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To me it's such a shame that government seems only to be truly realising the value of our NHS, and how under-resourced it is, in a pandemic situation. 

Apparently, according to the press, they have even been writing off some health trusts' accumulated losses now, including ours. Seemingly they want it to have a fresh start. 

Northampton has been badly hit by Coronavirus and there have been many deaths at Northampton General and Kettering General Hospital. 

But these hospitals are serving a rapidly-expanding community, with new housing estates going up all over the county - and the NHS is forced to outsource large amounts of work to private hospitals. 

There never seems a lack of money to provide new schools that are needed for these developments - so why not an additional hospital? 

And the health service will be finding itself pressured on the mental healthcare side too by the new arrivals, and the resultant ongoing mental health problems caused by the coronavirus. 

I would like to see government understanding the need for that additional NHS hospital and mental health resources. Perhaps now they might see the need. 

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The NHS will always seem underfunded until management of all trusts is sorted & changed.  The amount of unnecessary beaurocracy, the wasted money at so many levels, outrageous salaries & pensions, ridiculous procurement systems, training in unnecessary things etc etc.  Until & unless this is sorted our NHS will always be under pressure

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  • 1 month later...

I agree Taurean. Endless reforms of the NHS do not help and the public/private finance initiatives do help with trusts incurring huge debts and contracts lasting up to 30 years.  Our spend per capita is low. Compare with other socialised systems such as Canada, Germany, Denmark  and then compare the current death rates.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This week I learned something about NHS funding of services. If a mental health service would like to implement an improvement which costs money, somebody needs to put together a business plan. In order to make a business plan, staff need to attend lots of meetings. If the department is already under-resourced, the staff are busy keeping the current system running so they don't have time to spend in meetings trying to apply for funding to improve it.

I can't blame my CCG for not handing money out to the service because the way the system works, the onus is on existing services to find the time to apply for money. Managers have too much to do, with not enough staff, and not enough time. The money might be there but there needs to be a way of allocating money to the services that need it.

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  • 1 month later...

I would not like to make any definitive judgements on the NHS.  I was brought up to believe in it as an institution, and I have always paid my way into it.  I have never worked in it directly, but I have many friends who do, and report that there is underfunding,  a certain bureaucracy that it is always afflicting large structures.  And a government which really would like to see it go - that is not a party political statement really: there are many Conservative Party people I know who treasure the NHS, but the free market ideologues in Parliament are of a different cut and do not understand what it is like not to have private health insurance.  The "clap for the NHS" thing divided opinion: some workers I know felt that it was abhorrent to see NHS staff suddenly lauded by newspapers like the "Sun" and the "Daily Mail", who viciously attack the nurses and junior doctors whenever they strike for terms and conditions or better pay. 

I personally think that health care should take a more holistic approach.  But I am also not a total hippie, and think that complimentary initiatives need to run alongside modern medicine.  

Actually, there is one judgement I would offer:  we need to have - as others have suggested, a clearer and better service in mental health.  When people are made to wait years for psychiatric appointments, and are then offered a therapist who dismisses them as "treatment resistant", that is when even I get angry!  I thank the stars that we have OCDUK and similar charities that can help advocate on patients behalf!  :)

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  • 5 months later...

I love the NHS but I work for a firm who purchase on their behalf and the waste is ridiculous (double figures £ for a bottle of water for meetings which you can get for under a pound).

It doesn't impress me when politicians talk of investing huge sums on money into it when I think they need to look at where they can be saving money in the first place (not through cuts but through wastage) a decent purchasing and sourcing department would be a good start!

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