Thread by @Whitehouse_ICU

I have watched in dismay the managed deterioration of the #NHS and public services.

The consequences for the UK aren't, in my view, about private healthcare or not, they are about whether there will be any healthcare at all for all but the rich.

Here's why... 🧵 1/n

Yes, a lot of money goes to the NHS but since 2012 the % spend on healthcare as a proportion of GDP has fallen.
This is managed deterioration.
Salaries have fallen by >15% in real terms, waiting times for operations and ambulances have increased.
Life expectancy is falling
2/n

I've been working in the NHS for >30 years - there hasn't been a year where we haven't been asked to make "efficiencies"

Please don't use the excuse that everything will be so much better if there wasn't so much waste. There are no more efficiencies.
3/n

And please don't be condescending and think that outsiders can come in, see through the problems and fix them better than has already been tried. Believe it or not healthcare workers see the fallibilities but don't always get given the tools or resources to fix them.
4/n

The private sector is no more efficient than the public sector even though it thinks it is.
5/n

The pension debacle and relative fall in pay has meant that the NHS has been haemorrhaging staff in recent years.
Please don't use the lazy trope of "greedy consultants" 🥱 - that's just playing into the hands of the underfunders.
6/n

Yes, you'll be able to find cases of rich NHS workers but in the vast majority of cases it's about being able to do one’s job with adequate resource
7/n

It’s now financially more attractive for a nurse to work in Lidl than to take an extra shift where they could be shouted at, spat at or receive complaints despite doing their best in an overstretched ward.
8/n

Serial Secretaries for Health, dead behind the eyes and driven by ideology believe in breaking the NHS and allowing market forces to sort it out.
These “captains of industry” who are blinded by one simple but deeply problematic idea....
9/n

...of market forces simply don’t get the point that a nurse can work in Lidl but a Lidl worker doesn’t have the immediate skills to work on the ward.
The idea that there is a job market that can drive down salaries and make it all “efficient” is wrong.
10/n

I believe that the agenda is to make working conditions intolerable for consultants so they leave. Complaints are increasing as patient frustration is taken out on them. Consultants are retiring early because tax means that they would otherwise pay to come to work.
11/n

So they are leaving.
The Govt will use the “lazy, money-grabbing consultant” phrase 🥱and roll out the >70 year old “filled the consultant’s teeth with gold” crap (most of us can’t find a dentist in any case since the #tories cut those too)
12/n

in the hope that the consultants with time on the hands (and not on the golf course⛳️🙄 ) and the need to work, will work in private hospitals.
13/n

And this is the problem.
There are neither hospitals NOR staff to deliver the healthcare privately.
Consultants want to help, they want to work, they want to deliver healthcare but to do it, you need pharmacists, therapists, nurses, cleaners, secretaries and many more.
14/n

When a consultant leaves, they will go abroad or work in pharma because there isn’t anywhere else for them to go.
15/n

This is NOT greed, or a fit of pique, or stamping off in a huff because they don’t get their way.
It’s because there physically isn’t the capacity for modern healthcare in the private sector.
16/n

So there you have it. I believe that the UK then is on a trajectory that will leave the health of the nation in tatters.
17/n

It is so boring to hear of our public services; those that protect us, clean our streets, house us, support us when we hit hard times and so much more, are regarded as a drain on the country’s resources.
18/n

They make the UK a nicer, less nasty place, a healthier and happier place.

Support public services; support the #nhs

ENDS