The NHS: A Broken Promise of Free Healthcare

NHS (National Health Service) in the UK promises to offer everyone the best healthcare free of cost, but the reality is often different. Patients must consult nurse prescribers using NHS111, urgent care centers, walk-in clinics and A&E departments.?This is not offering the best healthcare but Quakers.

The duty of doctor is to offer the correct diagnosis and treatment early to prevent complications and death, alleviate pain, suffering and postpone death. Delays in making the correct diagnosis and receiving the proper treatment, especially in patients with acute or long-term illness, result in devastating complications, hospitalization, employ more doctors that increase the cost of care for the NHS.

Offering "False Sense of Security" using non-medical school-trained nurses and teenagers employed as healthcare advisors trained to follow protocol created algorithms is unethical and sub-standard health care.?

These issues are not new; the NHS has been under pressure for years. In 2005, a shortage of doctors made the Secretary of State (Labour Govt) in the UK, Ms Patricia Hewitt, license "Non-Medical School trained nurses and chemist diagnose, advise and prescribe drugs like a doctor.

Doctors who challenged and raised concerns were victimized by the General Medical Council and not supported by the British Medical Association (BMA). They were protecting the NHS and not the doctors who made protected disclosures to protect patients. ?

Patients are let down, the NHS needs fundamental change, not empty promises. The new Health Secretary claimed to have been stunned and said he is determined to tell the truth about how NHS staff failed to deliver the promised care. He has set up an independent investigator (a surgeon) rather than a physician with the knowledge and experience of treating patients with common medical problems. He is living under an illusion based on theoretical idealism without understanding the practical realities of diagnosing illness and offering the best treatment to prevent complications, hospitalization, and death.

These promises sound good, but more is needed, too late, to rectify the diagnostic errors that inflict pain and suffering on fellow humans.?

As a doctor working within the NHS for over 40 years, I witnessed firsthand the consequences of these systemic flaws.?I recall involving a young mother with a brain tumour on a hefty dose of steroids who complained of sore throat, was unable to drink, was advised by a nurse prescriber, and consulted in Pilot Nurse-led Practice prescribed Bonjela. Not knowing this was an early sign of serious complication, she categorized this as low.?

Priority and sent her home. A few days later, she collapsed, and I was called in to see her at home. She was living on 21 tubes of Bonjell every day, unable to drink or eat. I rushed this severely dehydrated, emaciated patient who had suffered for two weeks. This made my heart sink, so I made a protected disclosure, trusting the GMC and NHS employer to defend me. The secretary of state had no right to license quackery and is said to be vicariously responsible for a criminal offence. The present Secretary of State must first accept his predecessor's error of judgment and not defend her action. He is clutching straws to protect the sinking ship.?

The managers who play vital roles in administration and resource allocation must avoid dealing with clinical matters. Doctors spend more than ten years qualifying and working as independent consultants, not 14 days as observers as nurse prescribers do. ?

In 1996, I published a letter in the QCJ(BMJ) criticizing NHS for introducing a "Pre-printed Assessment Sheet" (https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/5/2/121.2). I said everyone seeking professional help tells me a story of the illnesses they have experienced and remembered. A doctor must offer a solution and not a prescription. A shortage of budget and staff does not give politicians the right to shift dynamics, which has a detrimental effect on patient care. The constraints offered using the protocol to diagnose and investigate necessary treatment conflict between doctors and their patients and the system demand.?

The General Medical Council and the World Medical Association Declaration state, "The fundamental role of a physician is to alleviate the pain and suffering of fellow human beings. No collective political or institutional entity shall prevail against this higher purpose. NHS denies complete clinical independence in deciding upon the care of a person, for she is medically responsible. Guidelines and protocol to diagnose, investigate, and offer prescriptions.

Doctors concerned about patient safety question management risk are facing a backlash resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder, which destroys their passion for finance, family and their own life. More than 100 doctors investigated by the GMC committed suicide.?

I was harassed and humiliated by the institutions because the GMC said they had no power to intervene and protect me. Members of my profession, including Dr David Hasallam, then the President of BMA, failed to defend or support my claim, and advised me to take legal action against my employer.

This is not unique; numerous doctors remain silent, because of tainting their reputations, finances, and personal health.?I am sharing this information because it was Ms Patricia Hewitt, the Labour Health Secretary who introduced Quaker in the NHS.

Doctors must use expert judgment to make clinical decisions based on the story of the illness. They must not surrender their free will or be influenced by fear and must provide high-quality care.

Please read my book "The Art of Self-Diagnosis" and learn how to non-medically trained nurses, and chemist make medical errors in diagnosis, and treatment (true Stories) that can result in devastating complications, and even death. This is my contribution to clear my conscious because I failed to stop this un-ethical medical practice that has brought us shame.