David Harding-Price

2016 is just beginning. For many 2015 was another year of hard slog with little reward, be that for the people of Cumbria under water again or the nurse working on the ward over their allotted hours because of the staff shortages. So what can we hope for in 2016? Readers indulge me for a few minutes as I come up with some suggestions for the months ahead.

January – The year is starting in much the same way 2015 ended. A&E staff will remain under pressure and beds will be in short supply in hospitals. How can we help? Small simple things can make a difference. If you have an elderly neighbour make sure that they have the basics, milk, bread, tea, cereal and that they have access to blankets if they are struggling with heating. Four thin layers are better than two thick ones.

February – By now snow will have surely arrived and the nation will have come to a grinding halt. But with a little careful planning you can avoid ending up in hospital. Make sure your paths are clear of obstacles and when, if it does snow, you are ready to move the snow off the paths.

March – The month of the budget. We can but hope that the Chancellor sets out spending plans that will provide for all. We have seen those at the top getting pay rises year after year, it is now time the workers were looked after. If the private sector can find the money to keep their staff there is no reason why the public sector cannot do the same.

April – We can but hope that the environment agency has been given the funding to dredge those rivers and streams that need it and is getting on with the task. More importantly we can hope the politicians thought through how to stop the flooding in the areas where there is housing and business. For example by paying farmers up stream to store the water so it can be released slowly.

May – Elections: Will we get a council that recognises the need of all the local community or just a section that think will support them? Housing needs to be built on brown sites and not green fields and flood plains, services for the vulnerable require to be in place and the potholes filled. The eastern bypass needs to be started with a road access along Hawthorn Road. By now I guess we all will be paying more in council tax to cover the cost of them.

June  – There’s the flesh-flashing World Naked Bike Ride, where nudity is positively encouraged, followed by Wimbledon, where nudity is definitely frowned upon. But June is the start of the season where the use of sun screen is becoming more essential. Whilst many of us like to tan, we need to make sure that we look after our skin.

July – We’ll see sporting events including British Open (Golf) and Tour de France (Cycling) and this will lead, as many well publicised sporting events do, to people taking up sport. From walking to running, cycling to swimming, all exercise is good for you. Personally, I enjoy swimming and will hopefully get a chance to dip my toe in the sea.

August – ‘Olympics’, ‘Rio’ and ‘hope’ will be the three words of this month. After years of hard training, millions of eyes and ears will be straining to see the flag raised and hear the national anthem as more of our sporting stars collect Gold in Rio. Success here will lead to more people continuing with their chosen sport.

I risk one prediction for the year and that is 30 Gold Medals for Great Britain, with an overall tally of 70.

September – We see students return to education be that at school or in university. For many it will be the start of something new and for others a continuation of what they have already started. We can all only hope that the government has seen fit not to get rid of nursing bursaries. At the same time has increased the number of places available. If we doubled the size of the intake at the university here in Lincoln within four years our nursing shortage would be almost a thing of the past.

October – Autumn will be returning and a chance for some long walks among the falling leaves, followed by a warm meal in front of the fire. We can start to think about snuggling down for winter. Put aside a few extra tins of soup, start checking on the elderly nearby and check your boiler is working.

November – I know we celebrate the attempt by a group of men to blow up the Houses of Parliament but could we try not to destroy the tranquillity of autumn evenings with fireworks night after night after from the middle of October? Equally we need to think about people’s pets. For many their pet is the one thing that keeps them going and this time of year is very stressful for both animal and owner.

December – Peace on earth: Well we can but hope, another year will have passed us by but will the calls this time next year be the same as this year or will those in power and authority have heeded the messages and taken the appropriate action.

I hope 2016 gives you some of what you wish for and none of what will cause you pain.

Whatever you do, however you live your life, you need the National Health Service. If you do not believe me, read on.

A recent Tweet I read said: “Somewhere, a nurse is doing something seemingly insignificant that is having a profound impact on someone’s life”. The same can be said of many of professions in the NHS.

Without the clinical and support staff in the NHS many people reading this would be struggling. If you doubt me let me take you back to pre-1948, before the NHS.

Prior to World War Two healthcare had been an unsatisfactory mix of private, municipal and charity schemes. Then, if you became ill you had to pay your GP. Consequently, in many families, mothers and children never got to see the doctor because they could not afford it.

Fathers did because they had to be well so they could work. In reality, no health no wealth, something I have been saying for a couple of decades now. The result of this was women and children’s health was very poor, unless you were very wealthy

During WWII William Beveridge, an economist, identified the five “giant evils” in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease. He went on to propose widespread reform to social welfare system. From his report was born the NHS, though not without objections from Churchill, Conservative Party and doctors.

Aneurin Bevan’s national system was aimed at preventing inequalities between different regions by proposing every legal UK resident would sign up to a specific General Practice (GP), this being the point of entry into the system. From there they would have access to any kind of treatment they needed without having to raise the money to pay for it.

The NHS was born on July 5, 1948 and Bevan said at the time “We now have the moral leadership of the world”. What developed over the following decades was a massive improvement to the country’s health and resulting increase in productivity. With health we have wealth.

Through 50s and 60s the NHS grew, it provided all the care Britain needed and became a world leader in healthcare. Nevertheless, during the 70s and early 80s increased pressures caused governments to rethink the system.

However, the first major change to the system by the government in the early 1980s was probably the most damaging, resulting in the decline of the NHS. That was the introduction into the system of managers with no clinical skills or knowledge – the bean counters.

In the James Bond film, Goldeneye M says: “You don’t like me, Bond. You don’t like my methods. You think I’m an accountant, a bean counter who’s more interested in my numbers than your instincts” – if you change the word “instincts” to “clinical skills” it can be argued that this represents the modern management style of the NHS from the Cabinet down.

In 1948 there were just under 340,000 nurses, 55,000 doctors and no managers in the NHS (No figure available for PAMs), with around 1 million staff working in the NHS as a whole. By 2010 those figures were 410,615 nurses, 130,000 doctors, 130,000 PAMs, 41,962 managers and total workforce of 1,431,557.

This shows an increase in nurses, doctors and PAMs and a massive increase in bean counters to quote M. However, if we look at last year’s figures we see the number of nurses down by over 8% (33,424), the number of doctors up by 15.59% (20,273), and PAMs up by almost 20% (25,960).

What of the managers? Well they are down by 4,884 (11.6%) many of whom were made redundant with handsome packages. There were 1,077,268 full time posts but many of these were filled by part timers.

The Secretary of State in taking on the junior doctors over their working hours has clearly failed to realise that most clinical NHS staff already work seven days a week and what he should be doing is increasing the number of nurses and junior doctors so that cover at night and weekends is less demanding.

To do that he needs to tell the Chancellor taking away student nurse bursaries will not increase the number of nurses but will dramatically decrease the number of nurses.

Hospitals need to look at the administration cover for wards and clinics so that the paperwork, which is essential, is completed without taking the nurses, radiographer, OT away from their patients.

The NHS is the world leader in healthcare. Since the 1960s clinical staff from all over the world have come to UK to gain skills and knowledge from their colleagues in the NHS. This had not changed in 1990s when I was working in London I had two colleagues, one from India and the other from Gambia, who worked as staff nurses. Their aim was to gain a higher level of qualification and then returning to their home countries with the aim off moving swiftly up their promotional ladder.

If there is one thing that we as a country can be proud of it is our NHS. It is the Jewel in the British Crown, smashing it up to make lots of little gems will devalue it and once broken you cannot put the jewel back together.

It appears fairly obvious what the Cabinet has to remember is without health there is no wealth, but who is telling them?