The Future of the NHS

[Jubal]

The government has ‘effectively told the profession it cannot afford NHS dentistry’ as it prepares to impose an approach to pay, says the British Dental Association (BDA).

After publicly accepting the independent pay review body’s recommendation of a pay increase of 6%, the BDA says the Department of Health has refused to reflect the soaring operating costs of delivering NHS care.

It is imposing a rock bottom uplift of 3.23% to cover expenses. This leaves a total uplift in NHS contract values of 5.13%.

Based on survey data measuring the costs facing practices, the BDA estimate a total uplift of 8.3% as a bare minimum requirement. This would allow the service to stand still with the promised 6% pay rise.

In its conversations with the government the BDA say officials categorically accepted that its figure of 3.23% is not based on hard evidence of the levels of costs facing practices, but rather reflects what the government felt it could afford.

It broke from its usual model of using CPI inflation to establish the costs of delivering NHS dentistry, which would have generated an uplift of 8.7%. Instead, the department chose another measure – the GDP deflator. The BDA dubbed it ‘a cynical measure designed purely to keep costs down’.

Forced move to private​

The uplift leaves a gap of more than £100m in the NHS budget. In its warnings to ministers, the BDA argues that this will only accelerate the push to private.

Government 'effectively said it can't afford NHS dentistry' - Dentistry

The government has 'effectively told the profession it cannot afford NHS dentistry' as it prepares to impose an approach to pay, says the BDA.

dentistry.co.uk

£100m. Peanuts. I wonder what the real gap is between adequate service and where we are now?

Like the other poster, NHS patients are catered for here. I feel we’re lucky.

 

[ks.234]

all good points , i was sitting next to a senior NHS director recently as he liased with a big well known private hospital chain

I do see your side but if an elderly person waits 3 years for a hip op and consumes vast amounts of pain killers and GP time in that 3 years , does it not make sense financially to get that person done quick in a private place . and save £££££ in pain killers and GP resources ? not to mention quality of life

In the short term, then yes. But in the medium to longer term, the money for the NHS to fund private health, will start to ‘run out’, and exactly the same process of having to prioritise will mean either cuts in what is funded, who is eligible for funding and charges.

It will be a gradual process, much like Care, but sooner or later we will look more and more like the US and less and less like the NHS we used to love and value

 

[Fatmarley]

Image
Dear keith,

Our research into NHS privatisation is revealing some *incredibly concerning* information. We found one example last week of a private company called “HealthShare”. The company runs over 70 NHS services, and is owned by 4 of the biggest banks- Natwest, HSBC, RBS and Barclays.
If that wasn’t bad enough, we’ve now discovered that Lloyds Bank is involved in NHS privatisation too, because they own a private company called “ConnectHealth”.

Big banks have no place in the NHS, and NHS privatisation is bad for everyone. It’s bad for patients, bad for staff, and bad for the future of the NHS. We’ll be putting all of this information (and much more) onto our ground-breaking map of NHS privatisation very soon.
The good news is that our work is reaching larger audiences than ever before. We’ve just started making short videos with updates about our NHS privatisation research, and they’re being watched hundreds of thousands of times across social media platforms.
Our team is working harder than ever- because NHS privatisation is accelerating, and it is crucial that everyone understands what’s going on. Please consider joining us as an EveryDoctor member today to support our work. We need everyone who cares about the NHS to come on-board.
Become an EveryDoctor member today

This popped up on TikTok earlier...

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7302397131162144033

 

[ks.234]

This popped up on TikTok earlier...

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7302397131162144033

Let’s hope the message reaches a wider audience. The National part of the NHS is very far from a sacred cow for our politicians. We are heading for an NHS that quite literally will not be worth it’s name.

Our NHS is bit by tiny bit disappearing before our eyes because as a society we are voting for it.

 

[hifinutt]

what a tragedy , i thought they had sorted things out


Junior doctors in England are to stage more strikes in December and January after rejecting a new pay offer put forward in talks with government.
The British Medical Association (BMA) union said the proposal was worth an extra 3% on average this year. It's on top of an 8.8% rise already given.
The walkouts will be for three days from 07:00 on 20 December and six days from 07:00 on 3 January.
The new year walkout will be the longest in the history of the NHS.
It coincides with what is traditionally one of the busiest periods for the NHS with emergency services often under huge strain.
The breakdown in talks comes after five weeks of negotiations during which industrial action had been suspended.
The union representing junior doctors wants a 35% pay uplift to make up for what it says are below-inflation rises in pay since 2008.

