#27 - Ideas for Improvement

20 March 2020

Winners Announced!

Well done to everyone who took part this week - what a creative set of suggestions!

Our Primary winner is fascinating_wasp of Noel Park Primary School. They wrote very clearly on how greater engagement between the NHS and local schools would serve the health service in the future. Their answer demonstrated developed reasoning and also showed long-term thinking. Well done!

Our Secondary winner is accomplished_reality of Faringdon Community College, who came up with the idea of using an app to help people become better at helping themselves, before they attend a hospital or surgery. Well done!

Look out for our next competition launching shortly!


So far in this Issue you will have learnt a lot about how the NHS works.

There have been lots of new ideas that have improved the NHS. Everything started out as a new idea at some stage.

The last ten years have seen the introduction of therapy dogs and NHS 111 service, for example!

One of our experts, Sally Warren, was asked about the way the NHS will improve and change in the future. She mentioned the growth of technology and speaking to doctors by phone.

This competition asks you to come up with one idea that will improve the NHS, and explain why you've chosen it.

This should be an idea you've created yourself, that you've thought about carefully, and NOT just saying "give the NHS more money"!

What practical ideas will improve the service the NHS provide us?

  • This could be to do about "front-line" treatment - in doctors' surgeries, hospitals and schools
  • It could be to do with how the NHS is supported and funded
  • It could be to do with how the NHS spreads its message / finds new staff

...or could be something else entirely!

We're looking for ideas, or a solutions to a problem, not just saying what's wrong!


The deadline for entries is Friday 20th March at 10:30am. Good luck!

My idea for improvement is.... This would be a good idea because...

Comments (111)

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  • My idea for improvement is that there should be some persuasive advert( based on the NHS) asking as many people as possible to donate money for them so that the NHS can raise more money to get the high technology that they require .

  • What the NHS could improve on is to create an app on an iPad and when you face it at someone it will show you there bones inside there body then take pictures so then if someone broke or fractured a bone you can match it from when they first come in and to the next time they come in.
    There's one reason and here's another.
    Another reason is that they could more rooms for surgery so the NHS can treat more people than they did before.
    There are two improvements that the NHS can work on.

    1. Make a reason why more operation rooms!
      Then that could make you win

    2. Well, having an app might work, but, how many people would donate money for the beds, I mean, I certainly would, but people would just think, 'Meh, it's another one of those stupid "building funds" donations, so I'm not sure whether this would quite work.

  • The one thing that I would change is quicker service.

    Firstly, they should have quicker services. My first reason is that the NHS don't have many people in the reception, but they are also low on staff completely. They have around 1.5 million people and should have a lot more when you think how many people go to A&E in a day. When do these people get some rest!? Well some people pay a lot of support. This still isn't enough though. It needs to be a lot more so people can get urgent surgery for a terrible piece of damage.

    My second reason is for them to have more reception ( as in the office receptions ). There is only one A&E reception at my local hospital. Ther could be more staff in that area, at least they don't need to look at 20 pints going through a tube. Atleast it is a small contribution to the NHS and the worst you would see is a big gash on the forehead. Thank you for reading.

    1. I was meant to say 20 pints of blood instead of 20 pints...

  • I think we could help NHS by helping them with the issues they have like less money, only few members of staff and more. Also we could spread the message to the whole united kingdom or other places and say to them that the nhs is the best heath care service and they could support the nhs and spread the message to world wide.

  • My idea for the improvement is that the NHS should make only one computer system as they have 15 that every staff member needs to log onto every single day. This is very very stressful for them and most of them do not want to be there, this would be a good idea because the staff will have less stress and will talk to the people who are ringing more freely without stress. This could make the people that are ringing feel better as they think the people who are answering are worried about them and they will feel unsafe.

    - best_raspberry

  • i think that they should doctors are risking there lives to stop us being sick and treating us well i think we (and the doctors) should stop and improve with drinking sugary drink because you can die with a heart attack or get hyper so this is my first reason why.
    the other reason why is because some staff could be silly and will may kill someone with a new illness (this is my opinion) so if you disagree then reply with my comment

  • My idea for improvement is that the NHS develop a computer system for the whole country . I think that this would help the staff because when we were doing the classroom session, we found out that currently the NHS are using 15 computer systems , some still using mountains of paperwork. This can be confusing for doctors and nurses if the victim is abroad and may delay the patient's treatment because the staff have no background information for a few days . This means that the patient could die due to the delay or they might have a problem that the staff don't know and may harm that person . Having one easy programme will be more effective, and will not delay precious time if the patient is unconscious or unable to speak.

  • I wrote my last comment because I thought that the NHS will not be able to proceed if they are constantly having to be waiting for the computers to load . The patients will not trust them as much because they will think that they can't do anything quick enough . If they ( NHS) do not do something now , the UK is in danger . We need to raise money and get hte NHS up on their feet again

  • I think that the NHS need a program that automatically sends out adverts to join the NHS so they can get more staff to join them and they will be able to see to patients quicker.

  • care for coronavirus

  • I want the NHS to care for corona virus because it is spreading everywhere and it can effect the world and kill people and also get more masks for people to protect others from corona

  • My idea for improvement is that the NHS shouldn't make people wait for treatment for long periods of time because people can die while their waiting in line.To stop this happening they should have more staff so the staff can be carers the sick people.

  • I agree with opinionated_tuba because if the NHS do not have enough computers to help serve customers then something bad might happen. In summary they should spend more money on technology to prevent people dying due to the state and amount of technology.

  • i think that the uk is in big danger because the NHS are to busy helping others than, finding a cure for corona virus. and now the people infected is about 500,so i think they should have more staff so half could help find a cure the others help the people for what ever the reason.

  • I think a solution to strain on staff is to hire more staff. The only reason why the NHS is being pressurised is because 100,000 jobs have not been filled. More people should become a part of the NHS, even if they're just going to be a receptionist, they are still contributing and saving lives on the front line. If we don't hire more staff, operations are more likely to go wrong because doctors will be rushing around.

