The Problems

A free universal health service is highly valued by the British people and as such; health is one of the most important policies that ensures the well being of the nation's population. However, some of the problems with our National Health Service hardly need listing, and most of these problems are down to sheer incompetence by the ruling government of the day.

One of the main problems most patients experience is the ever-increasing waiting list, along with postponed operations. Some of these problems are caused by patients not attending appointments, whilst other instances are down to poor time management and scheduling of maintenance within key departments.

Poor cleanliness in hospitals is forever on the rise as superficial makeovers are now the norm, however very few Trusts are actually addressing the root cause of the problems. Low tenders to win contract work often results in a lack of sufficient funds to carry out the work required and to hire staff capable of doing it. Meanwhile, out of sight, out of mind details such as ventilation air filters create untold and often unmeasured health problems. They are situated in warm, dark, moist systems, they catch heavy loads of bacteria, fungi, algae & yeast that given the sub-microscopic sizes, can easily penetrate the filters in higher concentrations than they first entered the filters. Anti-microbial filters are available but rarely used, in fact co-operation between Estates and Infection Control departments is actively avoided at many hospitals, which the Popular Alliance find to be a dreadful situation given the constant reporting of hospital acquired infections.

HTM 2025 is very clear on maintenance and hygiene requirements, yet very few Trusts have the time, staff and training to achieve these standards.

Staff shortages are obvious at all levels, and these are becoming ever more desperate as the government “balances its books” throwing thousands of trained and highly experienced people to ever increasing unemployment queue. Maybe the person facing the sack should be the one who set such unworkable budgets in the first place.

Low staff morale is the consequence of hurried consultations, meeting impossible targets, massaging patient figures, job uncertainty and too many managers who are not trained or experienced enough to actually cope with the job and too many managers that are actually not needed.

The reason for the poor performance is that the government is still trying to run the NHS centrally, yet the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

The government uses hundreds of performance tools and has created an expensive industry-within-an- industry of statistical managers, inspectorates and ‘quangos’ who’s sole job is to massage the performance targets, like the ‘Modernisation Agency’, all of which divert energy and money away from the job of healing patients, and as the government applies penalties for non-attainment of a target, this encourages increased ‘creative’ reporting of the performance figures.

These methods do not work, as we have seen numerous Health Trusts now having to sack thousands of nurses to pay for this government’s incompetence, whilst also allowing excessive and very generous pay rises for the top echelons of the NHS.

If Labour insists on better performance in one area of treatment – to suit the news topic of the day - then treatment suffers in another. Meanwhile, layers of unproductive managers have been created to carry out the government’s orders and to cope with continually changing centrally driven priorities.

Even GPs have now lost their independence to local Primary Care Trusts and whilst some GPs enjoy pay of £250,000 pa, others have to make do with a more mediocre salary. A common practice amongst specialist consultants is to run their own private clinics in the afternoons, following a busy morning session at the hospital that employs them during the day. Some GP’s sometimes offer a sick patient a choice (i) wait months for your local hospital to see you for a consultation, to be followed by another long wait to actually do something or (ii) see the same doctor in his conservatory on a sunny afternoon next week, by paying money for the privilege. Popular Alliance say that if these consultants spent the whole day at the hospital in the first place, then we might get to see him a whole lot sooner and be glad that we pay our National Insurance for a valid reason.

This is simply not the way to run any organisation or to get the best out of hard-working, competent and dedicated professionals. It is no wonder that there is low morale and difficulty with recruitment of home grown talent. Increasing numbers of doctors come form overseas and whilst we are grateful for their dedication and ability, some have a very poor command of the English language which often results in a patient feeling apprehensive about what is going on and could lead to misinterpreted mistakes.

The Government also wastes a vast amount of money on allowing “health tourism” whereby immigrants and non-nationals plan a journey to the UK knowing they will be treated free of charge on the NHS, or claim asylum, ensuring the health problem is dealt with by the British taxpayer.

The rampant levels of both controlled migration from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, along with the one million illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, has put a massive strain and burden on the system. Likewise the binge drinking culture that has developed over recent years, which is also costing the tax payer millions of pounds is putting the real emergencies at real risk, especially at the weekends.

The Solution

The Popular Alliance believes that central government must get out of the day to day management of healthcare, leaving it to experienced and dedicated local hands but subject to broad objectives being set centrally.

