I think GTP needed a break from the doom-mongering.
Now onto your point (which is the right response). This is an outline of the pledges in the latest Student BMJ:
Here's my thoughts as a medic in a London uni and HCA in one of the worst hospitals in Britain (officially!)
Conservatives:
- 8bn a year? Above inflation? Where from?! When I originally saw the 8bn figure I assumed it was 8bn by 2020, not
per year. Doesn't really matter anyway since you could give us 80 billion and the NHS would find a way to lose it all before it trickled to the services that need it.
- 5000 GPs? Trained in British medical schools? This would require a massive recruiting drive by RCGP (Royal College of GPs) and increasing capacity or creating new medical schools. Not possible. You will instead get an influx of crappy FMGs (Foreign Medical Graduates) to plug the gaps to fulfill this promise. You know the kind who sent my dad home the other day with a month long history of a productive cough with an "It'll get better by itself". (Ironically I got my dad treatment by sending him to a clinic RUN by FMGs where they suspected bronchitis and gave a course of antibiotics. The difference? This clinic is run by smart Polish doctors who have seen a gap in the market and provide private care to patients in West London. Consultation was 70 quid.)
-
See a GP from 8am to 8pm 7 days a week by 2020 and provide same day GP appointments for patients aged over 75...
- Health and social care integration is the future, so well done for showing relevant examples. Public health ideas are very good - diabetes is set to be a scourge in Britain over the coming decade, but not as much as dementia, so "leading the world" in search of a cure are the fighting words I want to hear.
Labour:
- £2 billion, with an explanation of where it will come from is admirable, but it's a raid on the rich and ultimately pointless (treating patients alone takes up 2 billion
a week http://www.channel4.com/programmes/nhs-2-billion-a-week-counting)
- Mental health budget increase on children + more integration are great ideas too. This is looking good...
- Recruit 20000 nurses, 8000 GPs, 3000 more midwives. Keyword here?
Recruit. We all know where they will come from, and
no-one will know if they are up to the job. Any whistleblowing could be dismissed as racism or whistleblowers could be too scared to even speak because of threats to their career (I'm in the middle of something similar now). This is seriously
dangerous. Now would also be a good time to bring up Labour's track record in
Wales, and who can forget
Mid-Staffs
In short, you could easily be living with a very dangerous health service full of cover ups in an NHS England controlled by Labour.
Lib Dems:
More money again, more talk of investing in doctors (6000 now). Still not tackling the real issues....
Scots Nats:
Reducing the number of managers by a percentage is an excellent idea. Protecting from privatisation....not so much. I love the minimum alcohol unit pricing.
Plaid Cymru:
Errrrm best so far surprisingly except for the complete aversion to the private sector. That and they're Welsh....
Greens:
UKIP:
- £3 billion from where? Good they've identified
THE PROBLEM (middle management)
- Good idea for stopping health tourism. In fact so good the
"non-racists" are getting tough Boo on Mr Farage for
using bogus figures to scare people about HIV + individuals. What is this the eighties??
-
Amend working time rules to give trainee doctors, surgeons, and medics the proper environment in which to train and practise.
Oh My God. Politicians actually
listening to what medical professionals want. This little nugget is
ridiculously important.
- Ensure that foreign health service professionals coming to work in the NHS are properly qualified and can speak English to an acceptable standard.
Someone is telling it like it is! Just wish it wasn't a party that doesn't contain members who would want to deport everyone in the gif
- Access pledges, and the privatisation measures are sensible and leave scope for clever private intervention in the future
NHA Party:
My thoughts then would be:
1. UKIP
2. Scots Nats
3. Plaid Cymru
4. Conservatives
5. Lib Dems
6. NHA
7. Labour
8. Greens
But UKIP could quite easily turn nasty, and that is my concern. Consider this response to the original BMJ article by a retired professional:
Not a pledge but a proposal being considered by the Conservatives is the withdrawal of welfare benefits from people unable to work because of addiction problems and/or being overweight - if they do not agree to 'treatment' from, amongst others, therapists (and some will be willing to participate in this as the scandal of the way incapacity benefit was handled shows).
Surely the practitioners would be obliged to hold professional qualifications and to be registered with organisations with a Code of Practice and a Code of Ethics. As a relationship of the kind recommended by Carol Black and her team would be in breach of Codes of Ethics - what steps could the UKCP, the Psychological Society and others take to prevent coercive and inappropriate behaviour by their members.and what would be the complaints procedure if the 'relationship' was perceived by the recipient as being coercive and harmful?
As all people who are overweight/addicted are not welfare recipients but still use the NHS - what is being proposed to make them feel even more stigmatised. Maybe this is one lesson to bear in mind, there can be unintended consequences when any group becomes the target of too harsh scrutiny by others.
Not hard to imagine a hardening of attitudes towards foreign born patients and those less able in a UKIP led health service. All speculation at this stage of course.