  • I personally think there should be more school nurses. You might think oh you already have one but they come once in a blue moon and they give the school advice; however, sometimes I think they forget the tips. I think our school would run smoother and it would be much better if we had a school nurse who stayed here if anything happened, and not for her to only come in on the day of flu vaccines. However, they may be trying to portray that the National Health Service needs more staff more desperately. Moreover, I think this is an ingenious way to advertise (if this is what they are trying to do). In addition to this, (I know this has been repeated many times) but NHS needs more funds from the government. One way to achieve this, is that we could make richer people pay more also known as ‘mansion tax’.

  • I would give more money to the A&E because so they can save live and fix their bones

  • My ideas for improvement will be for the government to fund more money to the NHS, this is because the NHS gets only 20% of all tax money. This is not enough because the NHS needs more money to buy more equipment and they need it as they have to treat their patients to the highest they possibly can. The NHS will need more money for other viruses or diseases to come and to tackle this they will need to buy the best equipment they possibly can to make sure the virus or disease does not spread. The NHS will in my opinion need around another 5% of all tax money this is because if the NHS gets more of tax money this will decrease another thing that is important and that is funded by tax money in the UK. This 5% of extra money can come from the public and the richer the more they pay to the NHS. In the NHS they will need to use the money for other things like beds and more. The NHS will need more money to do things that they could not do before.
    This is the ideas I think that they should do to help the NHS improve.

  • My idea for improvement for the NHS is to have a section in different hospitals first people with depression anxiety etc and have this board where you can write you feelings on there, and then you can Read them each month to see how they feel so you can understand peoples emotions better and to help them recover.

  • I think that one way that the NHS could improve could be to send some workers to different parts of the UK to teach children, teenagers and some adults what to do in certain events. To give people advice on how to keep parts of you body healthy and to make a website that children can go to learn what each staff does, what you need to be part of the NHS and help students who choose biology as a subject or who are studying.

  • I think an improvement to the NHS is modernising there technology because 1\4 of health records are still on paper and from this it could be putting peoples life at risk of there record gets damaged or lost this target was supposed to be reached by 2018 but it hasn't happened

  • I think the main issue here is the lack of staff, since if we had an increase of staff, the technology, healthcare service and overall budget would improve. An increase of staff urges the government to pay the salaries of these people and consequently shed some light on the fact that the technology needs improving and more funding is needed for equipment and medicine. I think the best way to do this, is to have small workshops around universities, colleges and some in hospitals to try to motivate younger people to train to help the NHS. Even if they do not become doctors or nurses, there are many ways they could help the NHS, people could help with technology, donate some money or complain to the government. These small things will eventually pile up to one large cause and hopefully, as a result, have some sort of positive effect.

  • My idea for improvement for the National Health Service would be for a major extension to all public and private hospitals around the United Kingdom and that the government should fund all the needs to do this. The hospitals do not have enough room to fit a sufficient amount of hospital beds for the amount of admitted patients in the hospital. Many people would have heard the heart-breaking news of a child who had to lay on a stack of coats from other patients because of the lack of hospital beds. This photo went viral across the media and the worst thing about this is that the child had a suspected pneumonia. Boris Johnson did not take enough action for this because all he did was speak to the family and he could not get the unsatisfied patient an actual hospital bed before he was discharged from the Leeds Hospital. Though it may cost a lot of money, the government needs to take action and whatever it takes including a slight decrease in wages for the Members of Parliament then we must do it. We need to spread the news as quick as possible and hire the best engineers and builders possible. Hospitals will have enough: space, rooms, beds, machines and even medicines to treat and aid patients. This was my competition entry for this week and I hope you enjoy reading this comment Burnet News Club!!!!!

  • I think they should make robots to do some operating because when doctors retire, the NHS could swap them for robots, you only need to pay for a robot once but if you get a person you pay them lots of times. After they swap a lot of doctors for robots, the NHS's money won't drop as much, so they will have more money, so they can spend it on other problems.

  • I think for the NHS to improve there should be a room for waiting I know there are waiting rooms but they are always directly by the entrance. If a patient is severely ill say with a cough and a perfectly fine family member arrives with a second patient by the door then it’s potential, that they catch that illness.

    I also think that the IT system should be updated when we learned about this in a lesson at school it spoke about how long it took for 1 file to be sent. The text said it sometimes took 15 different systems for it to load. It also stated that 1/4 of hospitals use paper documents once a cup of tea is spilled there is no taking back all it takes is for the document to slip out of their hands and that is putting the patience at even more of a risk as they are already ill. That patient also could be allergic to something in the medicine.

    Even though the NHS has so many improvements the NHS are one of the greatest organisations in my opinion.

  • My idea for improvement is that the NHS could allow people in private rooms to keep pets as long as they are wet enough and can provide pet food. I think that this would help the patients to get better. It is proven that owning a pet can help people feel happier and benefit their health, so why shouldn't keeping one when you're in hospital do the same. People are much more likely to get better if they are happy, and so keeping a pet with them will make them happier.

  • My idea for improvement is if the NHS pay less managers and spend more on healthcare because.

    The NHS lack nurses and funds because of some terrible spending which has made queue times long and the amount of beds have decreased by 50% from 300,000 to 150,000 over 10 years. A reason for this financial crisis is managers. The NHS have 31,000 managers who get paid obscene amounts of money which the nurses don’t get so they resign. So we need that amount of managers? I think we don’t. The money should be used on recruitment of doctors or nurses, getting more beds which would reduce queue times, better facilities and better healthcare so they can find a vaccine for different diseases like coronavirus.

    The reason for a financial crisis is not that the government aren’t paying enough because 20% of taxes over the whole UK is enough and they spent £134 billion in 2019-2020. This is enough money to be financially stable so I think the managers are the problem which is most important and is what my idea for improvement is.

  • I think that they should improve their IT systems because some people have to log into 15 different systems to log in

  • I think to improve the NHS we need to start looking after ourselves to stop us overworking the staff there because it will help us more with our health because the doctors will be able to have more strength when working so they will be more focused in what they are saying to us. Also they should have more wards as more people could get sick with something like the coronavirus or i they have hurt themselves, also more people are getting born each day so they will need more wards for that too.

