Is the NHS beyond repair?

[void]

A story today in telegraph, g.p refusing to attend a death, instead insisted widow do this via a video call.

Doctor tells widow to film body on Zoom call for death note

Woman was told doctors ‘don’t come out any more’ and asked to hold phone camera to the deceased’s body

www.telegraph.co.uk

I kind of doubt their veracity given that publication's political position.

 

[Abi]

I am afraid I do believe it's veracity. As a GP myself fortuantely working in a well staffed practice without having to deal with 100s of patient interactions a day. In some practices it is not unusual for two GPs to deal with a list of 100 or more patients in an afternoon-so literally no time to go out and verify a death. In my practice GP will ( or we are soon recruiting a paramedic who might dosome of this work)- if in hours- and if OOH then sometimes OOH doc or paramedic. I would throw in the towel if I felt cornered into asking a patient to video their deceased loved one. There should not even be a need. A lay person can legally verify a death if they feel confident to do so- so in this case no need and totally undignified to ask them to do so. If they are not confidant to- or at any rate I believe as a mark on compassion and respect- a trained person (not necessarily GP but nurse or paramedic) should do so...
I think that people really need to sit down and decide which health service ( Germany, Netherlands whatever) we should copy. Because I agree that the NHS ain't functioning. The right hand does not know what the left hand is doing and people end up doing other people's jobs badly instead of being able to get on with their own for which they are experienced and trained. Hospitals doing social care very badly so that patients not discharged and ambulances can not off load- so elderly left on floor for 12 hours with broken hip- or GP surgery clogged up because ambulance cannot attend patient with cardiac chest pain for hours ( and afraid of fallout should they patient die and they are less experienced and equipped to managed a heart attack than the hospital). GPs trying to deal with patients with significant mental ilness when mental health services can be almost non existent-so no other choice than to advised patient to attend A and E- hardly a suitable place for a patient who is feeling suicidal or in acute distress or agitation to sit for hours). GPs dealing with social problem because of lack of social care, or worsening clinical problems due to long waiting lists, so other patients who have problems who could be GP managed- end up cogging up A and E...

 

[void]

@Abi the problems you describe will be used by tories to gut the NHS.
Social care is not an NHS problem, or IMO should not be. Bed blocking is a problem of social care. The whole social care thing for the elderly needs to be fixed by someone who has empathy, is practical and who understands the issues fully.

I agree with the gist of what you say and defer to your experience as a GP. Mental health has been underfunded for a long while (i think it's the cinderella of medical treatment), and the brexit thing has made matters very much worse. I think the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing is a consequence of the NHS being treated like a political football, of the "internal market"and every change within it backwards or forwards costing energy in the form of money.

The NHS is the last large thing that looks socialist to a tory, and the way they have of getting rid of it is to make it useless and then going "see?" to make people vote for it to be dismantled.

Going back to the article, it seems to be a singular error on the GPs part, consequential to covid. That should not be a "see?" and unsurprising it's in the publication it's in.