I think it was such a bad move to tie the driving purpose of Covid Restrictions in the UK to "Saving the NHS". One obvious flaw is that people will retrospectively tie the success of lockdowns with the post-Covid state of healthcare. Given that the NHS was already barely functional pre-Covid, denying healthcare for several years and simultaneously making it harder to give healthcare was a recipe for disaster.
It's not just the waiting lists, it's the dire situation at A&E. Folks waiting around 10 hours to be seen and ambulances parked up with patients onboard as there are no beds available for them to offload and see to the next emergency.
We left the UK last year. I liked many things there, but the NHS was never one of them. The GPs who are often borderline incompetent. The administrative staff and their endless errors. Wait times were always bad. A few years ago we waited 9 months so for an appointment with a pediatrician. I recently had to make a couple of appointments with specialists, cardiologist was one of them. Less than two weeks wait time+ multiple doctors to choose from. In the UK I would have waited for month for this to happen.
Did the government ever solve the NHS PFI scandals?<p>I remember these being a massive topic some 10 years ago but haven't heard much if anything of them since.<p>Edit: It looks like some trusts still pay insane interest rates for some of these projects <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/12/nhs-hospital-trusts-to-pay-out-further-55bn-under-pfi-scheme" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/12/nhs-hospita...</a>
Remember how Brexit was going to save the NHS [1]? It has instead worsened the situation [2]. Remember how the previously short-lived PM Liz Truss wanted to drive up the deficit with massive tax cuts [3] instead of, oh I don't know, spendin gmoney on the NHS backlog and staff shortages?<p>Here's something you may not know: the cost of living situation is a genuine crisis in the UK, Russia's unjustifiable war on Ukraine and the resulting cut in gas supply and rising energy costs have led to the creation of Warm Hubs in the UK [4]. What's a Warm Hub? It's somewhere warm people can go because they literally cannot afford to heat their homes.<p>This is no doubt contributing to demands on the NHS.<p>It's wild to see comments even here suggesting Covid lockdowns were the problem. No, the collapses we're seeing in the NHS were the very thing lockdowns avoided.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.healthjobs.co.uk/health-care-uk/blog/what-happened-to-brexit-s-350m-nhs-pledge/" rel="nofollow">https://www.healthjobs.co.uk/health-care-uk/blog/what-happen...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/27/brexit-worsened-shortage-nhs-doctors-eu" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/27/brexit-worse...</a><p>[3]: <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/23/1130782408/how-liz-truss-aggressive-tax-cutting-policy-led-to-her-downfall" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/2022/10/23/1130782408/how-liz-truss-aggr...</a><p>[4]: <a href="https://www.lep.co.uk/news/people/cost-of-living-crisis-warm-hubs-what-are-they-who-set-them-up-where-are-they-who-is-welcome-3897725" rel="nofollow">https://www.lep.co.uk/news/people/cost-of-living-crisis-warm...</a>
Don't worry UK friends, Australia is on its way.<p>In the health care world, you either have private, or wait until your condition worsens. Then get put on a different waiting list for that.<p>There are the haves and have nots.<p>I wonder if going the Singapore route would work? Probs not though, UK is significantly larger than Singapore.
Much better source than some schlocky tv channel copy<p><a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/nhs-backlog-data-analysis" rel="nofollow">https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-w...</a>