This madness:
Wes Streeting is going to set the NHS in England targets for getting people back to work - this is going to distort behaviour in the health service, and of course requires the NHS to work to a data point (employment) over which they have absolutely no influence.
It might look good in terms of spreadsheet policy making but will be at best a diversion and at worse a major problem for both patients & health service staff.
Misguided & wrong-headed!
Idiots.
And given my experience of ESA, this will damage people's health.
DWP told me to go back to work immediately after one of their barely trained private doctors awarded me zero points. Even though I was signed off work so my employer (the civil service) wouldn't let me back.
Nearly a 10 mth wait for the tribunal, then the panel stopped partway through the questions because I'd already scored 25 points (I needed 16).
@ChrisMayLA6 A "getting people back to work" NHS policy could be quite a good idea, assuming that it will include things like:
(1) Reduce waiting times for mental health services from years to days.
(2) Treat conditions earlier, when they make working difficult, rather than waiting until they make daily life impossible.
@TimWardCam @ChrisMayLA6 my guess that it could mean prioritising the actually or potentially employable on the waiting lists for treatment over those who are severely disabled or simply retired.
Either that or he is actually going to commit to training and employing more staff and providing more resources to the NHS, so that everyone can get treated quicker but can you really imagine Streeting doing that?
@marjolica @ChrisMayLA6 "prioritising the actually or potentially employable on the waiting lists for treatment over those who are severely disabled or simply retired"
Your former suggestion is a risk, yes - it appears to be something that is currently not done and in my view should *not* be done.
Your latter suggestion is what I would support.
(A lesson in how to write a policy such that it can be interpreted in two completely opposite directions at the same time. A failure to obey one of the very early rules one learns as a politician: "before you open your mouth, think about how your worst enemy might maliciously distort what you're about to say".)
@TimWardCam @ChrisMayLA6 yes, my first suggestion, which is the one I was suggesting Streeting might actually have in mind, is obviously ethically wrong and unacceptable. I don't have a lot of faith in our current health minister.
I suppose another wheeze would be to try and task the NHS to persuade people to back to work after treatment before they are ready (of course it wouldn't actually work).
That said I think the NHS could do more to actually get people going again but not necessarily working after treatment. My experience is that although NHS physiotherapists are quite effectively at getting you to the stage when you can walk and climb a few stairs and be discharged from hospital they have a rather minimal idea of what a full recovery might look like after that.
@marjolica @ChrisMayLA6 Yes, that's right. An NHS physio will get you to the point where you can dress and feed yourself, but if you want to play the violin again - even if that's your job! - you're going to have to go private.
So gearing up the NHS to "get people working again" would indeed include widening the scope of physiotherapy.
@TimWardCam @marjolica @ChrisMayLA6 It also leaves unanswered the question of whether “prioritisation by employability” happens before or after “prioritisation by medical need”.
Obviously, I know which way around I think it should happen but I’m not sure Streeting (or most of our current political types) would call it the same way.
Not only a data point over which they have no influence, but likely a data point which they do not routinely collect
Well, I'm hoping meaningless & forgotten by the next news cycle....
@ChrisMayLA6 The purpose of health - and the NHS - is not to get people working. It is to be healthy people.
The purpose of people is not to work. The purpose of people is to be. Our existence is absolutely all we need.
This constant message that the only value people have is what they can contribute to the economy is vile and despicable. Utterly un-Christian, and utterly dehumanising.
So Streeting - and all of them - can go fuck themselves.
I assume this is the select group of people getting back to work who are still on sick leave from their current jobs…if you’ve not got a job to get back to (because you lost it or resigned due to being long term sick), you’re retired, disabled and unable to work or a child…does that mean you are considered less important to receive quality medical treatment by Wes Streeting?
Or maybe Streeting plans to take us all back to Victorian times - we work until we drop down dead
Wes Streeting is probably the most evil a hole in the government 🤬
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
beemoh
Tiggy
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
MarjorieR
Helenisenough
Nicovel0 🍉
Adrian W
Hilary
Joseph Lord
TC Won't Give In To Lies
Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷
Jen
Schroedingers_Cat
Tilda Moose, citizen
Juggling With Eggs
Ben Todd