much new- As a social care expert, I have nothing much new  to say about funding for the NHS.. What I have experienced since moving the the UK almost 30 years ago, personally and professionally, is the  the effect of dysfunctional management.  Even in Germany I used to find that more Doctors might be able to have views or even training in Integrated Medicine. But in the UK, having lived in Scotland, Wales and England, I find the picture is made much worse by a wide-spread blinkered thinking and management, ignoring basic standards of interdisciplinary cooperation, and critical thinking - to the disadvantage of the quality of care.
Reporting  on my own case of knee problem:
Ca 2014, after a serious fall, I developed knee pain (the walk-in treatment centre in Nottingham had only treated my heavily bleeding thumb). Eventually a young doc after an x-ray (in Bonn) confirmed what one of the same in the UK had told me already: knee replacement was the only way. Instead, I did my own research, used acupuncture and acupressure, bandages and some natural remedies, I am now 85% pain-free and have 75% mobility in that knee.  Pretty good outcome for one of those replacements I gather, without the cost.  😏 You may want to say that was an untypical case. However professionally, as a social worker, in England, I have found that similar happens very frequently. I do all I can to empower would-be patients to do their own responsible research.
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Having met several patients throughout my career who lived in modest, decent, well-cared for environments and spent their days - listening to what i didn't know or the silence or - music... I find it difficult to agree with the statement. It takes so little to make life easier for carers and clients themselves:
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https://www.england.nhs.uk/blog/music-and-dementia-a-powerful-connector

One helpful resource finding a way through the jungle of lack of staff and resources:
https://www.facebook.com/CareToBeDifferent
especially  worth for sharing information re getting access to Continuing Healthcare (NHS-funding, no financial assessment but lots of traps to avoid in the process)

Not every practitioner is good for everyone, and personality as well as background matter. Personally, I very much appreciate information from the UCLA research centre MARC and have one favourite author there, Diana Winston. She has researched the technique in its original Buddhist context AND  has become able to translate the general human characteristics underneath that religion into clinical and community practice:
​https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations

Working as a social worker, I began to advocate self help. In one locality, able to reduce waiting times by providing clients on the waiting list access to the following resource:
​https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself

​https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o336

 https://centralbylines.co.uk/protecting-the-whistleblowers-part-2/

​In a nutshell, in 2018 this whistleblower brought a case against the Govt for failing to provide services that would have protected the law (such as Employment Tribunal staff and Legal Aid), at the beginning of the pandemic, the Court of Appeal lost the paper work, asked to resubmit in 2021, the Court of Appeal issued the case with the new date - and then struck out as out of date. As I say in my article above, and as Katharine Gun said 'I would do it again'. More issues to come...

https://centralbylines.co.uk/protecting-the-whistleblowers-part-1/
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thank you to the Central Bylines editor for his hard work on this as other matters.

from a recent letter to the Health Select Committee:
​Dear Jeremy Hunt,

please allow me to bring to your attention again the case against the UK Govt I had to bring following your speech before Parliament after the Gosport Enquiry in 2018.
Unfortunately the Dept for HSC had refused at least since 2014 to follow the guidance by Sir Robert Francis QC to settle asap, and had throughout failed to protect me from breaches of the law by failing to provide effective services (including Legal Aid and holding Barristers to their professional standards).

It is not too late to do that now. The case is currently with the Court of Appeal (where there is precedence that they can correct an unrepresented litigant's legal argument) and I have applied for it to be referred to the Supreme Ct because of the national importance.
The adversarial system has been abused by the Barrister opposite by speaking untruthfully and misconstruing evidence in order to discredit me. The Judge in 2016 (and Appeal Judges after him) has ignored evidence before him from both sides.
I have also asked to fast-track the aspect of my compensation while referring the other aspects of injustice for international arbitration.
...

Again after some difficulties,  again, logging into this site, I am back to share developments:
Retired I am not, but a small state pension, gives me a little more flexibility than before during 10 years of representing myself in the legal case against the detriment caused after a Public Interest Disclosure in the NHS. Due to breaches of the law during the process - beginning with the fact that I was unrepresented throughout, justice has not yet been achieved. In 2018, after Jeremy Hunt's statement before Parliament after the Gosport Enquiry, I decided to bring a new case against the UK Government for failing to protect me from those breaches of the law. Delayed by covid, this is now pending before the Court of Appeal. 
While no longer registered as a social worker, I remain available for private consultations, reports and even expert witness work in a limited field of experience - round MCA, MHA, quality of care OP,  personal independence for disabled, care planning.
​I am very pleased, that I can occasionally offer some suggestions for people struggling with issues around Continuing Care NHS funding, through the fb page 'Care to be Different' and share some insights related to the Hearing Voices Movement, on fb as well.
I also pursue my research interests - how inner resources help to overcome crises. More of that hopefully soon.
Some past papers can be found here 
https://independent.academia.edu/BarbaraSchaefer
or here:
https://www.cambridge.org/engage/coe/article-details/5fa5760efc3a990012f895c8  

without being part of any of the related denominations, from my non-religious perspective, I am delighted about the platform of 12-step-spirituality and zoom meditations:

https://www.12stepspirituality.org/,
looking for ways to further support women and a secular approach in this.

For some relatively minor health issues - as they may creep up on someone approaching 70 - I have been fortunate to use the EHIC - as an EC-citizen with Settled Status in the UK, or, as I have recently described my home for 25 years- the self-isolating island....















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