God, I hate the NHS. So Mrs L elect’s grandson got a bug. Just the usual cold that happens at the beginning of term. He took a week off college and here we are into the second week, he has a persistent cough that should have cleared up by now. She is concerned, so I said, I’ll call the GP and maybe they can give him a prescription.
This, of course, means the 8am rush on the phone. When I got through, it seems that neither of them are registered. So, the time spent wading through the online registration process several weeks ago was a waste of time as the applications had vanished into the ether. Now, i know I did it, because for some strange reason, the form didn’t like her mobile number. I have no idea why as it is a perfectly standard format, but it kept rejecting it. Eventually after typing and retyping, it went in.
So here we are this morning, having to go through it all again. If there is life after death, the late Mrs L would doubtless be smiling and rolling her eyes. She worked in their IT department and had a very low opinion of the whole farrago, which was running on legacy software and machines held together with Sellotape and string.
Once he has surfaced, I’ll call 111 and see if they can offer anything to help. Personally, I feel this is just something that will sort itself in time. In the meantime, Mrs L elect is puzzled at the shambolic state of our health service that she expected to be better than she has been used to in Ukraine. Ahem.
“In the meantime, Mrs L elect is puzzled at the shambolic state of our health service that she expected to be better than she has been used to in Ukraine.”
Well that certainly says a lot doesn’t it? There are several problems with convincing the UK population that we need something better. First, the service is patchy, some bits of it are quite good, the service for diabetics in my area is excellent. Second, most young people enjoy pretty good health and don’t get to interact with the NHS very often if at all, so they don’t get to see how bad it is. Third, horror stories from the US about getting hit for six months’ pay for a ride in an ambulance, the classic false dichotomy that there are only two possible systems and there are no other countries that do the job better. Fourth, the constantly repeated lie that the NHS is being starved of funding and that all that is needed is another mountain of tax payers’ money thrown at it and everything will be fine.
I know that I always compare the NHS with the service that we get from the vet and joke that my cats have better healthcare than I do. But my wife recently had a minor operation and I have had a dental implant and in both cases we went private. As you can imagine, the difference is just enormous. In my opinion going private should get you some kind of rebate based on what the procedure would have cost the NHS. That way more people would be able to afford to go private and that would ease pressure on the NHS so that people who can’t afford it would hopefully get a better service too.
“some kind of rebate based on what the procedure would have cost the NHS”
That would incentivise unnecessary treatments, as the NHS cost is frequently more than the private cost! 🙂
But yes, I agree with you. There should be no reason for the NHS to perform any of the standard treatments: hip replacements, knee repairs, etc. All should be purchased from private providers. The NHS don’t manufactuire thier own bandages or aspirins!
And people paying twice should get a rebate or atleast tax relief on the premiums.
“In the meantime, Mrs L elect is puzzled at the shambolic state of our health service…”
How dare she? Doesn’t she know that our NHS is The Envy Of The Worldâ„¢?
I think that’s the problem, that is what she was expecting.
Like any massive bureaucracy, the NHS is run for the benefits of the staff rather than the “service users”. Through this lens, what it delivers makes perfect sense.
Of course, the issue is that the majority are too thick to realise this, despite CV-19 laying it bare during the pandemic.
I was aware long before that. However, from time to time, I have no choice but to interact with it and my frustration rises to the surface.
Pournelles Iron Law of Bureaucracy applies in spades:
Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people”:
First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.
Perhaps if the sainted NHS weren’t paying all these ‘diversity managers’ £50-70K each it would have the money to spend on things that mattered. How many millions is the NHS squandering on these diversity and inclusion non-jobs?
I looked this up recently while researching a post.
The NHS itself says 800 staff at a cost of £40 million – and they are inordinately proud of the fact; the information is contained in a report smugly entitled ‘An investment, not a drain’.
(Suspiciously, though, exactly the same figure has been quoted as current in official documents between October 2022 to March 2024)
There is a thread where lots of people are comparing NHS and private treatment over at Tim Worstall’s blog. Most enlightening.
https://www.timworstall.com/2024/10/but-but-this-is-selling-the-nhs/