[Margaret Pilkington]

i have, over the last couple of years, seen more of the insides and workings of the NHS than I want to.
While not all of my visits have been fantastic, very few have been anything you would complain about.
In the main, most of the care that has been delivered has been of the best quality.

Many people ramble on about the NHS and its failings.......many people talk about cuts.....without really qualifying what they mean.
I can only say what my own experiences have been.....and mainly these have been in hospital environments, both in my working life more recently as the relative of users of the service.

Over the years the NHS has been detrimentally meddled with by people who want to use the service as a political football, with no thoughts of consequences for the users.
These people who have meddled know absolutely diddley squat about how the NHS should be run and managed.
That has been the biggest problem over the years......and not one of political parties are exempt from blame. The last labour government spent money that we didn't have, but encouraged trusts to saddle themselves with unreasonable debts just so the debts did not appear on a government balance sheet.....did I hear you ranting and raving about that then?

The NHS is like a huge ocean going liner....it takes a long time (and a lot of effort) to turn it around.
One government would want you to do one thing......another one would get in and reverse these requirements.
There is far too much time spent ticking boxes, meeting targets....not letting clinically trained staff make policy decisions about what constitutes clinical need....it is all about what looks good on a balance sheet.
People are not tins of beans. You cannot run the NHS like a supermarket.