#WesStreeting thinks #technology (by which he seems to mean digital technologies) will make the #NHS more efficient & means we can stop pouring money into a 'leaky bucket'.
Quite apart the vacuity of such techno-boosterism, you would have thought in the wake of the #HorizonIT#Fujitsu disaster, anyone thinking deploying technology is the answer, might want to be more careful.
Many people are watching Mr Streeting & are getting worried about how he thinks about NHS reform!
Update: Although the guidance says they wanted responses by yesterday, it looks like the consult remains open until 1NOV
The NHS is holding a public consultation on the use of puberty blockers in trans kids. Please respond if you are able.
I'm not putting this under a CW because I want to ensure everyone with capacity and inclination to help sees it. But I will hold the details until further down the thread.
A new Shelter/National Housing Federation report argues that investing around £12bn on building 90,000 #socialhousing units would see a positive return within 11 years.
Getting people into homes would reduce benefits costs, save the #NHS money & more likely see those in proper homes (back) in #work. It would also, of course, boost employment in construction & associated trades.
The paradox for UK #politics is while a long time horizon is acceptable for #nuclear#energy, for homes, not so much!
Healthwatch England concludes that the continuing #NHS#strikes compounded an already severe issue of #patients waiting for treatment & its impact on wellbeing.
Indeed, while in the short-term they are right this may make things worse, lets not forget that political pressure (short of striking) has had little impact on the #Tories defunding of the NHS which is a direct cause of delays.
British people, I cannot explain adequately what absolute hell the American healthcare system is. You know how people say: "at least in the US, you can get fast treatment. At least in the US, you can choose your doctor. At least in the US, you can get the most innovative treatment"?
Lies. All of it.
The US healthcare system excels at one thing only, and that's bankrupting people.
Its worth remembering that not the #rich are not all the same.
Katharina Hecht (LSE) notes that in' interviews with people with income in the top 1 & top 0.1% in the UK, I found that approximately a third of participants suggested that #inequality should be lower & many were supportive of the idea of higher #taxation for people like themselves in order to provide opportunities for others. In particular, the #NHS & the #education system were highlighted as in need of public funding'!
For those who think that the US #healthcare system somehow holds the answer to the current #NHS crisis, there is only one fact you really need to appreciate:
No-one in the UK has ever been bankrupted by the costs of their #cancer treatment....
I like this letter in today's Guardian; it turns round what I would usually say about #vets; that they are an illustration of how expensive #healthcare is if its provisions is entirely privatised.
Rather Anne Cowper uses the experience of her #cat's treatment as a way of showing how great the #NHS could be if it was fully (and properly) funded.
Its a great rhetorical point, and although my warning still stands, she rightly puts the argument the other way (too)!
So here’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I live in the UK, where (as you may know) our National Health Service, the #NHS, is under severe strain. I believe a lot of that strain is intentional – designed to fracture the system so that it’s easy to privatize – but some of it is organic, and however it arises, it’s a real thing. With the need for access to care increasingly desperate, what I wonder is why people with healthcare skills are not setting up free clinics.
In this scenario, the Job Centre can give you mandatory work but if you're too sick to work it, you get your access to medication take away. Costing the NHS more to deal with in the end as emergency care is the most expensive.
Just had probably one of the most disappointing UK #NHS GP visits, which is unfortunately also quite representative. Coming with a kid that had been through a severe bacterial infection in December, ended up in hospital on antibiotics, then for the last months suffering from a chronic abdominal pain. After listening for 15 seconds to the description of symptoms the GP already knew everything:
GP: - Oh okay, you’ve got gastritis! If you remember from chemisty, there’s this acid… [primary school level biochemistry lecture for 3 minutes] and I’m going to prescribe you Lansoprazole and it’s going to help in no time.
Me: - Ahem, but he had Lansoprazole prescribed by this very GP practice already a month ago over telephone, not sure if we talked to you or someone else…
GP: - Ah, okay then… Well, then we’ll prescribe a stronger one, Famotidine…
Me: - Thanks, but are you sure this is enough? It’s not only the abdominal pain but also he had bilirubin levels elevated, which is mentioned in this letter I filed here when we booked this visit.
