Thank you NHS

[Lumpy]

I know many have issues with this wonderful service.
I regularly have to chase and ask but you know what - thank the Universe for it.
I’m happy to stand on a chair and clap all the wonderful people till my hands bleed.
From drugs that have kept me alive since childhood, the staff who saved both of my premature children, the staff who fought to save my OH last year when he nearly died from sepsis.
I understand that financial investment has been woeful at best criminal at worst.

Thank you for giving me and my family a life.
X

[burnie]

We need to care for the NHS as much as it cares for us.

[Chestnut]

Well said Lumpy. I applaud with you.
Without the NHS and ‘the fastest caesarian the midwife had ever seen’ I wouldn’t have been born alive.
Mum and I (not to mention younger siblings and subsequent offspring) are all alive and well.
I have a lot to be thankful for!

[elsie-scot]

I think that many of the decision makers still don't really get that the reason the NHS is still surviving, is because of so many of the staff. Yes there are some dodgy ones, as anywhere, but there are so many amazing people. I worked in the NHS and every year what we were expected to do increased, with less time, staff or pay.

I've worked in healthcare in the USA and that was an interesting experience.

They brilliantly treatment my DH for an unusual bleed causing a stroke. And I've had amazing and lifesaving treatment more than once.

[Small pumpkin]

Very well said lumpy
I have a huge amount of respect for the pepole in NHS.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I to respect the principle of the NHS but you just can't keep throwing money at it.

People talk of government money well that does not exist it is tax payers money distributed by the government, they don't have some magic money tree.

There maybe under funding but they really do need to get their house in order, the money is wasted on a colossal scale.

More managers than beds, then get rid of some managers, make the ones left more proficient at their work and then get more beds and front line staff, we may then get the standard of care that other developed countries get.

Centralise buying and employ a top class private sector buyer, then we won't have a trust paying £6 for a pair of surgical gloves whilst another pays £1-50.

With the population getting ever older and larger it is obvious the NHS needs root and branch reform.

[Lumpy]

I just wanted to say Thank You to all NHS and Emergency Service staff for working their butts off irrespective of politcal rhetoric, managerial confusion, staff shortages and financial crisis.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I agree with your sentiment Lumpy, especially in your circumstances but I would love to be assured that it will continue and be there for me if ever god forbid I need it.

Its not the front line staff I criticise but the back room people and it is hard to criticise them individually. But as an institution if it were a private company it would fail and that is a worry.

As to politicising the debate it is hard not too when the political parties use it as a weapon to beat each other over the head with.

[Jimmy]

The NHS has a rather strange space-time continuum.
Have you ever noticed ...
You sit there and someone will come in 20 minutes to wheel you to XRay.
60 mins later ...
Not that I am complaining, they can take as long as they want for me.
Jimmy

[Miss Mousetrousers]

I worked as a scientist in an NHS Pathology department for nearly 42 years and retired in 2007. I absolutely loved my job, but over the latter years I experienced various "changes for the better" that just multiplied like rabbits. Some were necessary to improve the quality of service etc, but there were some that made me feel like tearing my hair out. I couldn't buy the pack of 6 pencils we needed to write info on plastic containers holding human tissues that went through various chemicals, but I could buy one for the same price. I couldn't get the surgical gloves we used to use - I could only get the ones on their list many of which split when you put them on. I once made quite a large saving on certain reagents by doing a bit of research and my boss said that's really good but … if we save that money this year it'll be taken off our budget next year. I received an email informing me that we weren't allowed to wear patterned cardigans, engraved wedding rings, dye our hair, wear tights or scrunchies unless they were either blue or black, jeans, and other things that I just can't remember. There was no mention of men's shirts or ties. I responded by saying that several other things in their list were sensible for Health and Safety reasons, but the rest was totally absurd. I never heard anymore about it but the time and money spent on doing that was a total waste. The last straw was being sent on a two day course about "Lean Thinking" meaning how to be more efficient. Apart from thinking this is purely common-sense (and rolling my eyes in disbelief) we were provided with a mathematical formula to use when we got back to work. If only we had some sensible managers with the nous to actually spend a day in each hospital department, they might be better able to understand why just chucking money into the NHS is never going to work. I know how committed both myself and my staff were, did everything we could to get the work done as efficiently and safely as we could (including un-paid overtime) and we never compromised on quality just to get it done faster. This sort of managerial stupidity is what staff have to endure. No wonder they're leaving as there doesn't seem to be any other way out to keep their sanity. I could go on but I so respect all those lovely people who do their very best in these conditions.

[Lumpy]

I never intended this thread to be anything other than a huge Thank You to the NHS on its 70th birthday.
Everybody who has worked within it or been treated by it is frustrated as it becomes unworkable right in front of us.
It’s my fault for mentioning money.
As such my and many other people’s thanks to the workers within it for their ‘just being there’ and sometimes creating ‘little miracles’ that only those who need them see is becoming over shadowed.
As such can a Mod please close this thread.
X

[veggiechicken]

Lumpy, we all know what you wanted to say; I'm sure we're all thankful, in different ways, that the NHS is there for us when we need them.
I'd be bedridden, or dead, if the NHS hadn't been there when I needed them so Thank you NHS from me too.

I'll close the thread, Lumpy, but if you want it reopened just ask. x