HEALTHCARE – OPTIONS;

Health is NOT a commodity to be bandied around stocks and bonds et al. Just as the National Health service (NHS) is not a business where targets have to be reached, profits have to be made and quotas filled.

Nor should it be treated as such, a quantitative saleable commodity is how the consequent governments see and treat it as such. (no pun intended).

The health service of the United Kingdom should, and in some cases, is, playing two major roles. Duties. One is as a responsibility to the ongoing health of the nation who pay for the service by way of National Insurance stamps, the whole reason why the tax was initiated. The NHS claims there is no money. Less managers. Less astronomical salaries and a proper “back to basics” not yer Tony Blair adage that floundered. At present it’s all about grading and numbers and finance.

The health of UK citizens should be first and foremost and those people should not herded into investment stables in order to make up numbers to ingratiate directors and cosmetically appear to government.

Secondly and just as importantly, the NHS should be the major employer in this sceptred isle. 

With many unemployed, a lot of them could be employed in the running of hospitals and residential homes with care facilities. People with the vocational nouse and skills that can be honed. Get rid of all the ‘suits’ who do nothing but badger overworked doctors and inspect every facet with a view on costing. And people are dying every day because of this. They don’t need more managers, they need more doctors and nurses who get the job done. An all-seeing matrons! The scope of necessary skills amongst the general public would probably surprise you but these people should be given the chance to do what they think is their best ability; caring. It is in that respect that the NHS should be employing people with an attitude to working in caring for others; those who wouldn’t see such a post as ‘just a job’ or a way to earn more money.

There are those types obviously, but overall, and I have met a few, those committed to healthcare of their peers, their fellow citizens, who have THE vocation.

Students and adult nurses/carers/doctors come to Britain to train in our health service because it, in a word, the best, despite the obvious failings. These people stay and help while gaining more experience that they can take back to their, more often than not, less fortunate nations and work on easing their country’s health care problems. We need to get back the spectral image the NHS held and some cases, still holds, across the globe.

Many foreigners stay in the UK and continue to work out much of their career, eventually settling, marrying etc. that can only be good for the face of health care in the UK especially in the light of the immigration problems being highlighted of late where foreign workers are being given skilled positions that Britons should be getting. Looking at the health service the same way, it’s easy to see that Britons don’t like the work involved and not of all it is very nice, for obvious reasons, again the reasoning of a vocational outlook is needed. Some Britons are too proud to do such jobs but in the current climate I think more should look deeper into themselves, look at the bigger picture and make an effort. It could be your family that needs urgent or long term treatment in the future...

People who work for charities in some of the godforsaken parts of the world where disease is rife, where days are fraught with danger of injury or even death, where some sights would churn the stomachs of the strongest men, don’t do it because ‘it’s something to do’, they do it because their lives have a purpose. Their existences are fore-planned to help others, many are volunteers. That says everything you need to know.

In the health service, it isn’t much different. Doctors are salary paid. This basically means, extra hours they put in to save the life of your child, your spouse, sibling, parents, doesn’t always mean extra pay for extra hours worked. Yes, they complain about long hours BUT they don’t walk away and the government stops the cash flow into the system because prisons need decorating, alleged terrorists need comfort and safety from would be vigilantes and Europe dictate to the UK a bigger portion of tax which outweighs every other member state.

It is for that reason alone that the government injects more funds, one, to keep the service free to residents of the UK and two, to ensure more doctors and nurses are trained to keep the service going, while saving lives. The entire contributions of National Insurance should be fed directly into the health service. It doesn’t need quango committees to decide where the money is spent, they know where it should be spent which means big corporate committees are no longer necessary. If those involved on committees have no other skills, the health service also needs dedicated cleaning staff.

It’s make a change for them to get their hands dirty (or not).

We need to get a proper set of rules drawn up that will dictate the entire service from doctors right down to the chap who picks up litter in the car parks. (which should be free -car parks that is) I omitted to mention managers/directors etc because the majority are really NOT needed! There are already too many pen pushers in this country, all employed by the brain dead government who are watching their own pockets rather than the nations.

As I stated, this kind of work is not a job. You’d be wasting your time if you think you can just go in, do the work and pick up the pay packet. That’s what wrong with this country, too many people, employers included, just look at the cost effectiveness of their part in industry, the cheapest way to get the job done. A pre-cursor to disaster...

Healthcare is a vocation. I see if first hand on a daily basis. My wife works in a care home for the elderly and sick. She was a late starter after bringing up the kids but has thrown herself into it now. It was something she’d always wanted to do and is now climbing the ladder. But she doesn’t grade it as a job. I don’t see it as a job. One HAS to be something special to enter such employment.

One has to care, be caring. Those being looked after deserve to be cared for.

Furthermore, the health service is NOT an industry. It seems to have been categorised as one under subsequent inept governments in the last two decades, who see ££’s instead of people. Who draw up targets of how many people can have surgery. And when. How long waiting lists are down to, how long people should wait in accident and emergency departments to ensure the staff, doctors, nurses, etc don’t go over the recommended quota of hours. Doctors are dedicated. Most nurses are dedicated. Yet the suits upstairs are playing these staff as marionettes, are being paid so handsomely for sitting on their fat arses it makes one want to retch. Is there a doctor in the house?

