Suggestions for reforming the health service included opening a Wetherspoons pub in every hospital

The Labour Government’s public consultation on the future of the NHS has backfired, with its website being bombarded with ludicrous suggestions for reform, including putting pubs into hospitals and serving waffles for every meal.

Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, this week launched an online consultation aimed at giving patients and staff input into the future of the health service over the next 10 years.

The move has already attracted more than 4,500 comments, but while many make sensible suggestions – including better IT systems, improvements to primary care services, and less money spent on management and outsourcing – there have also been a large number of less-helpful suggestions.

One comment called for ‘a Wetherspoons in every hospital to reduce rates of mental illness’; another wanted cinema tickets to be made available free; and there was a demand to enforce a maximum BMI for all nurses.

One comment stated: “Cinemas need a boost and we need hospital beds. The solution – the NHS rents out empty seats in cinemas so people can watch a film while they’re waiting to be seen or under observation.”

Dr who?

Others suggested playing videos of former Prime Minister, Theresa May, dancing in A&E waiting rooms to ‘make people leave’; and putting Lord Alli in charge of supplying NHS clothing given the ‘national treasure’ is the UK’s ‘number one provider of workwear’.

There was even one comment that Daleks should be employed in the NHS as they ‘have lots of experience with doctors and will make excellent staff’.

But in among the more-far-fetched suggestions were a large number of comments which could help to increase efficiency and reduce inequalities.

N Hassall said roof space and car parks should be more widely used for solar panels to enable NHS estates to capture free energy and reduce the costs of annual energy bills.

They also wanted to see the return on cottage hospitals, stating: “We need an interim care setting for elderly patients which does not need to be in a hospital setting.

“Use cottage hospitals until social care provision can be established back into the community, ideally with care in the home or arranging a care home when not appropriate.”

One person said Daleks should be employed in the NHS

Cooling down

Claire Bradshaw said heating in hospitals should be turned down by one degree, saying: “After spending several days in an overly-hot ward and hearing both patients and nurses complain about the temperature, it struck me if heating settings were lowered by one degree across the NHS then a huge amount of money would be saved annually.”

And Jane Gough wanted cleaner air and more-robust infection control measures.

She said: “All healthcare settings should have high standards of ventilation and robust infection control to reduce hospital acquired infections that make patients sicker than when they came in.

“Staff need adequate training in infection control, including the fact that COVID is airborne and still prevalent.

“The evidence for good ventilation and high-quality masks as effective tools to reduce airborne infections is abundant and this should be reflected in the practices in all healthcare settings.”

There were also comments around higher-quality food in hospitals and an end to parking fees.

Mr Streeting saw the funny side to the responses later posting on X (formerly Twitter) that the idea to include a pub in every hospital was ‘sadly vetoed by the Chancellor’.

He also rejected calls for him to fired out of a cannon to raise funds for the NHS.

More-helpful suggestions included turning the heating down by one degree in hospitals