A bit of context: in the NHS GP, nobody ever does even basic diagnostics like general blood test. At least I’ve never seen that done for myself or any of my relatives. I’m used to how healthcare works in Poland (and generally EU), where a blood test is the first thing to be done when you come with anything else than wounded knee. So when my son’s initial symptoms started and GP simply prescribed Lansoprazole without even seeing the patient, I just went to a private GP and paid for the blood test, which indicated a number of irregularities. And then we booked the GP visit with an indication that these irregularities should be examined further.
Back to the GP:
GP: - Ah yes, here’s the letter… So yeah, you know, elevated bilirubin could be actually beneficial [another 3 minute digression on entirely hypothetical genetic factors that could potentially cause raised bilirubin]
Me, a bit annoyed already: - Thank you, but how do we know if this is actually this genetic factor without doing any tests?
GP: - Well, okay, if you really want, we can do a blood test!
And he prescribed the blood test, exclusively for the bilirubin 🤷
Just to be clear, NHS also does regular blood test, just like every other healthcare service - but only in hospitals. You have to go to A&E and be actually severely suffering (or pretend to) to get admitted and have some actual diagnostics. I don’t even want to go into digressions about the cost of early diagnostics and treatment being orders of magnitude lower than advanced treatment in advanced stages of disease - that seems to be an obvious evidence-based medicine to every single healthcare service in EU, but not to NHS.
Want some more anecdotal evidence? Last year NHS announced a NHS Health Check program and actively encouraged people to do… well, essentially a basic blood test. So of course I subscribed, got my blood test done and I was told to call for results. I did, and the dialogue took roughly 15 seconds:
Me: - I’m calling for the results, here’s my DOB, name etc Receptionist: - Oh yes, I’ve got it here… you’re all fine! Thank you, bye.
Except I knew for sure, it’s not “all fine” because I like always had and have elevated cholesterol levels. She didn’t care to even open my results and look at them, because if she did she would immediately see the “High” marks on relevant indicators.
Talking to relatives I friends, it comes out it’s a very widespread practice - the GP receptionists literally lie about test results they lost or didn’t bother to even look for.
Another, entirely cultural factor, shared across the whole NHS and private healthcare too, is a total reluctance to share test results with the patient and red tape when you actually insist to see it, but that’s another story.
My subjective conclusion: NHS GP service is utterly dysfunctional. And it’s not only about “NHS being stripped of funding”, which is an argument often raised by Labour.
People use private GP because NHS GP is dysfunctional and it’s primarily on cultural or professional level, not only in terms of funding.
In today's "Love the #NHS, but know that it needs resources and efficiency."
According to my GP, they have no way to stop my insulin from going on a six-months review process, because "the system doesn't allow it" — despite the fact that both my (private) insurance having said that insulin shouldn't require review and the (NHS) hospital that looks after me agreeing that it is not necessary.
🚨 Health data will be opened up to exploitation by multi-national firms like Palantir 🚨
Contracts such as the NHS DataStore and Federated Data Platform give predatory private companies a stake in sensitive health data for profit over care.
As the 'junior' #Doctors prepare for another five day walk-out... I'm just going to say this again:
The Doctors have been forced into this position by a succession of #health secretaries who either on their own or being instructed by No.10 are playing hard-ball.
We've seen how #RishiSunak negotiates on the #EU#Horizon research programme... he's prepared to wreck the institution around which negotiations are taking place.
So more #Tory wrecking of the #NHS, not, NOT, 'militant doctors'!
I've finally accepted stronger painkillers, I don't like medication for my own reasons, but a good chat today and I agreed. I have to get more bloods done tomorrow for various things, checking white blood count again, thyroid and menopause bloods. The big result, I've to wait for an appointment for a spinal MRI. I've been asking for one for over a year!
The different GP listened to everything!
Three Things I Wish I'd Known About NHS Technology
It has been a year since I stopped working for NHSX. A few weeks ago, someone reached out to me inquiring about a job there. They wanted to know what they needed to know before joining. As well as the normal moaning about the quality of vending machine coffee, I told them about three things which caught me off-guard when I joined.