Bacardi Girl

When you are fit and healthy, the last thing you think about is the NHS. It is only when you feel unwell and admitted to hospital that you realise the true state of the Health Care System. It is not so much reduced funding as it is mismanaged funds.

The wards are now understaffed, nurses can’t cope with the pressure put on them. Nurses are tired, they feel let down by their employer.

Restructuring and Investment

• Get rid of the trusts for a start off. Put the NHS under a government Health body. Firstly, that will stop the CEO’s salaries being paid in hospitals, restructure and make the administration side of the Health Service, so that it is more cost-effective.
• Invest in the Technology, the days of walking around the hospital with a clipboard are gone.
• Employ more nurses and doctors.
• Put patient care foremost. Firstly by employing the staff you will find that will cutdown on ambulance waiting times.
• Every A & E department should have two wards within the Accident and Emergency, one for those who are being admitted and waiting for a bed in a ward. The second should be for those where there no spaces within the actual A & E department. They can be monitored on this ward by a Doctor and a couple of nurses. And if that doctor feels that they do need admitting they can be moved to the other A & E wards for admissions. This will stop ambulances from being parked up.
• Those who are waiting for social care packages before being released should be discharged from hospital to nursing home until their care package is in place.

Training to be a Nurse and Contracts

The best way to be a nurse is to learn first-hand. So, start an apprenticeship scheme for anybody willing to be a nurse. Maybe, the first year would be better spent at a university and then every other subsequent year should be day-release. If wards are properly staffed the introduction of apprentice nurses will help the training staff. They can do bed-washing, patient care, observations, and as their time progresses with apprenticeship, they are given more tasks.

Contracts

Those wanting to go into nursing on an apprenticeship, should sign a contract and the money for this apprenticeship should be funded by the Government, with one big condition.

Stop this you need to have a degree… But offering free training, people will go into nursing, and many nurses will be pleased that they don’t have large debts behind them. We should be encouraging people to want to go into nursing.

All the time that the NHS is run under private enterprises, it is money they count, not patient care. We’ve all seen the headlines about CEO’s and how much these CEO’s are being paid. The doctors and nurses should tell the administration how they can help make the hospital run smoother and deliver the patient care that we the public expect when we are admitted to hospitals. Local community hubs, for Social Care should be part of the investment plan. That way hospitals won’t be blocked up with the elderly needing a home social care package.

When my mum was last admitted to hospital, our local hospital, are treating her referred her to Platter’s Farm where they cared for her needs and arranged for her to go into a home.

Yes, it’s going to cost money to restructure the entire NHS and Social Care systems. But it is going to be money worth spent in the long term.

So, to sum it up.

• Nurses offered contracts to free training upon the provision that they work for a further 5 years within the NHS. For those who fail to do this, they will pay back 20% for every year or part year left on their contract.
• Community care homes to be built for the patients needing a social care package.
• Money savings, by getting rid of trusts and by getting rid of some middle management. Like the Diversity Managers.

Well, it can’t get any worse than it is, can it!