NHS, heal thyself! by JD

"The NHS has many problems but money is not one of them."
Those were the words of my GP about 15 years ago.

Shortly after that I was looking at the news pages of the GP's practice (there is no longer a news page after an amalgamation of three practices in the area. Bigger is better seems to be the mantra.) On those pages there was an item about their budget coming under strain following an increase in the rent payable for the surgery building. The increase was substantial and surprised me because it was something in the order of 300%.( Unfortunately I did not keep a record of it, I thought I had but if I did I can't find it.)

Surely an increase like that must have been illegal under the terms of the rental agreement? I couldn't understand it and then I found that the owner of the property was NHS Property Services Ltd. https://www.property.nhs.uk/about-us/

So the Government gives money to my local GP with one hand and takes it back with the other. Reading that page of NHS Property Services I recognised all the usual jargon common to Estate Agents everywhere. And then I looked at this page:
https://www.property.nhs.uk/about-us/executive-and-board/

Count them: Ten people who are, and I quote, "... striving to help the NHS transform." Transform into.....what exactly? Nothing specific that I can find on their page so it is just more of the aforementioned jargon. The ten 'leaders' will no doubt have an office full of staff doing administrative things. Is this necessary and how much does it cost? Why does this remind me of Jim Hacker and the empty hospital in the BBC series "Yes Minister" - The Minister (Hacker) is concerned when he learns that a brand new hospital has been open for 15 months and has yet to admit a patient despite having over 500 administrative personnel on staff.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751815/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

I can understand the need for a department to deal with such things as the maintenance of the many NHS properties but not to add the unnecessary layer of administration which deals with 'internal' rental charges. I wonder do the NHS trusts pay rent for the hospitals?

And now this story on 2nd April this year has me confused - https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2020/04/02/writing-off-nhs-debt-of-13-4-billion-is-a-charade-what-is-required-instead-is-the-renationalisation-of-the-nhs-nothing-less-will-do/
So the NHS had debts of £13.4 billion but these have now been written off? I do not agree with the conclusions of Tax Research UK who ask for renationalisation of the NHS. It would be far better to go back and start again with Henry Willink's 1944 proposal for the NHS. https://www.conservativehome.com/highlights/2018/01/profile-henry-willink-the-conservative-who-proposed-a-national-health-service-before-bevan-created-one.html

My local GP used to be excellent. When I fell down one morning a couple of years ago I rang the GP and went straight there where she put two stitches in my eyebrow. Since then there has been a change, the senior GP having retired and the new man in charge seems to have turned the whole thing into a ‘production line’ with long waits for appointments etc.

I suspect this is Government inspired; the last time I saw the nurse for a blood pressure check it took about 30 minutes. Filling in forms about life style, diet, exercise etc and weighing me and measuring my height blah blah – preventive medicine blah blah —I am not a machine! There is no such thing as preventive medicine. Any change in any condition can only be predicted in general terms and is useless without treating the patient as a real living breathing organism, a human being in fact!

Super fit sportsmen die from heart attacks. Athletes who are continually monitored for fitness and performance. What happened to their ‘preventive medicine’?

I could fill the space here with the difficulties I have had recently with cancelled appointments (cancelled by the NHS not me) or my differences of opinion with the Practice Manager over my annual 'health check' (the preventive medicine thing) or with the new wonderful electronic precription service which often forgets to send prescriptions to the pharmacy or the speaking clock nature of their telephone 'service' which in my case has messages which are more or less inaudible; no point in listing them because I suspect most people will have similar tales to tell.

And now in our time of 'crisis' with the whole nation cowering under their beds and afraid to leave, in facr forbidden to leave their homes, we find that all GP practices are closed until further notice. If you need to see your GP or the nurse or use any of the other services on offer, you can't. Which raises the question - what are they doing all day in their closed offices? Administrative things perhaps: yes of course, that seems to be one of their most important functions these days. Even the pharmacy now has to do a 'mini' health check on me and during the last one he told me he has other administrators checking his work to ensure he has filled in all the forms correctly!

Conclusion: this is one 'sacred cow' which needs to be sacrificed as soon as possible in order that the country can start again and create something that really is 'the envy of the world' which is what we are told by people who do not rely on it.