www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/201...7/1224318805948.html

Obviously no hospital at all is better than a bad one if you're an authoritarian eh?

Translation: We can't afford it because we need to pay the banks.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-cash-crisis--south-941600

Its not just Ireland either

andyh wrote:
Your healthcare could always be outsourced to cheaper alternatives in the third world. Just a hop on a Ryanair flight away.

The other headline should have read PFI shockigly turns out to be a bullshit rip-off disaster as anyone with an ounce of sense said at the time. But some people are getting rich off it and that's what counts

ok so this is how theyre gunna start sowing the seeds...."the NHS cant keep up with demands of the public (even tho the public pay for this) so we will just outsource to our mates, sorry, private investors who will save our hospitals and degenerate, um, generate higher standards nof care"


bastards

dogsmilk wrote:
I can just see the ads now...

Have a heart attack? No problem, hospital is just a 7 hour flight away!

Obviously the solution is for private companies to step up and take over the running of these failed hospitals. How very noble of them.

This makes me so angry - the nhs has been used as a cash cow by various business interests for years - no wonder some are in financial difficulty.

But the private sector is so much more efficient!

At making money.

Actually, this is something that really does my head in. Like the Post Office - we need to introduce the private sector so it will run more efficiently. Hang on - you're the government, you expect me to vote for you but you're telling me you can't even run a fucking postal service properly?!? Shouldn't I be voting UPS or somebody into power instead?

thoreau wrote:
When I worked for the NHS, I knew secretaries at the hospital that had to hand in their old biro to prove it was used up before they could have another one - I'm serious.

On the other hand, when we needed new office equipment we were forced to purchase it from a mandated supply catalogue from a particular company (I forget who) - and guess what - it cost an absolute fortune. We could have bought this stuff for a fraction of the cost but we weren't allowed.

childrens ward at st johns hospital in livvy scotland to be closed over summer hols ,
apparently its down to recurring staffing issues and patients will have to go to edinburgh instead ,

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-18614076


parents of Livingstone ,
start wrapping in kids in cotton wools as a precautionary move

dogsmilk wrote:
Don't fret...in a round about way you kind of have been - for years!

Hospitals were alot cleaner 60 years ago. When we had the matrons they made sure wards were clean right old battle axes but did a good job.

nirvana wrote:
When my dad was in hospital a couple of years back he got really upset that the guy in the next bed next to him kept ringing the buzzer, nobody came and so he pissed himself. When the nurse turned up, she said the next shift would be changing the sheets anyway and left the guy to lie in his own piss for an hour. My dad had just had a stroke (as had the other guy, he'd had a worse one) and didn't exactly feel up to kicking up a stink about it.

dogsmilk wrote:
I stopped a longtime ago putting up with shit like that. I would have been compelled to say something in that situation. Someone has too.

nirvana wrote:
This is an excellent point. Some of you may also remember that buses also ran on time and were less of a gamble with your own life when they had both a driver and a conductor.

'Progress' eh? Yeah, right...

dogsmilk wrote:

I spent a year working in a hospital and from my experience the whole place ran on a system of Not My Problem
and that was 10 years ago, I dread to think how much worse they are now.

Still... on the plus side keep in mind that death rates go down when hospitals close

psketti wrote:
Thing is, I think the problem is when people don't feel able to. When we visited and he told us about it, me and my mum were going to say something about it, but he didn't want us to. I think he was a bit paranoid they might somehow take it out on him and he felt really weak (he was still having mini-strokes at the time) and he wasn't up to any bother. What pisses me off is in hospital - or care homes or whatever - people often feel really vulnerable and that makes it easy to trample all over them.

Nirvana raised an interesting point because back in the day nursing was a total care job with nurses doing every job on the ward - these days everything is compartmentalised and like martg said it's always someone else's job. Nurses don't clean because you've got low paid cleaners from a private contractor - and they're treated like shit so why should they feel any pride in their work or responsibility to the patients? Nurses often seem to think they're a bit above the dirty work.

dogsmilk wrote:
Yes, these are all very sad but true facts but I still think if more people voiced their concerns, maybe adding abit about how nothing untoward better happen to their relative when they aren't around, then more would maybe get done. If you make these people aware that you're being vigilant as to what's happening, it makes them think twice before abusing their postitions. That's just the way I see and do things nowadays. Guess I'm just sick of it all.

I've been in and out of hospital for the last few months including overnight stays (lucky me ) and the level of incompitence is pretty shocking. IV drips falling out and poorly connected so half of the stuff they try to put in drips down your arm.
Don't get me started on the food lol.
I know they are understaffed, but still.

Before she died, my gran had a few spells in our local hospital. She vowed never to return there eventually, even though she did require some urgent treatment. On the day she died she had actually been supposed to be re-admitted the previous day but refused to go because of the shocking treatment she'd received there.

I'm not down-playing the fantastic work that goes on in any way, but it has to be said that the condition of our health service is like it is by design. Of this, I'm fairly confident. It's not about money, which really bugs some people, hence the state its in at the moment.

Very sad. As has already been said though, we're the only ones that can change that.