  • My idea to improve the NHS is to fund them more through our tax. They need this money urgently because they will have many patients to treat and with the Corona virus, they will need more beds for the people who have it. If they don't have enough money, they'll probably have to choose what they use it for: paying staff or beds and equipment. If they choose beds and equipment, then staff will have to drop out be use of their pay shortage, so they will have less members of staff to work with. But, if the government pays more than they currently pay, they wouldn't have to choose between the two. As some people said in their comments., they would like there to be more electronic systems and that is only possible if there is enough money to pay for it. So, this is what I would do to improve the NHS.

  • I suggest that the NHS change the how the doctors help patients. I believe this as many people could have a bad ,catchable virus that doctors may end up having just because they wanted to care for others. This can also occur when doctors are trying to cure patients. Although,they will be protected by either wearing a mask; wearing gloves and even washing their hands when their done severing a patient, i still don’t think it is safe . If doctor the catches this illness then have to suffer, is this fair ?

  • My new idea would be to implement a system where you can personally assess yourself to see how important your problem/illness is. We already partly have this system but I think we should expand on the idea more. Along with having "111" and "999", we could have "222","333","444"etc. I don't think this idea has been discussed before and I think it will bring a lot to the table.

    How this system would work is if you think you need to see the doctor then proper thought should go into whether it is urgent. For example, if you grazed your arm then maybe you would need a "444" call, seeking professional advice. When you've just cut your finger you probably won't need to call at all, however if it doesn't stop bleeding you might need a "111" call. This would cut down queues because if you go to A&E after cutting your finger you are not giving people with deadly diseases a chance to be seen by a doctor, potentially saving their life. Usually if you have cut your finger then all you need is to run it under water and put a plaster on it; something that isn't worthy of stopping endangered people not getting the proper treatment. I think the only problem would be not a everyone is a doctor so not everybody would know if their condition is serious or not. You might think something is not serious when it could be life-threatening. Or it could be the other way round, meaning you are not reducing queues at all, rather making them longer unnecessarily. Even with these issues, I think it would somewhat cut the waiting times for people with actual problems by going to the "999" callers, then the "888" callers, then the rest of them. It would be more efficient (and beneficial) than the current system with only two lines to call if you need medical attention.

    by @succinct__leaves

  • My idea for improvement is that we should get more equipment and staff so that we can help more sick people. This will be done if the government gives them more help and support. This is a good idea because we are dealing with corona virus right now and if we had more equipment and staff then we can treat more people. If we didn't have more equipment then many people would not be treated for their illness and possibly not survive.

  • I think that an improvement for the NHS is to hire higher qualified people and give the more funding so that they could get higher ability computers so that they could record patients records a-lot quicker and make it more efficient and make the process a lot quicker.

  • My idea for improvement is offering financial incentives such as bursaries and reduced-cost housing for new doctors and nurses.

    This would be a good idea because the NHS is currently short staffed, which is one of the biggest problems in my opinion. Giving people a reason to train as a healthcare professional in the NHS will really improve staffing which, in turn, will improve wait times and appointment available. By making these incentives financial, the NHS will really tune to what matters to young people when they are training which will encourage them to pick healthcare as a career.

  • My idea for improvement is mobile doctor’s surgeries. The way these will work is that doctors and nurses will come to the patient’s home or work for a consultation.

    This would be a good idea because this will stop people from spreading illnesses in a doctor’s waiting room. It would be great for the elderly and disabled people but also people that are busy and struggle to take time off work to visit the doctor’s as they would be able to have a very quick consultation and then get straight back to work.

  • My idea for improvement is for the NHS to offer frequent workshops and talks to schools, building links with younger people in the community. This could be on a range of topics from healthy eating and lifestyles to what it is like to work in the NHS.

    This would be a good idea because it would encourage children to look after themselves and also motivate them to want to work in the NHS later in their lives, which would support the NHS with staff uptake and retention. By building connections with schools, the NHS will be able to identify students that are interested in future careers and support them in preparing for these, either by advising them on which universities to attend or by giving them opportunities to volunteer or help out in hospitals and doctors surgeries.

  • My improvement is that they should have less electronic facilities so that they can instead have one system that does many things. However, this could cause another problem because it would need more investment which the NHS is already lacking in.

  • My idea for improvement focuses around supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people. I think they NHS should set up more support groups for young people where they can go and talk about things that are bothering them. The NHS should advertise these groups at schools, in hospitals and on the internet via social media where young people are more likely to see them.

    This would be a good idea because mental health is a massive problem, especially for young people and I don’t think that there is enough around to support them. By making these groups readily available and easily accessible, young people are more likely to make use of them. If they have a safe space to talk about things that are bothering them, they are more likely to be able to cope and overcome any issues they are facing.

  • My idea for improvement is that they should make a school funding day (like comic relief) for students to raise money and awareness for the NHS. This can also be made into a competition for groups to see who can make the most money, if we make it into a competition students will be more eager to participate and students will donate more money to the NHS as they will be more likely to buy stuff if there is more variety. Each school would have prizes for the top 3 groups who collect the most money. The prizes would be motives for students to get involved and help fund the NHS. If everyone can help to raise money the NHS could buy better equipment and treat people in a more efficient way.

  • My idea for improvement is to tax companies that sell unhealthy products and to use these taxes to give the NHS a financial boost through additional funding. This would be kind of like the sugar tax but on a bigger scale and could involve companies that produce sugary food and drinks, alcohol, cigarettes and foods that are high in fat.

    This would a good idea because, as we all know, the NHS needs more money. However, I don’t think it’s fair to raise taxes of the general public because we are already contributing enough. By taxing these companies, we are not only providing money for the NSH, we are also slowing down their contributions to major health problems such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

  • My idea for improvement is for the NHS to use social media as a channel for communication.

