10 charts that show why the NHS is in trouble

[Northerner]

This month hospitals have reported huge pressures, with A&Es over-crowded, a lack of beds and queues of ambulances stacked up outside unable to hand over their patients.

It was a similar story last winter. The NHS, it seems, is always facing unrelenting pressure. But why is this when funding is rising?

The sheer scale of the health service can take the breath away. Every 24 hours it sees one million patients, and with 1.7 million staff it's the fifth biggest employer in the world.

So it should come as no surprise that this vast enterprise absorbs eye-watering amounts of money.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42572110

 

[mikeyB]

While Theresa May has been apologising for the state in which NHS England finds itself, Nicola Sturgeon has sent a message to the whole of NHS Scotland for their handling of the current winter crisis, and with good reason. They are coping.

That is not say NHS Scotland isn’t struggling, because it is. But not yet at a critical point. Routine operations aren’t forbidden, nor are A&E departments overwhelmed. They may yet be, but Nicola Sturgeon knows what motivates people.

And what, might I ask, is “eye watering” money? £6.2bn for two new aircraft carriers? £350m for every aircraft you load them with? £56bn for HS2 to turn Birmingham into a dormitory town for London? £205bn for replacing Trident?

There’s always money. But I doubt anyone can justify the spending I’ve mentioned. I’d rather money was spent on keeping people well than spending a fortune on methods of killing them. Ironically, that £350m for each F45 plane was the money we could spend on the NHS after Brexit, apparently. We’ve pre ordered 138.

 

[trophywench]

£56bn for HS2 to turn Birmingham into a dormitory town for London?

Why spend money for that? - it already is and has been along with Wolverhampton and Coventry, since the late 1970s. I used to have to commute into London about once a month for 9am meeting starts - and you saw the same groups of business men and women on every journey.

 

[Dave W]

Our daughter who has been diagnosed as blind can't get a white stick on the NHS and has had to buy one from RNIB. Her mother who has the same degenerative eye condition has just had to spend a few £100 on a digital magnifier so she can read small print as the NHS magifying glass she was given is useless.
Can't help but wonder when that £350 million post brexit promise will materialise!

 

[trophywench]

Well I was pretty gobsmacked when I got a pair of elbow crutches all for myself from the hospital when I broke my kneecap before Xmas.

Things are certainly on the up locally - Pete with broken leg they wouldn't let out from hospital until he had a wheelchair to use at home ... so no 1 daughter went and got one from the Red Cross, to shove him from ward bed to their car, and they unloaded it when they got here, and put it in the hall. He could never use it again because of steps ledges and narrow doorways in the house - they never bothered asking whether it was actually possible to do so and we didn't tell em! (they wouldn't let him use crutches because of his broken collarbone - its still broken now cos it never mended - and he soon learned to use em when his consultant said he could anyway.)

 

[Hepato-pancreato]

When my mum died 4 years ago from cancer I was astonished to be told what to do with the disability aids she had been given. Directly quoting what was said take them to the tip. The aids in question was a brand new commode ,narrow stool to sit on whilst using sink. ( I actually use that to shave now) Zimmer frame. Bath stool a few other things my memory fails me. I didn’t take them to the tip. I gave them to my mums church for any parishioners to use if ever needed. No reason why someone else couldn’t use them.

 

[Ljc]

When mum died some years ago, we had just received 3 large boxes of nhs bed pads. I tried to arrange to return the unopened boxes, but they said they couldn’t take them back we could either bin or donate them .
So we donated them to a local care home, who were very pleased to hav3 them. Now I can understand them not wanting opened boxes back but these were still sealed up and the boxes were in pristine condition.
They did take back mums wheeled commode and other items .