinch as a stop gap in an economic crisis to pay immediate bills, what these people working need is more a 100 pound monthly raise, which would actually would help them and even allow them to make plans for their personal economy. One off payments is just gaffer tape.
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Cynically I’d say that’s the point. It’s to avoid making commitments to actually paying more regularly (increasing the base), while making a splashy headline amount that looks good to those who are already predisposed to believe the claims they put out, and they surely will be putting out some propaganda about how they’ve made some really generous offer.
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Perhaps indeed.
Imagine if they actually did the job of running the country properly rather than worrying about winning the next term in office 
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The statistics on ambulance waits are galling.
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Here’s a story.
A good friend of mine has just gone back to working on ambulances rather than providing a mobile clinical service. Firstly the job he left paid more in basic salary and there was no shift work but he was constantly having to make medical decisions as a doctor would. On the ambulance he works shifts and the overtime bumps his pay up to a comparable level and his sole responsibility is keeping a patient alive. He spends a lot of time parked outside a&e keeping people alive, roughly one patient, maybe two on average in total per shift. It’s preferable to him.
How fucked is the system when this is a thing?
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my neighbor is a 20+yr ambulance attendant. he’s semi-retired now, got fed up with having to go back to the same places downtown to do overdose Narcan injections to the same people who are tying up the medical system from doing the work which they should be doing…
Now he takes shifts on one of the gulf islands to keep his certificates, he has a small place he bought a few years ago as he closes out his career in his early 50’s.
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Truly tucked up
Why is this?
Not enough staff would be the obvious answer.
Is it because staff have left and not been replaced?
Is it because there’s the same amount of staff but more people visiting A & E?
Is it because the time wasters with a finger splinter or toothache are turning up at A & E and being counted in the statistics?
Are they seeing people on a first come first served basis, tending to a finger splinter while a stroke victim waits patiently in a corridor?
Is that a serious question?
Yes, example.
During my wifes recent stay in hospital, there was an old bloke with chest pains waited 13 hours for a bed. On my wifes ward there was a bloke in a bed with a knee brace on.
Both arrived through A & E as opposed to GP referral.
It is thought provoking.
One thing that isn’t helping is that GPs are doing less and less, like the police, an appointment with a GP could be 3 days to 2 weeks later. That means that people with a splinter go to A&E. If your kid gets a sorethroat and there’s strep A going around your kid could be dead before you get to see a GP. Conversely if it’s just a cold it could be over before your GP appointment.
This leads to staffing shortages in A&E.
Calling people wasters isn’t a question or an answer, there is that I feel modern society expects more from a modern health system than it’s delivering. Toothache can be very disabling for example and at times requires immediate antibiotics to prevent severe damage. If you can not get to see a dentiste (which is harder than a GP) and your GP refers you to the dentiste what is left?
I think this ‘hate’ syndrome some seem to have has to stop and real solutions found. Perhaps another layer ofsuper nurses that can see people quickly with a referal system that prioritises suspect severe cases. The problem this has to be paid for like community policing that the police no longer do.
Angry men and women shouldn’t get a say or an internet link. 
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Those cases sound like needing A&E!
Yup, so bottom line is staff shortages.
Unlikely to improve unless salaries do either, understandable.
Interesting that they mention delayed discharges as a problem too.
The day my missus was discharged, we both told the nursing staff multiple times that we’d go and free up the bed, and I’d return and collect her medication.
Each time we were told, no there’s no rush.
4 hours later we left.
That’s 4 unnecessary hours in a corridor for someone.
Much of this is meant to be where pharmacies come in. I know NHS Scotland ran a system by which most routine GP work was actually handled by the pharmacy so there was no need to see a GP for some of the basic stuff but the medical information was fed back into the GP records. I’m assuming that there are similar schemes in England but I don’t know how the data feeds back (I’m assuming a similar mechanism.)
From what I am hearing the breakdown appears to be a bit more fundamental than that. They just can’t get sufficient staff. I don’t know how much effect the post-Brexit staffing arrangements have had. They used to back fill a lot of vacancies with staff from the EU - particularly a lot of doctors from Scandinavia and the low countries / Germany. I’m assuming that those routes are technically still open but it is a massive pain in the hole to sort the admin now.
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At our GP practice, you have the option of waiting for a routine face to face which can take up to 3 weeks.
A telephone appointment can still take up to a week, or a call back from a triage nurse who will then assess the urgency.
If she deems it urgent, same day emergency face to face appointments can be made.
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Here in France the pharmacies are doing more and more. Health and policing is becoming catastrophic in rural areas. We are going toward the American way where noone who can do anything about it cares.
Covid exasperated certain problems but the trend was already set well before.
Staff and beds are a problem and I’m aware of it also aware of those complaining about splinters. It’s the whole health system that’s falling to pieces and the UK one is a complete mess already.
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