Privatisation through the backdoor?

And we have the US apparently waiting to take over parts of the NHS as part of a trade deal!, that and chlorinated chickens Groan. I will be v v v angry if US gets its hand on any of our NHS.

Several NHS services have been transferred to Virgin and other services in our local area, and I feel they are nowhere near as good.

My husband has Diebetes Type 2, and used to have regular annual checks on his feet. Now taken over by Virgin, the assistant said that he no longer needs these checks which used to be considered vital for diebetics.

Also, my son has glaucoma and used to have 2 eye checks yearly. Now taken over my ISight, checks have reduced to once yearly, and he has to travel further.

Steps in the wrong direction, I think.

One of my neighbours is a nurse in the intensive care unit - only 8 beds and she says that at least 1 bed is usually occupied by someone who has been transferred from a private hospital - because something went wrong and they couldn't deal with it. Or, in other words, our NHS is regularly subsidising the profits of private "health" companies. It should be a scandal.

Our local mammogram services have been stopped and women are now having to travel about 40 miles for one
It is disgusting,not everyone has transport ,and train fare is expensive,which means a lot of women will not go

I was aware of this and I am absolutely against it. I’ve signed numerous petitions to prevent it, but obviously to no avail. The government should be ashamed of their behaviour because as sure as eggs are eggs there will be no private providers queuing up for the Cinderella services like care of the elderly and mental health or if they are, their interests in profit will doubtless have an adverse affect on the quality of care. If staff are paid a decent salary and have good terms and conditions they are happy in their work and this transfers to the care they give. If staff are overwhelmed by the workload they cannot be expected to give the same standards of care and the turnover rate increases. An appalling state of affairs.

Jaxie this government is not only vile but pure ba.....ds.

My GP surgery was taken over by Virgin Health and my statins prescription was immediately changed for the cheapest generic version, in spite of the fact that I had initially been prescribed this and it gave me thumping headaches. I informed the practice that I had been paying National Insurance contributions since 1959 and considered that at the age of 74 I was entitled to be supplied with suitable medication. My prescription for Lipitor was reinstated. Last month I went to collect it only to be told by the pharmacy that they had no supplies and could only give me the headache inducing statin. It's all to do with profit for Richard Branson. The Labour politicians who set up the NHS must be rotating in their graves. And I won't start on why this vile government has ceased to pay bursaries to trainee nurses.

I will back the NHS as a free service all the way as I have seen and helped, people who need medical treatment and can't afford even the basics in other countries. No good talking about health insurance when we have food banks. The NHS needs to get back to basics, that is treating those that are ill not drunks. 38 degrees has been campaigning against Richard B for some time now. We need to stop privatisation

Trouble is Virgin care cherry pick the most lucrative contracts and opt out of the necessary work that the NHS still has to provide.

I've lived abroad with no ambulance service unless you paid into a private scheme - that would save the NHS a bomb.

Whenever anyone went to the general hospital [not the private ones] there was a set fee of €6 - I'd imagine that might separate some of the time wasters.

The NHS is on its knees and will not be able to continue as it currently is for all that much longer.

I did not deny the existence if drunks in A&E ellenvannin. I hate the noise and disruption they cause as much as you do. However if you are going to pick apart everything I say, then get it right. I said the cut fingers and paracetamol calls for the ambulance service are an urban myth. Thank you.

As for Virgin's takeover of GP services - I read an interview where he said that the GP practices he already had, always had a GP available to see someone, and that was all that counted. He refused to take on board that most people want to see the same GP whenever they need an appointment! (And, actually, it's safer for that to happen - if a GP knows you, and knows what's "normal" for you, then he/she is far more likely to spot when something is going wrong). Private companies treat us like manufacturing units - it's all about "throughput".

Margaret Thatcher was the first PM to allow private companies to bid for NHS services - in her case, the Cleaning Services. I have read that this was done by her advisers to stop what she really wanted to do which was to privatise the NHS fully (it was considered too risky politically). John Major carried it on, and Tony Blair embraced the Public/Private Initiatives (PPIs) that hospitals are still paying off today (and this is why most of them are deeply in debt). I learned only last week that our blood transfusion service is owned by an American company. Yes, privatisation by stealth - most people don't even realise it's happening, sadly.