Basically, the country doesn’t need millions of new cars, an industry now counting the cost and reducing output, but it does need doctors, nurses, staff prepared to care. The training these people go through is hard enough. It’s not an easy set up to learn but learn they do. Some doctors spend years in university to learn as much as they can to be able to do a job that saves lives. They wouldn’t waste those years of education to take a posting to be pushed from pillar to post by numpties from upstairs, clip boards in hand, hustling the medical staff like they are directing traffic. I’ve see that too. I cannot fault doctors and nurses, they work to the best of their ability, their main intention, to cure, to save lives, to treat everyone with same disposition of care whether it be a baby, a toddler, teenager, adults up to pensioners. All mostly are and should be treated as best as treatment or ailment dictates/allows.

This of course, takes nothing away from health care trusts such as BUPA. They run on contributions and can offer the best of everything. This road is a lifestyle choice. If one can afford it and is able to be treated with immediate effect, fair enough but paying into such a concept is, as I said, a matter of choice and no-one should be condemned for doing so. We know the NHS cannot compete but then, health care is NOT a competition.

These Trusts offer something to patients. If patients choose that option, no-one should have any qualms about it.

People should never be or feel forced to pay for treatment. In the world, we are probably the only nation with a free health service. It was set up by an astute politician to ensure the health of the nation was always paramount. It was giving back to the nation, the camaraderie, the spirit shown by the general public in two world wars. Just look at the shambles it has become.

The health care Trusts have their sector. The NHS has theirs. But all in all, patients should be entitled to much the same treatment from diagnosis, to admittance down to cure or surgery. THAT is a human right. Not everyone is in and is ever likely to be in, a position where they can opt for private treatment which is why the government, a government responsible for its citizens who put them into power, should be ensuring that every patient is treated with the greatest respect and time. Everything in the way of health care, should be offered. And all for free. No-one should die of ignorance or lack of ‘wealth’. We have some of the best doctors and nurses the world over and yet they are being abused by the system. That has to stop. These people are total professionals (in most cases) and should be treated as such. They should be given the tools necessary to help them to save lives. And they should have enough colleagues to call upon for help in situations. The government has duty to its citizens.

And I reiterate the necessaries, in my opinion, needed to ensure the life and workability of the service. 

Train more doctors and nurses.
Pay them a decent wage.
Raise the standard of care and cleanliness in all hospitals. And make people looking for employment display the correct criterion to take on such a task. That being they care, they don’t see looking after the sick, the frail, the elderly and the dying, as a job but as a vocation.

In recent times we’ve seen, from TV news and newspapers, rare cases of physical abuse against patients. This is because the people employed aren’t of the ‘correct ilk’, wanted or forced to get a job, they chose the health profession but it really is vocational. I cannot stress that enough. Ask any doctor or nurse working at a hospital how they feel about their employment. 9 times out of 10 the answer will be something along the lines of ‘caring for others, saving lives’.

The only way for the nation to be sated on health care, is to follow these and some other, graded guidelines. I’m not saying I’m right but I’m pretty sure I’ve covered most avenues. People deserve to be cared for in their dotage. They deserve to have their lives saved when and where it is humanly possible.

Their deserve to not be afraid to go to hospital carrying the fear that that will be the last time anyone will see of them. That fear is agitatingly real amongst many older generations. It is also prevalent amongst the young who see day by day, reports about how people are treated, how people die from minor complaints etc. etc.

The NHS is caught up in some kind of ‘quid pro quo’ situation where the scale is lower to facilitate a healthy fiscal overview while healthcare in many cases, is either overlooked or deliberately misled to an extent that people die for the sake of the targets I spoke of earlier and misrepresentation of funds. Yes, there should be a budget across the entire spectrum, but only as such to ensure everything that is needed is implemented. Only this function can ensure a good working practice on all levels on a daily basis. Those in charge want it all their own way, cake and eat it syndrome. This cannot, must not, be allowed to happen again. Steps must taken now to bring about the massive changes needed to bring the health service back onto an even keel. The service has always, it seems, run at a loss. Now I would see this service as implicitly more important than bankers trying to make a few quid by sending everyone’s monies to Iceland. Then losing it. Double standards? This country is awash with double
standards.

The health service should be the most important institution in the entire nation. If it doesn’t work properly, the people suffer. The same can be said for every other kind of business such as banks. And government! A shake up is needed, on a colossal scale. The right people should be put into place to bring the health ‘ship’ back to port and re-launched in complete honesty and efficiency. And these people also need to find their vocation and not be led with a million pound carrot incentives to do the job. That’s part of the problem. Too many greedy f*****s running everything!

If the NHS is run as a constitution and not as an industry or business venture, there will not be the need to streamline everything and look to make a profit. Nor will it be run as a nationalised concern. The government have proved time and again over the last decade that they are completely inept with every pie they’ve stuck their little Hanselised chubby fingers into. But all the funding WILL come from National Insurance which means government MUST, WILL pay it all into the new system without adding one of 50 of their sticky fingered stealth taxes on it. And furthermore, if there isn’t enough money during one fiscal period, the government will also pay up from the other stealth taxes they’ve grabbed from an earning citizenship.

Will it work? We have no way of knowing. It’s a risk yes, but heck, not as bloody risky as those inept clowns in the banking system or those idiots in Cabinet!

© tcmoon 2011