I've worked in the NHS on and off over the last 25 years and what's coming out of those diligently working in it all day every day, is quite different to what I've heard before. The despair, the fatalism, the sense of impending doom - it's different and I suspect, for the sick and the needy, quite dire on a level that even the average long-wait complainant and bed-in-a-corridor sufferrant has no idea about.
I agree though, Eleanor, not a peep is being uttered by politicians about the conversation topics, blue sky thinking and ideation that's needed to get us to a better place. I'm hearing about technical innovations in specific clinical specialisms, but nothing at all about the whole system that joins it all together...
Climate change is absolutely top of my list - Labour marginally better on this than the Conservatives and are at least listening to business about what CAN be done instead of what it is fashionable to fund right now.
Inequality - the levels of child poverty in this country are staggering and unacceptable. why aren’t Labour going back to Sure Start, lifting the benefit cap on >2 kids etc.
Schools and teaching - and if Labour think that putting VAT on private school fees is going to do more than touch the sides of the issues they are facing in the state system then they are badly advised. Much better to either properly abolish/nationalise private schools because there is a genuine ideological position that it is unfair that families can buy an advantage - or to raise income tax across the board if the need is to raise more money. Applying VAT seems to me to address neither issue adequately.
Water quality and a genuine conversation about renationalising the water companies (and the railways) instead of bailing out private companies
Social care as you say - which obviously also intersects with the NHS
And on, and on, and on. And that’s before you even touch libraries and the arts….
I take issue with this post. Perpetuates a lie that we can’t afford a state run healthcare system. But some how making profit in a quasi private sector could manage demand and spiralling medicines costs.
There’s more than enough money to pay for free healthcare for all via the NHS (supported by a properly funded social care). It’s just not being spent there.
I have worked in NHS management for 20 years. Seen the impact of new labour funding, and conservative austerity.
I think top of the list concerns are ones you’ve mentioned, but as you say, but no politicians are addressing :
1. Operation waiting lists - my partner has Prostate Cancer and is waiting for a TURP operation so he can have his catheter removed. He has been waiting 2 1/2 YEARS !
2. Social care - People in hospital because their homes aren’t equipped for them to go back to. It’s just SO inefficient and women ( mostly ) being paid a pittance in Carers allowance.
3. Council services being cut. I just came back from Venice and couldn’t believe how clean it is. Why are our cities strewn with rubbish ?
I've worked in the NHS on and off over the last 25 years and what's coming out of those diligently working in it all day every day, is quite different to what I've heard before. The despair, the fatalism, the sense of impending doom - it's different and I suspect, for the sick and the needy, quite dire on a level that even the average long-wait complainant and bed-in-a-corridor sufferrant has no idea about.
I agree though, Eleanor, not a peep is being uttered by politicians about the conversation topics, blue sky thinking and ideation that's needed to get us to a better place. I'm hearing about technical innovations in specific clinical specialisms, but nothing at all about the whole system that joins it all together...
Climate change is absolutely top of my list - Labour marginally better on this than the Conservatives and are at least listening to business about what CAN be done instead of what it is fashionable to fund right now.
Inequality - the levels of child poverty in this country are staggering and unacceptable. why aren’t Labour going back to Sure Start, lifting the benefit cap on >2 kids etc.
Schools and teaching - and if Labour think that putting VAT on private school fees is going to do more than touch the sides of the issues they are facing in the state system then they are badly advised. Much better to either properly abolish/nationalise private schools because there is a genuine ideological position that it is unfair that families can buy an advantage - or to raise income tax across the board if the need is to raise more money. Applying VAT seems to me to address neither issue adequately.
Water quality and a genuine conversation about renationalising the water companies (and the railways) instead of bailing out private companies
Social care as you say - which obviously also intersects with the NHS
And on, and on, and on. And that’s before you even touch libraries and the arts….
I take issue with this post. Perpetuates a lie that we can’t afford a state run healthcare system. But some how making profit in a quasi private sector could manage demand and spiralling medicines costs.
There’s more than enough money to pay for free healthcare for all via the NHS (supported by a properly funded social care). It’s just not being spent there.
I have worked in NHS management for 20 years. Seen the impact of new labour funding, and conservative austerity.
I think top of the list concerns are ones you’ve mentioned, but as you say, but no politicians are addressing :
1. Operation waiting lists - my partner has Prostate Cancer and is waiting for a TURP operation so he can have his catheter removed. He has been waiting 2 1/2 YEARS !
2. Social care - People in hospital because their homes aren’t equipped for them to go back to. It’s just SO inefficient and women ( mostly ) being paid a pittance in Carers allowance.
3. Council services being cut. I just came back from Venice and couldn’t believe how clean it is. Why are our cities strewn with rubbish ?