All of our GPs run private practices since day 1 of our NHS.

What concerns me is the waste of 250,000 women not showing up for their cancer screening appointments.

What do the NHS radiologists do instead?

Don't you tell me to wind my neck in ! It's you with a chip on your shoulder, not me !
It's no " urban myth " that NHS staff have to deal with obnoxious people that there has to be security officers guarding some hospitals----why do you think that ?

I have paid for treatment abroad and been damn glad of it at the time too------the same as I'd be glad to pay the NHS if I ever needed them URGENTLY !!

Ellanvannin don't like your tone, what do you mean by 'people like you'. ? You have no idea what I do for a living, where I spend my time, what my exposure is to A & E so wind your neck in. The emergency services do not attend for cut fingers or hand out paracetemol by ambulance, this is an urban myth, the calls are handled, dealt with appropriately and advice given. Be thankful that your local surgery is not run by Virgin Health then you would have cause for complaint.

I haven't worked in the NHS but I have sat in A&E Departments where a policeman has to stay with a drunk who is causing chaos for the nursing staff or is being abusive. Meanwhile, a lot of the people waiting are laughing and chatting before complaining of the wait. I'd really like to see different units dealing with those that have taken drink or drugs and a much better triage service for those who have minor complaints. Mind you, we now have to wait so long for Dr's appointments that it is hardly surprising A&E are packed. I remember the days when you could see your Dr on a Saturday morning or later in the evenings. I think a return to that system would free up A&E.

Yes Charleygirl5, I worked in A&E------enough said !

In my youth, I spent 3-4 days with London's emergency ambulance service. I thought I would be watching them work on road traffic accidents, going to patients who had had a heart attack, fallen downstairs and broken limbs but no, we went to see people who had a headache but did not happen to have Panadol. A pinprick of a cut finger, drunks in the street and so on. We ended up acting more like social workers and I felt heart sorry for the ambulance staff
because it was not what they had signed up for. Some people also thought the ambulance was a free taxi service. Unbelievable,

If we had a Medicare system such as Australia it would also free-up our surgeries and GP's wouldn't be so rushed off their feet dealing with 7minute consultations. Aussie GP's are far more laid-back so therefore can give you the time needed unlike our own GP's.

Not all consultants are like that jura2 - one I know tells some of his wealthy patients not to bother with going private as the cancer treatment will be identical and in effect they will just be paying for a private room. Obviously some still choose to go private just for the room but at least he tells them the truth when that is the case.
Also there are some private hospitals with A&E - we used to use one in South Manchester a few years ago to save queuing in the NHS one.

Urmstongran -Ever noticed these private hospitals don’t have A&E departments - no they leave the messy work to the NHS it seems!

Exactly! ... and they don't have intensive care either. They want the high profit routine procedures where you can make big profits.

Had a friend that had a routine gallbladder operation in a private hospital. However in the middle of the night he started to hemorrhage. Turned out that the private hospital and no night doctors and no facilities for intensive care! So the night nurse merely dialed 999 and handed him over to the NHS to deal with the complications of the private operation.

GILLT57------time-wasters of which I saw plenty while working in the NHS. Violent drunks in A&E where it took nearly their quota of staff to calm them down when someone with a heart condition, already distressed had to see/listen to what was going on.
Ambulance call-outs for cut fingers ( not the finger hanging off ) and again, callouts for drunks and many more needless calls.

It would do people like you some good to spend a weekend in an A&E department---it's no picnic for the staff who have to deal with these " time-wasters ". They're there to tend to genuinely sick people----for which the staff do so remarkably well.

As for means-testing, why not ? Shouldn't those who CAN afford to pay for treatment, do so ? We treat millionaires for free !

well Branson/Virgin has made an absolute arse of running GP surgeries in Essex, so bad that it even made the main news. He has a record of legal action when he doesn't get the contracts he thinks he should get/loses them; Virgin trains being the best known example. Ellenvannin although I know I will likely disagree with your simplistic approach to healthcare, just what do you mean by 'time wasters' and 'means tested'?

There'd be far less time-wasters ! Easing up our NHS.
Privatisation has got to come sooner or later if we wish to keep surgeries and hospitals going because right now it's not working even with the millions that are getting poured into these services.

Medicare works in Australia.