NHS crisis: how bad is it? - expert explains

Lets hope in the end, we can work towards getting citizens back to normal because lives have been put at risk but the blame falls squarely on the government.

I seen a bloke today,collapsed on the floor with bleeding nose, he was attended by an ASDA employee, nursed with a makeshift screen around him,then transfered to a POST OFFICE ,they gave him space in corner whilst the public were standing in queues at post office? Why all this ? Because no ambulance came out, to care for him, an ASDA employee done that on her " break time from work". This is disgusting,. Sunak needs to be prosecuted. It there fault people are vunerable to death

I work in the NHS and I've seen the wheels are coming off for years now. It's just got bad enough in 2023 for most people to become aware of it. Yes, the NHS is in crisis, but it's so important to realise that this is by design. The crisis is the direct result of 12 years of deliberate underfunding by successive Tory governments, combined with harmful 'reforms'. I say deliberate, because the situation we are in now is what they have been planning all along: underfund the NHS so it falls into crisis, proclaim that the NHS isn't working, announce the solution - yet more privatisation, more private healthcare providers. They tell you this will 'save the NHS' - it's all lies. I've seen how private providers provide a rubbish service at much greater cost. We could do a better job in-house, but the funds are not there for the staff and equipment needed. But there seems to be no shortage of money for outsourcing. Alas, the Labour Party are not going to come to the rescue - just listen to Wes Streeting spouting nonsense right out of the Tory copybook.

How can the Tory excuse be that “lives are being put at risk”, when it’s those very same Tories who haven’t been providing funding over the past decade (and more)?

I trained in the nhs in late 70s. But it wasn’t until I worked overseas I realised that are many countries with infinitely better health systems. The whole world is currently experiencing shortages in health care staff and sadly the uk has become dependent on this . And not training enough of its own. We have even been recruiting professionals who are desperately needed in their own country. Nursing has always been a very challenging profession and the traditional type training has always had a percentage of students that dropped out. Now how ever they often don’t realise what nursing is really about until later on. One thing that’s not often spoken about is the way that some of the general public treat health care staff. You only have to enter A and E to see that. Pay and conditions are not the only reasons that nobody wants to do it anymore.

As a Paramedic working for the NHS, some portions of this made me cry. The anxiety I feel before a shift is crippling, I have never suffered anxiety. It’s evident that people in poverty rely on the health service more, and I work in one of the more deprived areas of Greater Manchester. I am physically and mentally exhausted. Burnt out. I feel as if a news outlet has finally spent time and given a platform to someone who understands. After seeing broadcast upon broadcast describing me as lazy, greedy, thoughtless and putting patients lives at risk, it’s a weight off my shoulders to have these things somewhat straightened out by someone as knowledgeable and articulate as her. So thank you Victoria Macdonald. Can I just point out though, every hospital in my area finds rooms to put some patients in as soon as they are aware that media outlets are arriving. So the picture you see, is somewhat glossed over.

Medicine Treatment operating rooms staff all that is expensive and the best way to pay for it and run is the NHS. The issue is a government that is not willing to found it.

GREAT INTERVIEW! THANK YOU! I really appreciate an interview in which the host covers all the relevant areas in a complex arena and gives a well-informed expert in the field ample opportunity to explain micro-, meso and macro aspects of a multi-disciplinary arena as Health Care to a broader public. This was not a politician reading a prepared statement from a teleprompter at a press conference. I repeat, "Thank you and keep up the good work!" On a parting note: Herewith an expression of my SOLIDARITY with the NHS and with Channel Four!

The NHS has already fallen over the cliff and is now in free fall. It’s not collapsing, it has collapsed.

Correction: This is the end of the FREE health service. All that is happening is literally step by step privatisation: 1. Defund 2. Wait until it stops working properly 3. Blame it on ineffective government management 4. Suggest privatisation as a solution 5. Sell it to the private sector and swim in the money

Most Medical staff in Australia are from the UK. They all say the money is too low in 🇬🇧 sadly

The Tories are just a disgrace. Kick them out . Saclk them. Freeze their accounts and their funds.

As a life long healthcare worker, I’d agree it’s a poly crisis. Whenever cuts are made, it’s always to staff actually doing direct patient care. However in the face of these challenges, people are ever more dependent on medical workers, not trusting any knowledge that’s medical unless it comes out of a consultants mouth. Not willing to go to chemist or walk in centres or call 111, nor are they willing to make any changes to their lifestyle that will help take the pressure off of the system.

NHS is really struggling! When i was in Poland for Christams, I collapsed because of horrible period pain. I had emergency ultrasound in Poland and they told me that i might have endometriosis! I was absolutely shocked and scared. I got back from Poland and immediately i phoned my GP to book an appointment as I wanted more test to diagnose me. I was told that my case is not emergency and i was given an appointment in over 3 weeks time 😭 Since doctors in Poland told that i might have endometriosis I cant sleep, i cant eat, i have anxiety and i feel helpless crying every day. I cant live like that waiting for basic appointment with GP so i decided to diagnose myself privately! It shouldnt be like that, we pay taxes to get public health care but we are actually getting nothing.

When the nhs is seen in the context of “the end of the service”, I do worry that that is unhelpful and normalises the idea of a future without the nhs We should demand better for our nhs, and not allow the idea of a future without the nhs It’s not important, because the nhs is everyone’s, but I will say that I have a senior role within the nhs and so I am not without experience/understanding

The NHS is being used to provide and prioritise private healthcare over that given to everyone else. Health insurers are making money at our expense, and their profits are why we have to wait sometimes years for diagnoses and treatments. Don't blame the NHS, blame successive governments who've been privatising it.

So good to hear someone who understands the problem and explains it clearly. Thank you.

Pay NHS staff well, for God's sake, even if it means taxing me twice as much; by the way, I'm from the working class! Speaking from personal experience, you don't realise how valuable they are until you end up in the hospital.

Welcome to Quebec!!! It is EXACTLY the same story here. Horrible!

Thankyou so much C4 News, for this calm, measured, responsible discussion. After so much politicisation and media hyperbole and propagandisation of government talking-points, adding adrenaline to an already over-stressed area, this felt like at last hearing grown ups talking about an awful situation that has been happening like a train-wreck in slow motion. I think the measure of how successful a piece of communication this was, is that I (a senior Dr in a busy A&E department for over 20 years), have watched it calmly, and am not crying, shaking, shouting at the TV, or wanting to scream. Its not because the reality was painted over, just that it was dealt with honestly, and responsibly. Well done to all of you involved in making this, and thankyou.