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Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

uk.news.yahoo.com

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Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#31

Covid is one aspect of this. Another is the massive. underfunding of the NHS over the last decade. This has become much more evident post-covid thanks to the backlogs. - Getting a GP to see you in person is now quite difficult (they want to do everything via phone). - Seeing your GP (depending on your area) can involve a 2-3 week wait and waiting in an hours long phone queue. - When you are referred to hospital for t…

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Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#32

Covid is one aspect of this. Another is the massive. underfunding of the NHS over the last decade. This has become much more evident post-covid thanks to the backlogs. - Getting a GP to see you in person is now quite difficult (they want to do everything via phone). - Seeing your GP (depending on your area) can involve a 2-3 week wait and waiting in an hours long phone queue. - When you are referred to hospital for t…

I’m not someone who thinks the setup of the NHS is untouchable, I currently use and prefer the Dutch system. But I’m not convinced the NHS needs changing as much as it needs proper funding.

Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#33

Covid is one aspect of this. Another is the massive. underfunding of the NHS over the last decade. This has become much more evident post-covid thanks to the backlogs. - Getting a GP to see you in person is now quite difficult (they want to do everything via phone). - Seeing your GP (depending on your area) can involve a 2-3 week wait and waiting in an hours long phone queue. - When you are referred to hospital for t…

We are never going to get a serious debate around reforming the NHS until people move on from only comparing the UK to the US. There are many other systems that work - people only need to look across to Europe.

Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#34
post #4

Are there still major pandemic restrictions in Britain? Lots of quotes in this piece seem to imply there’s ongoing issues here but everything I see in Europe or the US from abroad seems to heavily imply that people are “back to normal” (at least in terms of movement). The idea here (treatment delays lead to excess deaths) seems ok, but is it really the restrictions? Isn’t it more that hospitals are still extremely fu…

> much simpler explanation: Covid infections increase risk of other health issues.

Or even a simpler one: The discouragement from doing sports that was lockdowns and curfews, encouraged asthma, obesity, breathing interior paints too much, couch potating, mental breakdowns, social isolation, lack of parties, lack of pleasure in life, looping on negative thoughts, eating butter and sugars by buttloads, and not being able to see doctors when needed. Also, loss of work, stress of uncertainty, requirement to change careers for hospitality people.

It’s incredible how much we neglected humans during this whole “let’s protect humans from THAT ONE DISEASE” psychotic episode.

Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#35

The word "funding" does not appear in this article. The NHS has been systematically underfunded since the Conservative entered power more than a decade ago. The crisis is real, but it is a political choice.

But let's ignore the blairite solution to sell the land and get further into debt and refuse to take more money from the populace or detach NHS funding from state pensions...

Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#37

The word "funding" does not appear in this article. The NHS has been systematically underfunded since the Conservative entered power more than a decade ago. The crisis is real, but it is a political choice.

A systemic risk to national healthcare systems is that they can be underfunded (or overfunded) in a way that private healthcare can’t because individuals are more diverse and make decisions more attuned to their individual situation. People have different preferences for how and how much they would choose to invest own healthcare, and if everyone is forced to bear one another’s bills, there will inevitably be people who are unhappy with the group’s decisions. Since it’ll be a compromise of different groups, I can imagine it’d be destined to frustrate both sides 90% of the time.

Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#38

Covid is one aspect of this. Another is the massive. underfunding of the NHS over the last decade. This has become much more evident post-covid thanks to the backlogs. - Getting a GP to see you in person is now quite difficult (they want to do everything via phone). - Seeing your GP (depending on your area) can involve a 2-3 week wait and waiting in an hours long phone queue. - When you are referred to hospital for t…

One person I'm speaking to claims that the NHS hires too many bureaucrats who are impossible to fire, and who he believes provide the doctors with too much paperwork. He suggests that instead of paying those bureaucrats, the money should go to doctors, nurses and equipment. He claims that the NHS gets about the same amount of money - GDP-wise - as other European countries, while underperforming them. They already hire >1 million people out of a population of 70 million, and paying them more is unsustainable.

Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#39
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People were repeatedly told to seek treatment when they needed it and not to be put off from going to A&E. It was a pretty regular topic on the daily press conferences.

That advice to seek treatment was drowned out by the "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives" slogan that was repeated everywhere , along with use of death/infection numbers that were spun out of proportion by the media. It is no surprise that people decided that the risk of seeking treatment was not worth it.

Yeah my local doctors' surgery had massive posters in its windows during the lockdown that basically said 'go away'. If you braved leaving your house and going to them, you'd be put off again before you got to the doors.

Re: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths in Britain is only tip of the iceberg

#40

Covid is one aspect of this. Another is the massive. underfunding of the NHS over the last decade. This has become much more evident post-covid thanks to the backlogs. - Getting a GP to see you in person is now quite difficult (they want to do everything via phone). - Seeing your GP (depending on your area) can involve a 2-3 week wait and waiting in an hours long phone queue. - When you are referred to hospital for t…

Indeed; the reason people exonerate it is that the Tories have been threatening the population with a dismantling and privatisation of the NHS for over a decade now, and that's not what anyone wants. People want the NHS to work, to be funded and managed appropriately. A primary reason it doesn't is the Tories crippling it.
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