    This would be a good idea because, for example at the moment when doctor’s surgeries and NHS111 are overloaded with calls, it would give people another way of talking to someone about their symptoms and next steps. Social media such as twitter and facebook is used by so many people (45 million people as of this year- that’s 66% of the population!) so would be a great way for people to access non-urgent medical advice whilst freeing up the phone lines for people who need an immediate response.

  • I think the NHS is a good thing , surgeries, medications and medicine shouldn`t be payed for they should just get given to you but over here we`re lucky because in America you have to pay but what about the poor so the NHS is a good thing.

  • i would improve the NHS by privatising and some not so people can afford it and not be in debt and this would help people in poverty or homeless

  • I would say that they need to improve the paper filing and computer systems because if the paper files get lost or someone takes them then you can just use the computer system that is why you would need to improve the computer system by creating a more stronger and stable password, so no one can hack the account.

    You would need to update and improve the paper filings because if there is a power cut or the computer breaks for some reason then you wouldn’t have any of the files on it so that is why you would need to update the paper filing system. I think you could do this by putting a lock on the door so nobody could get in. It would be best if it was a lock that no one could get in without a key, or a lock that has a password and only the staff know it.
    In conclusion, this would help the NHS to know where the filing is as and when they need it.
    -Outstanding_orca-

  • To change the NHS for the better i would alter the mental heath aspect. For example people who do mentaly struggle require the courage to seek help but don't get the same quality as a more practical type of surgery. I personally believe that if we educate people in a sense of which we promote mental assistance we will help everybody.

  • To make the NHS even better than it already is, we could modernise it. It would be a large amount of money to upgrade many computer, laptops, etc. Although, it would benefit them greatly! Instead of writing things on many sheets of paper (that could potentially be lost) you could just tap a button on a screen!

    Although, it could also be a bad thing. If there were a power cut at a hospital they could loose precious documents. It is rare but, there are a few people that are allergic to high levels of electricity, so if a person in a hospital were to encounter this it could be fatal. And that is what I think could improve the NHS.

  • I think that the NHS would be improved by increasing the number of beds and rooms in wards and expanding buildings. it is not fair that people have to wait in corridors because it is uncomfortable and people can catch illnesses. We could do this by raising taxes for rich people. Doctors and nurses should be given a bursary to train to recruit more people to the NHS.

  • My idea for improvement is to improve the working conditions for front line staff so that more people are encouraged to make a career in the NHS. At the moment bursaries are offered to nurses to encourage people to train, but I think that this should be widened to include mental health professionals, care workers and other front line staff where there are shortages. In order to encourage more people to commit to the NHS I think pensions should be better for these staff. Did you know that train drivers earn over £50000 a year and have a final salary pension - surely nurses deserve something comparable to that? Once the number of staff increase then the lengths of their shifts could be shortened so they have a better balance of work and home life. In order for the NHS to be at its best, we need to invest in the people that make the NHS great.

  • I think that there should be more persuasive adverts because people might be thinking why do we have to pay for NHS when a few months ago it was not even needed.People need more persuasive information to get them attached and to fund to the NHS because they take their time to take care of you and take all their concentration and energy to look after you 😱.
    Thank you for reading
    Persuasive_cranberry

  • My idea for improvement is to send doctors to your house. I think this is good because if you cannot go to hospital then you cant then you can ask for doctor to come to your house.

  • The NHS can send staff from the hospitals to teach first aid in schools and workplaces so that there isn't such a stress and weight on the responders and paramedics. This helps because the paramedics don't have to spend their time responding to ases that first aid can be applied to.

  • I think we can improve the NHS by employing MORE staff!! We need to spread the word and we can do this by maybe making adverts and putting signs up and maybe having it mentioned a lot on the media such as news.😀
    It is literally that easy!😱

    1. I know!!!!!!!! What is taking them so long???? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

      1. it could be taking them some time as they may not have enough funds to support all the new employees

    2. Although that is a good idea it isn't always that easy because if you put signs and do adverts on television it takes a bit of time for people to apply and if you want more doctors they need to have gone to medical school.

  • I think that the NHS should create an app were you select a date for an appointment and then you FaceTime them over the phone and tell them your issues . This app can be developed to be linked to 111 .

  • I think that women doctors/nurses should get more money because the men get paid more than the women. I think this because it is not fare on the women and I believe that we should be equal in how much we gat paid. Women do the same jobs as men and they don't get paid as much. I don't know why this is but I think that the government invest more money to the NHS and also the environment . The govnment has enough money so there is no reason why they shouldn't .

  • My idea to improve the NHS would be to give first aid training to all children in schools and for everyone to do a first aid course in workplaces. Firstly, only a certain amount of people in a workplace have to be first aid trained. However, if these people are ill then the people in work won’t know what to do in the situation. In addition, the training should be for when people are away from work as well. For example, if they find a person collapsed in the street they would know what to do whereas the people who are trained could help. This means that people with less serious illnesses won’t go to hospital and can deal with the problem themselves.
    Another reason why I think this would be a good idea is that the NHS would have to spend less money on medicine. This is because less people will go into hospital for minor injuries so they won’t need medicine for minor injuries. This means they could spend it on other things such as wages and life support machines.
    In conclusion, we should make first aid courses mandatory for everyone.

  • I think that the NHS are running out of money 💸💸💸 so I would put ads on the TV and organise fundraising events.

  • I think the NHS need to spend more money🤑 for the coronavirus😰like the NHS need more staff

  • In my opinion I would change the way the rooms are 'public' because when I went to hospital there were 6-ish people per room so maybe they can add walls instead of those blind things and they don't have to be thick walls but they have to be walls.Also, I think females should be payed equally as men because according to safari males get paid $335000 on average and females get paid $224000 on average.

