Give the NHS some slack

ABOUT 20 years ago when I was health reporter for the Argus I was writing stories about delays at accident and emergency and bed blocking, as it was called, because of insufficient social services arrangements.

Two decades on and the excellent and experienced health writer Siobhan Ryan is reporting much along the same lines. There have been loads of politically driven initiatives in between, but nothing changes.

The jargon back in the late 80s and early 90s was “seamless services”. It was, and still is, a useless and empty slogan. “Seemingly less” would seem more appropriate.

The cure that I suggest will frighten politicians to death, and also those who smugly look down on the NHS because they have private health care.

We must stop incessant talk of NHS Trusts “running out of money”. They can’t.

It’s a publicly-funded service. From our pockets.

So if they are short of money for a totally justifiable reason let’s not quibble. Give it to them. But the possibility of waste awaits I know, so there have to be safeguards.

Get someone independent, tough and bright enough to examine the books of any trust that asks for extra money.

If they have been given a load for extra doctors, nurses, radiologists, oncologists etc and don’t deliver or come up with a very good excuse, by all means tackle or even sack the managers.

But give them the benefit of the doubt first instead of politics driving health care.

Politicians will hate the suggestion that any NHS Trust in genuine need can ask for more and get it.

The reason is nothing to do with them worrying about your health care. It is everything to do with them worrying about your vote.

Politicians are first and foremost power-seekers for their parties. So they hate asking even people who are willing to pay for more money for the NHS.

Ideally the NHS should be taken out of the hands of politicians, but that will never happen.

The public, and that includes me, have also been to blame over the years for the state of the NHS.

We have been duped into believing we can have a first class service and run it on a profit and loss account like a factory.

The problem is broken bones, tumours, nervous breakdowns, heart attacks and drug addiction don’t fit into neat little boxes like screws and bolts.

What the NHS needs is what no factory boss or politician wants to see. A bit of slack.

If it means on occasions staff not being fully employed during every working minute it also means at peak times we would not have the annual crises that keep cropping up. It should be our choice.

The NHS already does a marvellous job most of the time. It can never be perfect because of its very nature; staff having to balance the huge demands of “routine” surgery with reacting to crises among distressed human beings.

But, shocking though this might sound to some, it is time to grow up about our health.

We do actually need to be poorer in order to ensure we and those who come after us have a richer experience in the NHS service, right across the country.

The simple reason is that without good health nothing else can be achieved.

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