NHS? Yes, what about it?

First of all, please accept my best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year! For myself it has started well. After waiting two years for a few moles to be removed from my back, it was done yesterday! Very professionally, the female surgeon also was quite the good looker and a pleasure to have her hands all over my back. Well, OK the hands had a scalpel in them but hey, we cannot have everything, can we? Even so, brilliant job and thank you NHS. But let me also put a few observations down. I do not think there is anything wrong with the NHS itself! For those readers abroad, by NHS I mean the National Health Service, or for me in Wales, the GIG ((Gwasanaeth Iechyd Gwladol) literally Service Health National). The Welsh put words in a strict order – verb, subject, object. The NHS as a body is under pressure, seemingly from mis-management by the administration (non-medical staff) and an ageing, and chronically unhealthy population. The general belief of this population, is that medical services are available 24-7 and at just a phone-call away. The population expects an ambulance to turn up within 5 minutes and to be carried to the nearest hospital where a bed awaits surrounded by two doctors and six nurses. All this at no cost. Quite obviously anyone with any sort of brain would see that these things do not add up! The national government also has quite a responsibility as the paymasters. It has become apparent that the main government in London has let things get out of hand by believing a few more billion pounds will solve the problem. Money alone never solves any problem, it only delays them and then as it has shown with the NHS, just exarcebates it. There will be no easy solutions, the ageing population will not go away, at the present time it just keeps growing. In years past old people would be gone by about 75 and those were called ancient. As the Bible indicated, three score and ten was the limit. A score meaning 20 years. So, if you reached 70 you were doing OK. Are there any answers? Well, looking at the country I was born, the Netherlands, has a three tier compulsory insurance system. The lowest is tier 1 which will give access to GPs, tier 3 will include dental services and all hospital access. So, a fully paid-up insurance system, individually tailored. There is however a part of that system which will allow those registered as destitute to receive medical help, minimal medical help. There are, however other issues that bother me and that is the public’s need for cosmetic surgery and it appears the NHS just wants to accommodate that, despite the cost. It should stop immediately. Also the woke industry must be halted their influence on the NHS. The woke industry meaning trans surgery, surgery to augment body shapes (aka the Katie Price shape!), GP time wasted, unnecessary time spent on so-called mental health issues. Perhaps as far as mental health is concerned dedicated units could be set-up. There are real issues with mental health, mostly due to the way we all live today, so dedicated units would take up some of the pressures put on general hospitals. However, this is something the government has not really taken to task yet. Maybe 2023 will see a change of heart. All in, we need a good thinking session as how to approach the needed changes. As said, more money is not the issue although everyone mentions it. That shows the shallow thinking. Some of the things will hurt but if we want a proper and working NHS, there is no alternative but to grin and bear it.