Junior doctors plan nine days of strikes after talks collapse

Walkouts are planned on three days in the run-up to Christmas and six days in new year.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[awkwardbydesign]

I just came back from my dentist and saw the above post. It's a dentist in Wimbledon.

There's a big sign outside saying "New NHS Patients Welcome."

I mentioned it to the dentist. She confirmed that they were definitely looking for new NHS patients, that she thought that although it may be true that it's hard to get an NHS dentist in some parts of the country, here there's no problem. Please pass on the information to anyone who wants an NHS dentist . . . .

I think I've lucked out. I live near an excellent teaching hospital, I've had nothing but excellent service from my GP and dentist and optician. Posts in this thread indicate that the situation isn't so rosy elsewhere.

Wimbledon is bit too far from Plymouth. Where our dentists have all stopped treating their NHS patients and gone private. And no others are taking on new NHS patients.

 

[hifinutt]

Interesting to see a graph on bbc news showing that funding under labour if it continued at previous rate would have been higher than conservative spending

 

[ks.234]

Interesting to see a graph on bbc news showing that funding under labour if it continued at previous rate would have been higher than conservative spending

How much of that funding came from PFI?

 

[ks.234]

Dear keith,

We are hoping to launch an important new project, but we need your help please! Let’s start 2024 by holding politicians to account about what they’re doing to the NHS…
For the past 4 decades, politicians have pushed through policies that have enabled NHS privatisation in various ways, but they have never actually held a public referendum about this. They have no mandate to privatise the NHS.
We now have a situation where thousands of NHS services are actually run by external organisations (including private companies) and this is impacting both NHS patients, and the dedicated staff that care for them:
1. Many of the external organisations take on short-term contracts to provide NHS services. This means that healthcare teams often change frequently, which impacts on crucial staff-patient relationships.
2. The contract tendering itself creates a huge amount of admin and bureaucracy, and upheaval in the NHS.
3. The introduction of private companies and external organisations into the NHS has fragmented the very architecture of our public healthcare system.
Many politicians are keen to introduce even more privatisation into the NHS, beyond the next General Election! We think it is time for the public to have their say, and so we are raising the funds to run a huge new campaign.
We want to commission independent polling to find out what the public thinks about involving privatisation in the NHS. Once we have these answers, we’ll run a huge public awareness campaign to tell as many people as we can about what we have found.

Please donate now, let’s get started immediately!
How will we do it?
If we hit our crowdfunding goal…
1. We will work with a polling organisation to commission questions, which they will send to thousands of people of different ages and backgrounds to find out what they think.
2. Our team will then run a public awareness campaign about our findings
a. We will create eye-catching materials including posters, videos, fact sheets and more, to enable our network to tell others about what is happening and what the public thinks
b. We will ensure that these materials are free and easy to download and share. Some people interact on social media, others like to receive an email, or a whatsapp message, watch a video, or print out a leaflet. We will create a range of materials that are easy to understand and easy to access, so that everyone can get involved in the easiest way possible.
Politicians have no mandate to privatise the NHS. Please help us to find out what the public actually thinks, and then we’ll tell as many people as we possibly can. Let’s hold politicians to account together!
Please click here to donate now- let’s start 2024 by holding politicians to account!
Thank you so much everyone, and take care,

Yours,
Ju

Dr Julia Patterson
EveryDoctor Chief Executive

 

[Tony L]

Carol Voderman seems to have picked up a show on LBC after the BBC gagged her. This episode is interesting as it features Dan Goyal and goes into the NHS spending figures and proves the “record NHS spending” numbers bandied about by Tory MPs and spin-doctors includes the multiple £bns the party and its donors have stolen from us.

£70 billion still unaccounted for. Every penny of that figure has been stolen from us and will be paid back with interest by us. This is the price of Conservative Party corruption.

 

[ks.234]

Carol Voderman seems to have picked up a show on LBC after the BBC gagged her. This episode is interesting as it features Dan Goyal and goes into the NHS spending figures and proves the “record NHS spending” numbers bandied about by Tory MPs and spin-doctors includes the multiple £bns the party and its donors have stolen from us.