Bureaucrats

We will reduce the number of unwanted managers and bureaucrats. We would put a limit to the budget for the remaining bureaucrats and managers.

Matron System

We will return to the ‘matron’ system with a single health trained manager responsible for all health care, accommodation, staffing, recruitment, cleanliness, and planning. All matrons selected will be ex-nursing sisters with numerous years of experience and managerial qualities, and would be given ultimate authority for the patients, staff, budgets and wards under their care.

The board and the matron will set their own targets, and we would stop the unrealistic and massaged government controlled targets. We would insist re-numeration for matrons reflects the position and experience they have.

Strategic Health Authorities

Scrap Strategic Health Authorities and return hospital control to local boards.

More freedom for consultants to select treatment based on clinical need rather than performance targets.

Stop the excessive pay increases to consultants and “some” GP’s and ensure any awards are linked to inflation and are across the board. We would also encourage certain alternative treatments (e.g.) chiropractic specialists to become available on the NHS.

Remove the government from day to day management of NHS facilities.

General Practice

GP surgeries will be encouraged to re-open in the evenings and at weekends when working people can visit.

Leave family doctors free to use their professional judgement rather than dispensing tick-box medicine.

We would investigating whether the GPs who recommend private queue jumping, actually get a commission for this and put a stop to any such practices.

Health Procurement

We will re-organise the Health purchasing, procurement system, and bring in experienced purchasers who will insist on continuous improvement from suppliers.

We will ensure quality controls are in place, and that manufacturing costs are kept to a minimum with cost downs expected from both drug companies and suppliers of medical and technical equipment.

We will expect a bulk supplier can achieve 2% year on year cost down through continuous improvement techniques, quality control, using modern methodology tools and scrap reduction rates.

Health Tourism

Health tourism will be brought under control, and anyone found guilty of abusing the NHS will be immediately deported back to their country of origin plus lose any right to immigration or asylum in the future.

NHS Overburden

Our European policy will reflect a direct decrease on EU migration thus allowing the NHS some respite from overburden and strain, most modern EU states have good quality health care and there should be no problem with migrants using their own health system.

Our immigration policy will reflect a direct decrease on illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers using and abusing the health system. We will of course ensure emergencies will be dealt with.

If whilst visitors are in the UK, they might be unfortunate to be struck down by critical illness that needs immediate attention, with any aftercare being provided by their country of origin if they are fit enough to travel.

Generate Fair Revenue

The NHS is paid for by the tax payer, and is free to all UK citizens, and we feel that people who travel to the UK either on holiday or short term/long term business should contribute something to the NHS should they fall ill during their stay with us.

We therefore propose that all non nationals whom travel to the UK should have medical insurance to cover the costs of any treatment should they be unfortunate enough to fall ill, the insurance they pay should be no more than a British citizen pays when traveling abroad.

Self-Inflicted Abuse

We also plan to bring in a “self inflicted” payment to all those who abuse alcohol or drugs from the binge drinking culture. Anyone needing medical attention will be given the best possible care, however, if the injuries are a direct result of binge drinking or drugs and the offender has been brought in by the police for treatment whom has committed an offence, we will expect the NHS to issue a “self inflicted” charge of £250 regardless of injuries sustained.

The above charge should help with tax payer costs, as well as serve to remind the individual that alcohol and drugs are not only dangerous to the health, but can be costly should you need medical attention through alcohol/substance abuse.

These measures will improve NHS efficiency and staff morale and they will bring healthcare closer to the patient.

Future Funding

We acknowledge that in the longer term further funds will be necessary as our population ages and new treatments become available therefore believe our policy of stopping waste and mismanagement will ensure funding will be available to meet our future needs.

Private Health

Private health insurance schemes similar to those in France, Germany and several other countries might provide a valuable supplement to NHS resources, although we will discourage any tax payer’s money from being used in the private health care system, and prevent consultants wishing to practice private health care whilst working for the NHS.

We would also ensure that all private health care would be brought under government control in times of national emergency.

EU interference

Turning to the matter of EU interference in health, The Popular Alliance would remove the directives that restrict food supplements and herbal medicines, and stop EU regulation being enforced on the NHS

Doctors would no longer need to observe the working time directive.

Popular Alliance – A Fresh Light On Politics