Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Broken not beaten
Politics latest: 'Broken not beaten' NHS to get billions in new funding - but Reeves warns there's no silver bullet
With just one day to go until Labour's first budget since 2010, the government is pledging billions of pounds of new funding for the NHS, but is also warning that reform is needed over the long term.
I wish they would avoid these infantile sound bites. 'Broken not beaten' - it's the stuff of comics and inarticulate sports commentators. At least tell it as it is -
'The NHS is not fit for purpose in the modern world, more money isn't what is needed but for compelling political reasons we don't care about that because we aren't the people to deliver genuine reform. So in the mean time suck it up.'
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7 comments:
I avoid the NHS like the plague. Am I doing wrong?
Ah, I can relate to this one!
I'm on medication which thins my blood. Without it, I'm at risk of an incapacitating stroke. The first batch of pills is running low, so I have a look at my Health Centre's website. Mixed in with all the shouty messages about flu jabs, covid jabs, and how staff wont tolerate abuse, is a message saying I can't phone in for a repeat prescription. Two links are provided: one to the NHS website, the other to a "service" called SystmOnline. (Why? Why is it called that?). The NHS requires my NHS number which I find after long searching, but then asks for a password which doesn't work because it's coming from a different email address. The SystmOnline one doesn't work because it's not linked to my current Health Centre. I need to photograph my driving licence to prove it's me, and then send it to somewhere else and await verification.
So I'll turn out later this morning in the drizzle to attend the Health Centre in person. There will probably be an elderly deaf person in front of me who can't understand any of the foreigners on the desk, and I'll wait being eyed up by a disturbed schizophrenic bloke who blames me for something that happened in his mind. I'll take pencil and paper to record what they say, and probably go away to try to log on again at home for my repeat prescription, with that sinking feeling that although they've told me, it still probably won't work.
So, broken not beaten? No, nor am I, luckily!
James - I avoid it too apart from an annual scan which works quite smoothly.
Sam - that sounds ridiculous but not dissimilar to the hoops Mrs H has to go through for her repeat prescriptions. Ludicrously complex login and confirmation procedures which never seem to be properly joined up.
My routine prescription is done via the commercial supplier's website. I log into my account with them, order what I need and they request the prescription from our GP. It works well, probably because I'm not going anywhere near an NHS system.
An old boss of mine used to write up on the whiteboard (remember those?):
"Old System + more money = expensive Old System"
It seems the government (any government) never got that memo.
Peter - that's a sound equation, but many government organisations like the idea of an expensive Old System.
I find systmonline OK: my GP practice sends the prescription list on to my nominated pharmacy. That's where the trouble begins because again and again either (i) a drug isn't available because they've none in stock or it's purportedly impossible to get from the wholesaler, or (ii) the bloody shop itself is shut because there isn't a pharmacist available to open it.
I could nominate a different pharmacy but it's also a distant pharmacy that would need a special trip rather than a local business near other local businesses we use.
Maybe we will swap to the different pharmacy because the Council is making parking near our chosen one more difficult and sometimes simply impossible.
dearieme - it sounds as if your pharmacy doesn't have enough competition. We have three in a small town and don't have any problems apart from queues at busy times. One of them has its own van and does local deliveries, that may be worth investigating.
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