£70 billion still unaccounted for. Every penny of that figure has been stolen from us and will be paid back with interest by us. This is the price of Conservative Party corruption.

I also includes money spent on privatised care. Surgery done by private hospitals paid for by NHS

 

[hifinutt]

interesting to chat to a junior Dr today about the strikes . one reason they are aggreived is Associate physicians who do 2 years post grad training are paid more than junior drs who have to supervise them

this is one such letter of concern

https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p1996/rr-0#:~:text=(2,3) This means,a 5-year study period.

Dear Editor

I read with concern this letter from Emma Glen, particularly with respect to a reference to Helen Salisbury’s recently published article ‘physician associates in general practice.’ (1) The author paraphrase’s that doctors should not "feel aggrieved" for working "longer hours for less pay" regarding their perception that physician associates are relatively underpaid. According to the current agenda for change pay scales, a newly appointed band 7 physician associate (PA) working in inner London will earn £48874 for a 37.5-hour working week, while a foundation year 1 doctor working an unbanded 40-hour work week in the same hospital would earn £34,560, both with London-weighting respectively.(2,3) This means that a newly qualified doctor earns around 34% less than a newly qualified physician associate, despite working more hours.

With respect to training and knowledge, a medical student undergoes several thousand more hours of clinically relevant training than a PA over a 5-year study period.(4,5) Although physician associates usually have a biological science-related degree, these lack teaching or an assessment program with a clinical focus. Therefore, considering that doctors have extended clinical training, responsibilities, and agency, including the ability to prescribe and order imaging with ionising radiation—neither of which a PA can do—one must question what additional value PAs provide to a clinical service that justifies this wage gap.

Basically the government need to reward the Drs with a decent pay rise imho

 

[hifinutt]

another Dr`s strike , come on mr sunak sort it out please

 

[palindrome]

He is sorting it out . . . by continuing to ignore and torpedo any real attempt to negotiate an agreement in order to further The Scum's long-held but unspoken policy of privatisation. To justify it he needs the NHS to crash and burn. And a lot of people will continue to die needlessly as a consequence. . .

John

 

[Kirk]

Misogyny and racial bias routinely putting patients at risk, warns NHS England safety chief​

https://www.theguardian.com/society...nts-at-risk-in-england-warns-nhs-safety-chief

 

[hifinutt]

another Dr`s strike today . the 10th i believe .!!! hope they can sort stuff soon , just sent someone to A&E today so no doubt that will be a nightmare

 

[les24preludes]

It would be useful to see a full disclosure of all the shares, stock, directorships and other involvements that Tory politicians and their families have in private health companies.

 

[palindrome]

This doesn't answer your question but, these links point to the way in which the needs of shareholders and their profits are the only concern in the running of GP surgeries.

Dozens of NHS surgeries are owned in off-shore tax havens raising backdoor privatisation fears

Analysis by i of more than 90,000 properties owned by overseas companies – from car parks to luxury homes – shows that the titles on nearly 100 primary care buildings in England are held by private firms registered in tax havens

inews.co.uk

Here are the GP Practices taken over by US health insurance giant Centene

Shocking

weownit.org.uk

General Practice - NHS for Sale

One quirk of the NHS at its inception in 1948, was that GPs remained independent contractors working under contract to the NHS. The majority of GPs are partners in what ... Read more

www.nhsforsale.info

From the last link:

'A major problem of private companies has been that if companies are not making sufficient profit on the contract then they walk away, leaving thousands of patients without a local GP.'

John

 

[TheDecameron]

another Dr`s strike , come on mr sunak sort it out please

Actually, his party has been injuring NHSE continuously for 14 years. The failed internal market model of purchaser provider, chronic underdoctoring, clawing back the pay awarded under Labour and loading the service with VIP Lane and £34bn failed test and trace debt. I’m surprised it’s still functioning at all. The last stand now is against the junior doctors- members of a profession emigrating, retiring at the first chance or cutting their hours to escape from it.

 

[ks.234]

It would be useful to see a full disclosure of all the shares, stock, directorships and other involvements that Tory politicians and their families have in private health companies.

Not just the Tories, Labour are deeply indebted to donations for Private Health Providers. Wes Streeting has his “door wide open” to phvs.