  • My idea to improve NHS is to give more money to buy equipment that will be useful because a doctors average salary is $156,000 a year for paediatricians to about $135,000 for radiologist and orthopaedic surgeons. The highest earners - orthopaedic sergons and radiologists earn way too much I thought of this when I herd about the NHS buget

  • The NHS are a really good company in genaral with helping the public but, during there career and they have aknowledge that but there are 2 improvements the NHS are capable of doing
    1.The first thing to do is to decrease the earnings of surgeons because the NHS can spend the money on better things like to make the hospital in better facilities
    2 there should be more breaks so the doctors do not get stressed

  • I think they can increase the amount of staff that work at the NHS because at the moment there only about 100,000,000 staff which might sound like alot but since there are alot of things are goıng on in the UK including the coronavirus that is not enough because many people have already died from it and I am sure nobody wants to see no more deaths about the coronavirus.

    1. Excuse me, but the entire population of the UK is 66.44 million, so how can there be 100,000,000 staff in the NHS?

  • In my opinion the NHS should be funded by the United Nations as only the rich in the USA are able to afford healthcare whereas we as a country do. By the lack of consideration from the USA's senate toward the majority is a sort of neglection . In other words i am suggesting that the NHS becomes a global initiative so that more people are benefited. This would also mean that there would be a more sufficient sum of doctors that would allow the public to be more available to jobs that can actually help people. For example, if shot in the USA you would have to pay 5 to 100 thousand dollars even if it wasn't their fault. If the NHS was funded by the UN and applicable to all then effectively they would pay just tax and therefore save money when in a position where money is more valuable than it is to others. If they were applicable to NHS healthcare then the world as a whole would be able to thrive and in countries where there is insufficient food there would be more money and thus a higher economy.

  • I think an improvement to the NHS would be an app that any NHS patient could use an app on their phone or tablet that would tell you if you need to go to A&E or not, it would scan your body and, based on that, on a scale of one to ten, would give you the severity of the case, the number 7 or above could be a signal that you need to go to A&E. This would be achieved via coding to utilise your device’s camera to carry out complicated tasks. In addition to this, app could also tell you to go to your local NHS GP if the severity number is from 4 to 6 and, a number bellow that could mean that no action is needed, if very minor action is needed, actions you can carry out at home, then the app will give you instructions on what to do at you home. If a normal device camera cannot carry out these tasks then you could go to your local NHS GP and purchase a small add-on to your camera that is free, pay is optional, and use that. This device will send messages back to the app to give you your results. How would this be beneficial? It would be beneficial because, in 2019, 118 major units A&E England failed to meet the four-hour waiting time target, many people go to A&E because they think they have hurt themselves badly, when they haven't, and panic and then go to A&E, an app like this one could tell the patient what action needs to be taken, this would in turn reduce the amount of people in A&E and will therefore reduce waiting times. In addition to this, this app could use machine learning algorithms, this would mean that, after a few weeks of being with the person, the app could learn that the person is prone to something or regularly has an issue. This would mean that the app could provide tailored information that it thinks would be most effective in a particular circumstance.

  • The issue that I think needs improving is staff recruitment. I think that they could try and improve this by convincing people to work in health care and here are a few things they could do to help .Staff recruitment focused NHS carer day .Offer A level or b-Tec course in NHS related topics like x-rays ,mental health and much more. They could also encourage businesses to offer blue light discount to make more people want to join the NHS this will take the pressure of the nurses and doctors that already working in the NHS.

  • My idea for improvement is that the NHS should try and motivate people to join the NHS. This would be a good idea because the NHS has recently been struggling about a new virus outbreak- the coronavirus- and is this is affecting society. It'll be very useful that people will join the NHS as it'll succourful for many of us also motivating people to join would let this virus a possibility of not spreading that far and the NHS will be able to (maybe) give some tips for it not spreading to you.
    Incidentally, there is not much people in the NHS; not that near to 100,000! This may help many in need that are injured/ badly hurt. There's also another reason, that some people will take a day off and some people, may need help on that day there won't much people there in the NHS.

  • I say that NHS are very caring because they have saved other people's lives and taken care of other people when they are very sick. The problem is that people who are old need to pay more money than people who are younger. When poor people come to the NHS they might not have the money so I think the price of the price should be lower.

  • I think that one thing which should be added to the NHS is a service for allowing patients to converse with GP doctors over video call- this would mean the patient could get the most out of their session. In additions, video calling could do wonders which a normal telephone call can’t, this would be to actively interact with the doctor and express yourself in more ways than one. In recent times, the amount of people going to A&E because of a general medical issue fit for being checked to by a GP has risen drastically. If you could video call a general practitioner, then you could seriously reduce the amount of non-emergency Accident and Emergency cases. In terms of the area of the NHS this would improve it would be:

    0 A&E waiting times
    0 Relief some stress of the GP
    0 Allow people overseas on holiday or work to interact with their usual doctor

    Secondly, some people are unable to visit their GP due to disabilities or distance, so being able to actively converse over not just call but video would allow the doctor to more deeply understand your problem. Thirdly, you could video call your doctor through the GP for more minor problems and get a proper check-up, not just advice like on NHS 111. Finally, to add on an interesting point about this video calling, it would open up a new realm of video calling not just general practitioners but also cardiologists and neurologists for firsthand advice and even check-ups. To summarise, video calling doctors would allow the ‘patient’ to actively converse and see the doctor while on a call allowing for a more productive experience.

  • My idea is to give every school an NHS mobile doctors surgery that is equipped with any thing needed to perform surgery and treat illnesses along with two doctors and two nurses that the school would have a choice to pay for so they have access to quick medical service in case anyone gets injured on school grounds.

  • My idea for improvement is that the NHS should have more beds and more staff so that it can accomodate more people. This would be a good idea because more people can be treated at a time. Therefore, it is less likely that the amount of people with injuries/illnesses will becoming overwhelming, and the NHS can no longer keep up.

  • I think the NHS could improve on getting more staff by maybe advertising and trying to motivate them. Getting more staff would help not only them but us a lot, specifically because of the coronavirus which has been affecting our world and the staff have been working very hard these couple of months. It would not only help them from the coronavirus but if and after the coronavirus it would help out the few of staff the NHS have later on during our lifetime.

