Just how much of a state is the NHS in..

will we ever truly know until it just collapses in a heap, is there a chance the fact we have one nurse doing a job and 75 people above them checking the nurse is doing it right could be a problem..

It always amazes me how well the NHS used to work, with a jack of all trades chief executive, a matron, a board of governors (unpaid) and a league of friends and I understand how there are more new and very expensive treatments around now, although I think getting new equipment was always a problem hence the league of friends and new drugs in those days were probably just as expensive. We also had more hospitals and less patients so it rather baffles me the mess we are in, the only answer must be too many overpaid non clinical staff. I 've had to attend a few outpatient clinics lately and in one dept there were four reception desks in the dept staffed by two people each, it was ear nose and throat plus an eye clinic, surely one reception would suffice, then each doctor had a trained nurse in attendance to fetch and carry patients files, I sure they would be better occupied on a ward. When I think student nurses used to help with feeding, changing beds, bathing, toileting and keeping the ward clean as well as their actual nursing duties and studies it makes me wonder.

Flix wrote:It always amazes me how well the NHS used to work, with a jack of all trades chief executive, a matron, a board of governors (unpaid) and a league of friends and I understand how there are more new and very expensive treatments around now, although I think getting new equipment was always a problem hence the league of friends and new drugs in those days were probably just as expensive. We also had more hospitals and less patients so it rather baffles me the mess we are in, the only answer must be too many overpaid non clinical staff. I 've had to attend a few outpatient clinics lately and in one dept there were four reception desks in the dept staffed by two people each, it was ear nose and throat plus an eye clinic, surely one reception would suffice, then each doctor had a trained nurse in attendance to fetch and carry patients files, I sure they would be better occupied on a ward. When I think student nurses used to help with feeding, changing beds, bathing, toileting and keeping the ward clean as well as their actual nursing duties and studies it makes me wonder.  

So right.......And now - Student nurses go to uni and in the days of olde in the last Century, parking was always free, where do the charges go to....

Flix wrote:It always amazes me how well the NHS used to work, with a jack of all trades chief executive, a matron, a board of governors (unpaid) and a league of friends and I understand how there are more new and very expensive treatments around now, although I think getting new equipment was always a problem hence the league of friends and new drugs in those days were probably just as expensive. We also had more hospitals and less patients so it rather baffles me the mess we are in, the only answer must be too many overpaid non clinical staff. I 've had to attend a few outpatient clinics lately and in one dept there were four reception desks in the dept staffed by two people each, it was ear nose and throat plus an eye clinic, surely one reception would suffice, then each doctor had a trained nurse in attendance to fetch and carry patients files, I sure they would be better occupied on a ward. When I think student nurses used to help with feeding, changing beds, bathing, toileting and keeping the ward clean as well as their actual nursing duties and studies it makes me wonder.  

Spot on, the times of the matron watching over a squad of nurses have gone unfortunately, the wards were clean and patients properly attended, the watchers watching the watchers has become a crippling bill and now the nurses we need cannot be afforded.