Flooded Bathrooms and the Whole NHS

Imagine your bathroom sink is blocked and the tap is running. It fills up with water. If your landlord is cheap you might have a carpeted bathroom and pretty soon the water is going to end up all over that hideous purple monstrosity. If this continues you’ll ruin the carpet. Now only an idiot would look at this scene and think that the problem is the carpet. Right?

That’s what ring-fencing healthcare funding but cutting social care looks like. Yeah, you haven’t done anything to the carpet. It should be able to cope with the everyday wear and tear of being a bathroom carpet. But your actions have meant the carpet is about to deal with a whole bunch more problems than normal.

Those that most need healthcare also most need social care. This was shown during the winter A&E crisis. If you are ill or isolated there is one place that is always open and has a duty of care, your local emergency department. There is no social care equivalent; A&E is the open accepting face of health and social care. But to wonder what’s the matter with A&Es is once again blaming the floor while the sink merrily fills up. People don’t have the care they need in the community so come into hospital. Once people are in hospital they can’t go home because the care isn’t in place. A&E got stuck in the middle.

So when people talk about how the health budget is protected. (Which it isn’t really but that’s another issue.) Call bullshit. Ask them to look a little wider, think a bit more critically and see the whole system. Think about unblocking the sink.