  • Personally, I think that the NHS need to improve their amount of nurses and doctors, more facilities for hospitals and amount of medication they need. Improving the amount of nurses and doctors would improve the amount of patients being catered to and that would result in shorter waiting times and less havoc with staff.

    The NHS getting more facilities would largely improve hospitals because it would help cure patients and make hospitals a lot less packed and people wouldn't have to wait in for hours to be seen when they could possibly grow illnesses.

    Improving the amount of medication would help out a lot in the NHS because people wouldn't have to prebook for prescriptions. Also, people could just walk in and buy specialist medication and you wouldn't have to get a prescription and that would make hospitals and pharmacies a lot better because they would never run out of anything and people wouldn't complain or make others panic.

  • I think that the NHS needs to improve on spacing, more hospital beds and a few more hospitals to hold the spaces but for that to happen, they need more staff available that haven't got their hands full. The majority of issues or complaints against the NHS are the waiting times. This can only be resolved by an increase of doctors, nurses and other necessary jobs such as cleaners etc.

    If these spaces were filled by workers available for assistance then these waiting lists would decrease which could build relief and release stress of the overloaded, active and occupied workers. The discharged work that could appear in workers hands could show a high increase in profession, skill and knowledge towards their main jobs and tasks. So overall, the increase in spacing, more hospital beds and a few more hospitals to hold the spaces would even improve in the job itself.

    THIS INCREASE IS VITAL.

  • I think that the NHS should build a new hospital designed to combat the Covid-19 outbreak in England. This new hospital would incorporate a special ventilation system designed to stop the flow of the coronavirus, a special set of doors to act like an airlock and separate wards for each person. this hospital, despite costing a lot, would provide a service to victims of the disease, while keeping other non-infected patients safe from the outbreak.
    if china could do it, so can we.

  • My idea for improvement is to slowly modernise the IT systems a bit at a time. This would be a good idea as there would be less risk of leaking personal information and people could adjust easier to the new computer systems gradually. It would also help the funding for technology as they would,for example, give 1/10 of their money toward this each year.Therefore, I believe that we should slowly convert to modern IT systems.

  • I think we can help the NHS by helping fundraising for a good cause and help raise money for the NHS i think this would help the NHS because when they get the money they could use it to buy more hospital beds and vital things like that therefore I think we should fundraise.

  • I think that a portion of money earned from private hospitals should be funded to the NHS because they charge £250 and so if they earn that much for single patients, so surely if people visit often, then you would earn thousands of pounds a day.Over the course of several weeks, they could earn lots of money, and so that can be funded because the NHS is a larger company and it has more visitors. If a sickness breaks out, the NHS would need extra money to buy treatments and beds.

    Also, if such a thing happens, the wages of the nurses or doctors should be increased because the would have to work so hard. They might work extra hours to help so surely they would deserve something extra. That's why all the privatised hospitals should lend or fund money that they do not need. Having spare money should allow donations and so the NHS can support more patients.

  • I think that a large amount of money that is earned by private hospitals should be donated to the NHS because the NHS has many under-paid members of staff who have to work twelve-hour shifts and many are getting their salary cut. This could also be spent on things like hospital beds , which are in short supply at the moment , new medicines to treat problems like the Corona Virus , or to update the primitive computer systems that are being talked about so much at this time.

  • We should help improve the NHS by people coming in to educate children in hospital . Also people could come in and help the chefs in the kichen and bring food in for the patients . By doing this it saves money and they could focuse buying stuff like medicene and buy more beds that they dont have to pay rediculose amounts for them .If we do this then chorna virse patiens dont have to sleep on the floor like in history.

    1. I’m replying to active_song comment
      I agree with you, but the NHS is getting a bit understaffed due to the coronavirus, because if the patients have it then the staff will most likely develop it. That is why they wouldn’t be able to employ more staff in the kitchen.
      I fully agree with you, with educating the children. It will give them a rough idea of how the NHS works and how they are treating them.
      About the coronavirus I would recommend to do what Boris Johnson says. I know he doesn’t have a perfect reputation but I do feel like he is trying his best. If any of you have any advice on how to stay hygienic / prevent the coronavirus then please let me know because I’m making a booklet on all of the facts of the coronavirus just so I know what’s fake and what’s real news.
      Thank you
      -outstanding_orca-

  • I think a big problem is that people are smoking and drinking and nurses and doctors have to help them! My teacher told me that she knew someone who is a nurse and she said “I am tired of helping people who get drunk and when I try to help them and they keep swearing at me and not letting me help them!” I think that the NHS should not try to help them because they are so mean to them I know they are drunk 🥴 I know the NHS is suppose to help everyone but I do not think it is fair on the NHS and the drunk people are taking up most of the money that the NHS is given! So, I think the NHS or scientists should try to make a alternative to drinking 🍺and smoking 🚬 because the affect that smoking gives on us is bad because it is bad for our lungs and it is really addicting I know most of us children won’t do it because we have learnt that is bad for us so therefore we might not smoke! I know it will consume a lot of many and other people would probably argue against it! It could be a option!
    Thanks for reading! By loyal_lobster❤️

    1. Oh no! My comment does not really match!😱

  • I would add something like a app were we would had to every month pay over £29 Why? Because if we dont do anything like cilmate change would regret the punishment in The future and we love the NHS it was shown in 2013 when lots of people show a flag saying we love NHS

  • My idea is that they need more helping people who go to A and E. I said that because people who go to A and E with a major accident sometimes do not get seen for an hour or sometimes even longer. Think if you were that person and you were in a lot pain and nobody came to see you for three hours and then you were seen and they said that it would be really hard to do surgery and might end in you not having a limb. Some people do not like the thought of that because it scares them as that could happen to them. And there might be someone who came into A and E and they were saw straight away. I think that they should see people with a more of a major injury rather then them having to wait. But also it is really hard for the hospitals right know because of the cronoavirus and i know it is not really high in the UK but they still they have to be really careful about their hygiene because they do not want to get it. And they can not go into lock down because people still need to be able to go to hospital for problems and hospital appointments. So it is really hard to get more people to work at the hospital.
    Thank you
    compelling_mouse

  • I think the NHS could improved by upgrading the technology because they can get patients their medicine quicker and the NHS will have to login to at least 12 different systems to do there work.

