WHAT PRICE NATIONAL HEALTH PROTECTION

Medical assistance is not so easy as it once was, however, once you are in the system, by which I mean, have an appointment with a GP face to face or with a referral to a hospital and are face to face with the hospital staff, then you are, for the most part, in very good hands. I have found during my interaction with medical personnel that I am treated with the greatest care and concern. The concentration and focus on one’s medical problems is impressive. I believe this to be true in 99% of cases. Once you are ‘in the system’, face to face, you are in good hands.

There are of course failures. The numbers of people seeking advice and treatment is overwhelming, and the pressures on staff, in all medical departments throughout the NHS is daunting for both patients and staff. The tragedy is that 1% which can be devastating. As of the 1^st December 2023 there are 63,049,603 patients registered at GP practices in England, which can mean some 630,000 people could be in difficulties.  There is no indication that that number of people have problems because of NHS failures, which indicates that the service is more than 99% effective, but the failures that have occurred have attracted conspicuous notoriety and demands for the whole of the service to be transformed or farmed out to private enterprises.

As it is, I find, there have been some 16,484 clinical and non-clinical claims made against the NHS in 2021/2022 which were resolved. That would amount to some 0.023% of patients, which would make the service 99.97% effective. Sadly the actual amount spent by the NHS on those claims for 2021/22 is £2.4 billion, which the service can ill afford. That amounts to an average of almost £146K per claim. I am assuming that figure includes legal and administrative fees, but it amounts to a considerable sum which could be better spent elsewhere on the service.

Despite that, the service comes out as 99.97 % effective and, given the numbers, what other national public or private service is anywhere near as effective. Certainly not the government, rail, transport, police, defence or security. Some NHS mistakes have had extremely dreadful consequences and been played out in the national press, as well as unacceptable waiting times for access to in and out-patient treatment, but nonetheless it is clearly more effective than most.

Making it 100% is the goal and the lack of proper support, particularly from government is glaringly obvious. Whether a Labour led ministry will be any better is yet to be decided.

If my figures are wrong, I apologise, but on the whole it is a spectacular service and should not be put down. I accept that not all registered patients are actually receiving specific treatment but all patients from time to time consult with their GP, even if only to be told “There’s nothing wrong with you”. That is all part of the service. They are all on the qui vive. I would like to think that is the case.  

 

Last night, over supper, conversation turned on the matter of honesty in today’s society. It seemed clear to me that as a reaction to the cost of living crisis and rising prices (inflation rates may have come down but prices are still rising) the average citizen’s first reaction is to resort to theft. Shoplifting figures have risen dramatically. Perhaps violence has increased equally. I do not know, but the ethical and moral behaviour of Britain has declined, from the top down.

The government has no qualms about reneging on previous commitments and breaching the rule of law. As another instance in point, we have Ms Michelle Mone. A person who had left school without qualification and eventually, at quite a young age (44) been made a life peer (2015) and achieve the title of Baroness. She was made redundant from a job that she had obtained with invented qualifications.  She had also authorised the electronic bugging of a former operations director’s office as a result of which he won a claim for unfair dismissal from her company. There is much more rather dubious stuff outlined on her Wikipedia entry. She has also confessed to deliberately lying to the press and public about her involvement with a company that appears to have swindled the government over a PPE supply contract and had £29 million paid into a trust benefiting herself and her children. She claimed, having already admitted she lied, “It’s not my money, I don’t have that money and my kids don’t have that money, and my children and family have gone through so much pain because of the media. They have not got £29m”. I don’t really understand her distinction with the money being held in trust. It is held in trust.  No one else except the beneficiaries can use that money, so yes, they do have the money. She also stated that lying to the press is not a crime – she did it to protect her family. She seems to have a very loose association with the truth and a very weak comprehension of integrity. 

So it would seem to be the case with many British citizens, what with figures of dishonesty and fraud on a never ending scale. The nostalgic notion of a time when one didn’t lock one’s front door or car door was mentioned. That may still apply in some villages around the country, but I doubt it.

It was David Cameron as PM who made her a peer, and he is now our foreign secretary with a dubious record related to paid-for lobbying of former colleagues. How can one expect any foreign government to take him seriously. The UK has lost its clout and anything said or done by the UK in relation to foreign affairs is of no account to anyone outside the UK and consequently the reporting of what UK does or says in relation to anything only gives the false impression that the UK still matters. Much is reported by the likes of Bowen, Guerin et al, but it is because they are the BBC that it is of interest to others, and that only because of the BBC’s World Service and reputation built up over the years. But that too appears to be fading along with the supposed impact of the British Government. In fact the BBC’s reporters probably have more impact and clout than the foreign office.