An increasingly warped sense of humour could be an early warning sign of impending dementia, say UK experts. I am doomed, but at least I will not remember that!

Today I had a moment of fame!  Not really, but I got to speak at the Colchester Labour Party meeting.  It did not go as well as I would have liked, but that was because I got stage fright and forgot to speak loudly and clearly.

What I did mention were the issues with the numbers of GP's being present in the NHS working in partnership, the issues with nursing numbers, the recruitment issues facing the NHS and of course the exodus of doctors to other countries, not counting the effect that the Junior Contract is to have on those who are leaving the UK or other countries.  Pay has been mentioned in the media as an issue, this being by the Daily Malicious and I did point out that doctors can earn more for less work abroad, and that more are doing so.  I mentioned the issues with NHS pay and how staff have left the NHS as a result to work as agency staff and of course the issues that I had with PMQ's as mentioned before in this blog.  In addition to this, I did talk about what happened in the past to working hours when the safeguards on junior doctor working hours (that the government want to remove) were not present, i.e. that they were ignored.  While the contract is not going to bring back the 24 (and more) shifts of the past, it will probably result in doctors working longer than they are now as the protections that were put in place in the past to prevent this are to be removed.

I did forget to mention how GP workload has been increasing and how since 2010 that this has become unbearable for many.  And someone else mentioned the huge deficits that many NHS hospitals are facing.  Also, I did not mention privatisation and the NHS.  Technically, the district nursing service in North East Essex is provided by a private company, this being Anglian Community Enterprise though unlike the way Serco managed services in Suffolk.  And while many have concerns that the NHS is being run down to be privatised, those who have concerns like that forget that the NHS is so underfunded and has so much issues with staffing that private companies have handed back contracts as even they can not run a service in the current NHS financial climate, this being in general practice as well as with Hinchingbrooke, the hospital run by Circle.  Loads of NHS services have been run by NHS organisations, this including NHS 111.

The bottom line is that while the NHS in some ways is not as bad as it was in 1997 with hospitals needing building work and long waiting lists, in other ways it is so much worse, this being the numbers of staff not working directly for the NHS (but as they are registered with the GMC, NMC and other professional bodies, the government counts them) as well as the financial state of the NHS.

It was a shame that I was not as coherent as I would like, but I am going to claim that it was late and that I was tired!  Hopefully these videos will both entertain and educate.