Recent › Forums › Chit chat › NHS in crisis › Reply To: NHS in crisis
Its a simple equation, nothing to do with politics. There are more people, living with conditions that would have died 40 years ago and less people to look after them.
In 1979 I was a student nurse, my dad was 55 and died from heart disease, he had two heart attacks and basic treatment. Now he would have been treated with sophisticated drugs, have heart surgery. There are 90 year olds having major heart surgery today.
The drugs budget is huge, and people expect the NHS to solve everything. There are still people going to the GP to get a prescription for paracetamol, and if they do not get it they will probably rock up at A/E. I have seen the mum get out of an ambulance with a child with a small cut on its finger.
Then there are all the normally fit and healthy people who get drunk and either make themselves so ill or injure themselves and end up in A/E. In 1979 the A&E had a room with a drain in the floor and a mat to put the drunks, I never saw it used in the six weeks I worked there including night shifts.
Who ever was running the NHS would be stuffed. There are more jobs than people wanting them.
No one wants to confront the fact we can not afford to treat everything, at any cost. Basic economics.