  • I believe that we should update the computers. This will cause less stress and can help the workers concentrate. It can also help workers keep track of patients medical records in order not to harm any body.

  • To improve the NHS I would create an app that registers and can identify whether people have a minor problem or whether they need to see a doctor. It could tell this by people having a device like a thermometer that they could put in their ear and would send the results to doctors. This would mean that there would be less queues and there wouldn't be as longer waits. This would also prevent people coming to the doctors for something minor and could also give people advice on what to do with their issue.

    This can also help to teach people about injuries as well as teaching doctors, nurses and even dentist about how to deal with problems and how to protect yourself from them.

    Another way the NHS could improve is by creating smaller hospitals in lots of places so that people can access hospitals more easily and be able to access health care more easily. This would help because at the moment people are having to travel miles (especially if the live in the countryside) to get to a hospital. By doing this it will mean that the pre-existing hospitals will be less busy and that people can get health care more quickly.

    However this may cost quite a bit of money and in the NHS's struggle this would be hard to do and get the money for. But to get the money they could save up over years by using the spare money and time from the app reducing some of the issues that they would easily have enough money for this plan. It may be a pain to perform this plan but the result in a few years time would mean that they NHS would run a lot more smoothly and would be more organised. This would result in the NHS having more money and would be in a less struggle and stress.

    Thank you for reading my comment and I hope you are well considering the struggles of the world at the moment.

  • There are many ways in which the NHS could improve: By paying higher wages. This may just sound like another way for the NHS to lose more money but it could actually help. By paying higher wages (because the wages are very low at the moment) means that it could attract more people so more jobs can be filled. At the moment the NHS have almost 100,000 jobs that haven't been filled so by doing this it would mean that people would have more reason to become a doctor at NHS. Roughly around 20,000 people would be employed meaning the NHS could cater for an extra 20,000 or so people at a time. However, by doing this the NHS would lose a lot more money, but over the years after the pay-rise, they could slowly decrease the income amount so it can get back to normal. This would get them to the same status but with more staff members than usual.

    The NHS need more vacancies to be filled because they have many jobs that are not covered at the moment resulting in more pressure and stress for current employees. The more doctors and nurses employed, the more patients that can be treated at the same time. At the moment there is a small amount of doctors as well as large under funding from the government.

    This may sound like a stupid idea at first but could improve the status of the NHS job-wise and decrease the stress as a result. This could improve the NHS's organisation as well as decreasing the waiting time for patients to see a doctor or nurse and resulting in the NHS having more time to plan and have more time with patients.

  • The problem is that the cost of the money is getting higher and older people have to pay more money then the younger people. I think the cost should go down because it is unfair because older people have to pay more money than younger people. Also the NHS are very caring to people who are very sick.

  • My idea to improve the NHS is to make even better working conditions for staff.To do this, they could decorate the staff room to make it even better.I am not sure what they already have but maybe adding something to entertain the staff would help.My idea was a tv or some type of playstation or something fun for them to do on their breaks.Im not sure how long the breaks for a nurse or a doctor is but I thing that it should be from 15minutes-20minutes.This may seem like a lot of time but the workers of the NHS can get really stressed while working, I think a room full of the things they love would really help!Another thing to help the NHS staff feel more comfortable could be to personalise their uniforms/scrubs- nothing too much but maybe add a few diamonds or smiley faces or whatever they like, maybe even let them choose a colour!Since I'm already talking about personalising, maybe they could add stickers to their desk to make it more fun and comfortable for them!!!I know if I was a nurse this would really help me!

  • One improvement the NHS could have is, making the prices of things such as very sugary sweets, alcohol and ciggerates, and many other things that may be bad for your health. By doing this, it might decrease the amount of people visiting the docters. It would prevent it because if you eat to many sugary sweets, or thing that are bad for you, you may need to go to the hospital for cause such as diabetes. If we increase the price of unhealthy things, a small amount of hospital visits will be cut. Yes, the NHS might have different visits, ones that are broken bones or life threatening conditions, as they cannot be avoided as easily.
    Over all, I think the NHS should increase the amount of unhealthy things, as it may decrease the amount of visits.
    entertaining_strawberry

  • I think that the government should make resources (electricity,water) nationalised so people would not have to spend so much money on water,gas and electricity bills.The government could increase the tax and put more of the tax money to the NHS.Also they could take tax money away from things like weapons and defence which are not good because they kill people which is the opposite goal of the NHS.

  • Here is my comment, hope you enjoy.

    A big problem with the NHS is that they are to underfunded for the amount of people that are using it, and because we have free healthcare, people have a higher life expectancy and older people need more health care and because that is offered to them, the NHS and hospitals are flooded with people who need healthcare, manly older people because the NHS is keeping them alive. In my opinion, the NHS is not helping them self as keeping people alive does keep making them come back with more problems, wasting money and doctors/nurses, when they are needed for helping tackle the coronavirus. If the government was to fund the NHS more, then they could supply everybody with free health care and help tackle the coronavirus. The only other thing that I could think of is that the NHS is not free and charge a small fee (less than private health care) to help support the amount of money that the government give to them from the taxes.

    This is my view, hope you consider

  • The NHS is very helpful, it helps people get better.What will happen when it looses staff!Will it stars to loose patients.We dont know!

  • One improvement for the NHS would be to find any way we possibly can to get more staff. You could get people from the NHS to go to primary /secondary schools and tell them what you do to work there and how much knowledge and enjoyment that you can get from it. Im shore that that would help. One, it would spread the word and two it may convince some of the younger generations to get into the world of saving lives.!😁

  • I think they should add extra staff to people who come to A&E so people can get service quicker. I don't mean give more money to the NHS I mean take some staff from the hospital wards so people who have cracked there head open for example they wouldn't have to wait 3 and a half hours.

