[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Kazanne

Joey, maybe you can answer this, Starmer wants to get NHS appointment waiting lists down which is good,but how can he do that if as we are told they are short of staff ? they can only deal with what they are dealing with now, so how will that be possible ?

Yes I'll try to in a small way hopefully Kazanne.

I think you'll recall when Mr ugh Blair won in 1997.
He started to get the then waiting lists down by bringing in private sources.
This is Streeting's plan too to help with that.

I'm pleased too that Wes Streeting realises that major reform of the NHS will be necessary.
Not to break it's core founding of care free at the point of need.
However to make more of the resources already in place which are not being used more efficiently.

Plus, he's looking to have weekend working too, which will help considerably in dealing with the backlog in conjunction too with the private input too.

That's the starting point and sorry I was only 5 when this was done from 1997.
However it had a big impact on the then high waiting list that had built up to 1997.

I think too, and he's rightly said even today, he cannot give the Junior Doctors anything like 35% on wages.
However he will meet regularly and negotiate across the board on all their concerns not just pay.

Myself, I believe he can then just with those things, start to substantially bring down the waiting lists.
It's scandalous to me that elderly people are on the list for operations for cataracts, knee and hip operations for a year and in many cases years.

Plus too, digressing now, if Streeting's looking for ideas to fully reform the NHS .
Then if I was him, I'd start by phasing out the parasitical trust management set up.
Get back to something like Matrons running hospitals.

Those trust managers and their endless number of admin staff for them.
Contribute not a single thing to hands on care.
I'd rather see them replaced by new Doctors and Nurses.
That's what I'd like to see.

It's not going to be easy and I don't want to get party political with you because I know you genuinely believe in the Conservatives and respect that.

However the confrontational attitude towards Junior Doctors and the lip service to the NHS as to how great it is, is NOT going to do much to bring down waiting lists.

Hope I've said some little thing to help answer your query there Kazanne