Going Into Hospital: Fill & Download for Free

It is the real picture of UK Covid-19 situation until today as of 27th Jan 2021. UK’s population is 66.65 million (2019). Judgement is your’s……TestingTesting is where we do a test to see who has coronavirus. Some people are tested more than once.There were 596,845 tests reported on 26 January 2021. This shows an increase of 0.2% compared to the previous 7 days.Between 20 January 2021 and 26 January 2021, there have been 3,972,029 tests.CasesA confirmed case is someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.25,308 new people had a confirmed positive test result reported on 27 January 2021.Between 21 January 2021 and 27 January 2021, 209,301 people had a confirmed positive test result. This shows a decrease of 28.9% compared to the previous 7 days.VaccinationsVaccines are currently given in 2 doses, at least 21 days apart.7,164,387 people had been given a first dose by the end of 26 January 2021.474,156 people had been given a second dose by the end of 26 January 2021.HealthcareSome people with coronavirus have to go into hospital.3,082 people with coronavirus went into hospital on 23 January 2021.Between 17 January 2021 and 23 January 2021, 25,985 went into hospital with coronavirus. This shows a decrease of 9.4% compared to the previous 7 days.There were 37,605 patients in hospital with coronavirus on 25 January 2021.Some people in the hospital need to use a special device called a mechanical ventilator to help them breathe.There were 3,961 coronavirus patients in hospital beds with a mechanical ventilator on 26 January 2021.DeathsThere were 1,725 deaths within 28 days of a positive test for coronavirus reported on 27 January 2021.Between 21 January 2021 and 27 January 2021, there have been 8,597 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test. This shows an increase of 0.9% compared to the previous 7 days.Ref: GOV.UK Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK, Last updated on Wednesday 27 January 2021 at 4:20pm

There are 220+ Clinical Commissioning Groups, CCGs, who receive funding from from NHS England to commission and pay for healthcare in the local area they cover. They are regulated by Monitor. Both Monitor and NHS England are funded by the Department of Health.NHS England, you say? Well, the Department of Health delegates the funding of healthcare to NHS England, which is an executive non-departmental body of the Department of Health. https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/ The Department of Health delegates regulation of healthcare to Monitor, which is an executive non-departmental body of the Department of Health. Monitor - GOV.UKThe Care Quality Commission, CQC, is an independent body that inspects health and social care providers. About us | Care Quality CommissionIt is the Clinical Commissioning Groups that are responsible for the overall budgeting, allocations, care pathways, metrics (waiting lists etc..). The reason I mention all those other bodies is that the CCG works within the systems and limited funding imposed on them. It's not so much a question of number of employees of the NHS, the skill mix matters, but it's important to understand that, regardless, care would be limited and waiting lists long within the frameworks in which the 'on the ground' staff have to work.Let's pretend that we are a commissioning group and we receive our pot of cash to provide treatments, operations, clinical care and medication for all the people within our local area. We have to decide what they are going to get as a whole before they even get sick. For every potential clinic visit, there is an NHS tariff: the money we pay the hospital for one person to have one clinic appointment. There are tariffs to cover every situation: if you would like to lose the will to live, you can look here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/pay-syst/What it means in practice is that you have to control the numbers of people accessing the various services. The problem you have is that you have no control on the number of referrals from the GPs. Your contract with the hospital is for so many clinic visits in the year. You also have to comply with the various measurements, Key Performance Indicators, specified by the regulators, otherwise you'll be fined (less money for care) or have funding denied (same).Not enough money to pay for all the referrals to a consultant, plus the need to stay within waiting list targets equals finding ways around the problem. You might: ring up old ladies and ask if they really want to be a bother to the nice doctor (remove from waiting list); turn down referrals because the magic words haven't been used; re-direct them, so someone else will have to pay (frequently for the elderly, neither the NHS or social services wants them on the books) or raise the threshold for referral acceptance (predicating care upon people becoming even more unwell). In addition, if the target is 90% to be seen within 18 weeks, then you don't really mind how long the other 10% have to wait.You can do that, but it will catch up with you. People who get really ill before seeing a doctor invariably end up more expensive (never mind that it's unkind). People who cannot access care can go along to services that cannot say no (A and E, ambulances), thus filling up beds (and rightly because they are ill) which means you cannnot go through your scheduled surgeries. You will spend an awful lot of time generating paperwork in line with the Department of Health's latest craze (I think at the moment, it's footprints: don't ask me to explain it because I can't) designed by someone with far too many colours of felt tips.Everything is about evidence and measurement which means that with limited money, preventative services don't get a look in: you can't prove that you prevented someone from becoming obese.For you, the patient, you have very few statutory rights to healthcare. You can't necessarily get a medicine recommended by NICE; you can't necessarily get a consultant appointment in line with NICE guidance for your particular health condition. You are supposed to blame the local bureaucrats. Maybe you should, but be aware that they are very constrained.EDIT: some concrete examples that this is not a functioning market.The Select Committee inquiry into CAMHS contains evidence from the lead psychiatrist for a South West NHS trust: they are contracted to see 1000 children a year. They have 4000 referrals. Payment is 'by results', they will only be paid for the 1000 on the contract. That's a lot of sick children in one local area with no care. This is, but one example, from a very difficult report to read. The report is over one year old and little has changed. Any money for 'child mental health' with big announcement isn't ring-fenced and is driven into the deficit holes, because Monitor has said that trusts with deficits may not get their next allocation of treasury funding.Radio 5 live recently has a 24 hours in the NHS based in a Birmingham hospital. The CEO explained that if they have a department that excels, in that they are recognised as the place to go for a certain condition, and as a consequence people from all over ask to be referred there, they have to: deal with the effect on waiting lists and they only receive 30% of the tariff for each patient over a certain amount. Excellence and market forces actually punish them for what should be rewarded.

It depends where you live. In the UK, you have to fill out huge forms detailing everything about your daily life and then go for an assessment. You find the forms on Welcome to GOV.UK and they can be filled in online.As for the sciatica, as I’m writing this I’m having a lot of pain with it. I can’t sit either and had to stop work 6 years ago. Surgery can be risky but I have had two different procedures that have helped. One is steroid injections between the facet joints in my lower spine that help a lot for a few months. I get these at a pain clinic in my local general hospital. The second is more invasive and requires a neurosurgeon. It is rizalitus (not sure of the spelling) and they use a very hot probe to burn the nerve through to stop pain signals. It wasn’t the most fun in the world but it was over quickly.