  • I think they should make lane on the road for ambulances only so that they can freely drive to a hospital and get there quick enough. I also believe that the NHS (National Health Service) should have bigger ambulance vans so that if they are far away from a hospital and the patient needs urgent care then they can start an operation in the van so they can receive immediate care.

    - active_sheep -

  • My idea for improvement is to share all the achievements and awards that the NHS receive so that the whole world knows what a great hospital the NHS really is. This would be a good idea because the NHS patients can be sure that the NHS employees are qualified and that they are recognised for their job. Most NHS hospitals get awards because they deserve it and patients should know that. Awards are achievements that should be shared with the whole world, achievements are something to be proud of. I would do this by putting the award and achievements on the hospital website so that everyone can see them and they can tell other people so that everyone is notified. When the awards and achievements are on the NHS website this will ensure that the NHS carry on getting awards and achievements to show what the NHS employees can do.

  • My idea for improvement is that the NHS staff get their treatment too. Due to the decreasing amount of NHS staff and the increasing amount of our population, the strain on the NHS is quite a burden and can disturb staff on a day-to-day basis. With only 20 minutes of meal breaks and 10.1 hours of work, it can heavily affect the function of the NHS staff. Therefore, I think there should be a medication or therapy all NHS staff should have so they are stable and focused when ready to work. For example, if a doctor were to be very worn out and they were to carry out surgery on a dying patient, if they are not mentally active and make a mistake the patient's life is put on a line. Therefore, I strongly think this idea will benefit the patient and the doctor as if a member of staff did not have a good sleep and goes to work this can result in them having thinking issues which are very dangerous to have especially if a patient is fighting for their life and you need to think fast. Also, it may be that some staff may not be having enough sleep due to the stress they are undergoing which is mostly the reason why the NHS did not reach their 4-hour-target. Therefore, if the staff are treated badly, then the patient will be treated badly which would benefit no-one. In conclusion, I think my idea for improvement is good as it would help doctors' and staffs' mental activeness increase.

    Thank you for reading.
    memorable_orchard.

  • I think that we should add specific waiting rooms for specific people so that more life threatening conditions can go firs where as a broken leg waiting room could probably have wheelchairs and crutches and a sickness room could have sick bag dispensers

  • I think the NHS could improve there pay for the staff, because

  • My idea of improvement is for the government invest more money to the NHS so that a lot more cases and problems can be solved so that we can have a much more healthier country and people won't be scared to go out because they won't have to worry about catching viruses or germs.

  • I think that to improve the NHS we need to work with the amount of money being raised. To sort this out we could ask schools if they could run more charity and fundraising advents were we could get a certain percent of the money to the NHS. This will help because the NHS aid a very busy hospital and a lot of people go there so if they have ,ore money they can buy more equipment to help them. They could also run an event where they ask for old beds, walking frames,crutches and wheel chairs that people don't use any more, this way they might not have to spend a lot of money on equipment like that. It would be great because we are using things that we don't use any more for a good cause. Yhankyou for reading my comment. By genius_chocolate

  • I think the NHS could improve there staff pay, because at the moment they are doing life saving work. Also people are leaving the NHS due to the pay is so little and the work is so big. One reason the work is so big is because 55,000 people on Wednesday, but in fact Wednesday and Tuesday are the busiest days, with a number of 55,000 people on Wednesday and 54,000 people on Tuesday. The NHS are so important because they will treat you when ever and they will not make you pay on the spot. They are a fonominal service for us to have, but lots of people abuse the right of having them like calling them on a not serious advent, wich wastes there time and also they are depriving other people that are really in need.

  • My idea is to bring back the workers who use to work there, but they have retired-obviously if they are ill they can not go back but the elderly people who are fit and healthy could maybe sacrifice 2 or more days of their week to help the NHS ago do paperwork or even helping sick patients. This will then reduce the money being spent and it might save up enough money to either get more equipment or get more toys and activities to do for the kids.

  • My idea for improvement would be to have an app available for apple, android and computers designed for children so that if hey are scared, they can look around the hospital and see where they are being treated, as well as who will be treating them. I would also make it funner for both the children and adults to learn about the hospital and where they go.

  • My ideas for improvement are that when you are waiting to be seen by a doctor the times should be a bit quicker because when I was waiting to get crutches for 4 hours and another time I was in hospital I lost control of my arm and no doctor was their so we had to call one. Some people think another improvement could be that people could be that everyone could pay a small amount of money to go to the hospital and be seen,that way people will only go their if they are really ill. Lastly, I think that instead of the government deciding what we should do to improve hospitals i think that the doctors and nurses should say what they think because it is their job.

  • My idea for improvement is for more beds because if someone is badly hurt and they have to wait in the waiting place since they are badly hurt they can wait in those beds so they have a little rest.There are many people who come to hospitals and surgeries for treatments and loads of people have to wait so I think my idea is very useful at this rate.I think that if you are waiting for so long you might complain so if there is more beds people will be calm and think that the NHS is very thoughtful(which they are).My other idea is to put more entertainment for children which are waiting since they will get bored.

  • At the moment the NHS is at a very suitable level although, can we not make it even better? The health care is the most important thing of the NHS. This is because, many of these days people get really sick of different diseases. Yes, the NHS is doing their best to keep all human beings well, healthy and lasting lifes for a long period. The point I am trying to make is that some people can not survive of the certain diseases that has caused this to happen. To push further, we should improve the health care by persuading more doctors and nurses to work for the NHS, providing more beds, a development of ques and much more that will make people feel happy and visit the NHS. Your national health service is ahead of your future.

    brilliant_fossil

  • My idea for improvement at the NHS is different lines for different age categories.

    This is my idea because firstly the service will be much faster because you are splitting the hospital into three lines and there will be the same amount of NHS staff in each category and they will know what type of age category needs what. Secondly, people will not have to wait as long in line whereas if you do three lines, the service will be much quicker and you won't need to worry about being stuck in a germ- filled hospital for 3 hours. Thirdly, this will also help against the corona viruse because if the you were treating an elderly person, then you would know how serious it would be but if you where treating a young child then you know it won't be that serious.