September 2015 - I'm a worried patient!

Dear everyone

I was inspired to write this blog entry by this letter written by Zoe Norris, read it if you haven't already!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-zoe-norris/nhs-junior-doctors_b_8208728.html

I read it twice and it almost made me cry and yes I'm a 54 year old bloke.....to clarify:

a) cry actual tears
b) cry out in anger/frustration/fear/anxiety

I have blogged before about how I believe the only thing that will save the NHS, is the NHS. The management, the consultants, the doctors, the nurses, the healthcare workers....everyone. I don't believe a political party can solve the issue, although clearly we are talking about public money, so politics has to be involved somewhere. 

I think it is fair to say that politics certainly isn't helping the current situation.

One of the things the NHS has to do is inspire the next generation of medical staff to come and work for the NHS. Seeing what an incredible vocation healthcare workers sign up for is what will make new people come along and want to do the same. But right now, there are doctors on the street protesting, 'signing up' to go abroad and feeling downright fed up. That means morale is very low and the last thing medical staff are wanting to do is say "yeah, this is such a brilliant job, you should do it too". The letter from Zoe above, just proves that point.

Whilst a lot of members of the public may not care much about that, I don't know, they really would care about patient safety. I don't know what it used to be like to work in a GP surgery or hospital (y'know, back in the good old days) but I do know that if in the present the staff morale really is as low as people are saying it is, and staff really are under as much pressure as they say they are, then patients will suffer. Not intentionally of course, just because you can only stretch goodwill and resource so far.

There has to be some good NHS news coming soon, doesn't there? Is there any chance of new ways of working that will benefit patients, is there investment that will benefit patients, is there a way people can start to work together to solve the crisis in the NHS little bit by little bit....and benefit patients? All the arguments in the media and on social media right now are no doubt justified, but they detract from what everyone should really be doing. Fixing the NHS before it becomes unfixable.

So why can't all sides just negotiate, move on, and solve the bigger issue - I don't really buy the "because they want to privatise the NHS" argument because then the government moves from 'just' falling out with consultants/doctors/nurses to falling out with the whole country! But then as you may have guessed, I'm not very good with politics.

So, in summary, I'm a worried patient - I really don't like what I'm seeing. So what am I getting at.....well if you've followed my blogs or me on social media then you can guess what's coming next.

A Royal Commission is what's needed. With so many sides lining up against one another, an impartial wide-ranging view is necessary, urgently necessary. Please, please make it happen soon.

Yours sincerely

Carl, the worried patient