As you might imagine (if you know me), these reflections are incredibly muddled, inconclusive and incomprehensible… but I felt the need to scribble them down (to prove to myself how little I know about such matters!)(I’m not asking for people to point out that I’m wrong!).
Here’s the context (and these are just three examples close to my heart):
1. Many of us are aware of how badly children’s mental health has been affected by Covid lockdowns and its repercussions. Some of our grandchildren have certainly struggled in this regard. After retirement from my architectural practice, I worked at a secondary school for six years (until 2011) and was frequently involved in making CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) referrals. At that time, waiting lists were in the order of 6-7 weeks. Today, 12 years on, I understand those waiting times are now in the order of 2 YEARS.
2. Moira was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) in 2022 (first suspected in 2021). She had an appointment with her Registrar and Consultant in May 2022 and they promised to see her again in 3-4 months’ time. More than 18 months later, this still hasn’t happened (despite pressure from the PD Nurse on her behalf)… so, apart from the PD Nurses’ occasional notes, they have absolutely no idea how Moira is coping. Fortunately, Moira’s medication has proved to be helpful in coping with key aspects of her condition, but nevertheless… Moira and I are regular followers of the brilliant weekly “Movers+Shakers” podcast about PD and it seems that again and again people report that they’ve only managed to see their consultants once a year at the most. It really shouldn’t be like this but, no doubt, resources (staff and funding) are stretched to their limits.
3. I’m currently struggling to walk. I need another hip replacement (my right hip was ‘done’ some 9 years ago – and very successful it has proved). I’ve been ‘referred’, but am currently in limbo land as I await contact from Musculoskeletal (MSK) team (waiting times are now ‘longer than anticipated’). Nine years ago, it took something like 7 weeks from referral to operation. These days, I’m told it’s more like two years (but I’ve actually no idea as to my current position in the queue). In the meantime, I walk with a stick and my ability to walk any distance beyond half a mile is very limited. My condition is both depressing and debilitating. Yes, apparently, I could ‘go private’ for something like £15,000 and be treated within 4 weeks… but this is against my principles (in these days of the NHS, why should we discriminate between those who can afford and those who can’t?). Yes, no doubt there will be many who will disagree with me.
Of course, thanks to amazing scientific
advancements, life expectancy in the UK has risen by almost 10 years in the
past 50 years (currently 81 years compared with 72 in 1975, apparently). The
population is getting older and we have the ability to treat them (in some form
or other)… if we WANT to.
But health
and welfare is an expensive business and, perhaps unsurprisingly, for the past
dozen years or so, the UK’s Conservative government has seemed prepared to underfund
the NHS and exert pressure on people to take up private healthcare (thereby jumping
the queues etc). So, whilst the NHS has the ability to undertake a
wide range of measures, lack of funding has meant that what funds have been
allocated are more thinly spread… resulting in staffing levels being reduced
(and overworked and stressed workers), waiting times increasing alarmingly and,
almost inevitably, staff leaving the NHS (not to mention the EU doctors and
nurses who have departed since Brexit).
It’s a
nightmare scenario for politicians and administrators alike. What SHOULD the
priorities be? Regular evaluations and monitoring of a PD patient, for example,
are vital for appropriate prognosis and treatment. Such evaluations aren’t
happening at present… A two year waiting list for children with mental health
issues is two YEARS of their childhood, for goodness sake… Of course, for
example, people awaiting cancer treatment should come before me and my hip
replacement, but…
For me (and I appreciate that - in this
world of climate crisis, wars and cost of living issues - there are LOTS of
areas requiring extra funding!), raising taxes to pay for effective NHS and Social
Welfare services seems like the ONLY appropriate measure… and yet we have
currently have a government that has a philosophy of actually REDUCING taxes.
What hope is there?
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