Save the NHS

Jendurham I don't understand your comments. My husband has worked for the NHS since he qualified. He doesn't 'pretend' to be part of the NHS, it is the government that decides patient charges. Have you considered that if you were an hour late going in to see your dentist he could have been dealing with an emergency - a matter of life and death?

The 'new contracts' for both doctors and dentists were imposed on the professions by the last government. As greatnan said, the GPs couldn't believe how good their contracts were but dentists could believe how bad their contracts were because, yet again, they are made to look as though they are money grabbing. All dentists know that the service is being privatised by the back door.

None of this alters the fact that there are huge inefficiencies in the way the PCTs are run (see above) and the fact that rationing exists because there is not enough money for everyone to have everything. What would you suggest?

Kittylester, where have you been for the last 10+ years?
Dentists just pretend they are part of the NHS.
I had a checkup the other day. £17.50 for less than 5 minutes, and an hour late going in.
The reason the NHS is in such a mess is because of what this govt. has been doing to it since it promised no topdown reorganisation.

Gracesmum, I'd be surprised if the money went to the NHS. Most of the catering, which includes the coffee machines, has been outsourced for years, unfortunately. These days it's quite often the company that had the PFI for the hospital.

When DH nd I were at the Heart Hospital last Monday, the hot drinks machine swallowed up 2 £ coins and still didn't dispense a hot drink or refund my money. I would like to think my donation to the NHS has been appreciated.

Thought you might like update on the current NHS and it's total disorganisation following on from my previous post about the debacle surrounding my husband's payments.

He had a phone call yesterday from yet another department to say that he was right, they were wrong, as were all the other dentists who argued with them, There was a fundamental flaw in the system!! This sort of inefficiency and waste will be replicated across the country and across all the departments resulting in rationing of actual care.

The NHS is unsustainable in its present, disorganised, form. There is not enough money for everyone to have everything and there needs to be fundamental reform.

I think the Tory party, which, let us remember, promised before the last election that it had no plans for top down reorganisation of the NHS, is hell-bent on NHS destruction. (I suppose in a way, the party's promise was true.) I think the plans have progressed too far for the NHS to be rescued. RIP NHS.

Greatnan, the link to the petition is
epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38851

The National Health Action Party is
nationalhealthaction.org.uk

Loads of stuff on Twitter about the NHA Party launch.

If you can find stuff on 38 degrees. It's not as organised as this site.
I have just seen an article on the Green Benches website.
Apparently Care UK which has bought Harmoni out of hours and 111 contracts has had to sell £75m of its own bonds in order to raise cash to pay for the takeover, in other words to make GPs millionaires. Care UK is heavily in debt and is now to be more so. If it was a hospital it would have to be privatised!

38 Degrees (see my OP) has an ongoing campaign about NHS 'reforms'

Jen, can you give me a link to the other petition?
I read now that there are plans to close a large number of A & E departments and centralise them - surely people in an emergency need to be treated quickly? Everything is about the bottom line.

I have come across another e-petition to sign.
Private providers of public services to be subject to Freedom of Information Act.
At the moment it is impossible to find out about how much Branson controls and how much he has paid and is paid for our NHS services, because of confidentiality clauses in the FOI Act.
The same with lots of other companies. If they want to buy our public services, they should have to be open about it.

I begrudge GPs making millions from selling out of hours care to a private healthcare company.
It was a GP cooperative called Harmoni. 5 of the GPs made £2.8 million which could amount to £6.3 million including shares each. In the same article it says that fewer than 3% of GPs earn more than £200,000 a year.
This is money that belongs to the NHS.
Why is out of hours so lucrative? The NHS was a 24 hour service until a few years ago.
Why would a private healthcare company want to buy it unless it could make even more money out of it?
The link is epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/40126 if you want to find out which private healthcare companies have connections to govt. ministers.

done.we must fight this not just for us but for all the generation's to come. This goverment do just as they please regardless of how the nation feel's. Hope it does some good but not optimistic.

I think that the new contract for GPs surprised even the BMA by its favourable terms for a 35-hour week. I found the following on the official website:

'The GP earnings report also shows that the number of GPs earning more than £200,000 fell by 2.2% from 900 to 720 last year.

GP partners in England earned more than those in the rest of the UK, with average income before tax of £107,700 compared to £89,300 in Scotland, £92,300 in Wales and £88,000 in Northern Ireland. For salaried GPs, the UK average income before tax in 2010/11 was £57,600, compared to £58,000 in 2009/10.'

Nobody would grudge GPs a decent return for all the years of study, but something needs to be done about the provision for out-of-hours care, which is often fragmented, inefficient and very expensive. Agencies are charging small fortunes to supply locums, some of whom have poor English.

Trending again, twice in one day. It's even on the first page now, 10 signatures in the last hour!

Have you read the article in the Guardian about the GPs who have made millions by selling their out of hours practice to Care uk?
Please read it and then tell me that you think it's okay to privatise parts of the NHS.
If you do not, then sign my petition at epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/40126

At the moment in the UK, the people who need it most seem to be the ones who are falling through the net (:

My point is, that as a society we make choices on what we spend money on.

Of course waste and inefficiencies has to be dealt with and improvements made - but still, the % of GDP spent in the UK is relatively low compared to other developed countries- and as said, about the same as Hungary. Shocking, no?

We blinkin' well aren't Jess. There are three 'managers' involved in the rubbish from our PCT all of them earning lots of money that could be spent treating patients.

Not sure what your point is granjura. Some countries spend more, but that does not mean they are spending the money in a way that most benefits the people who need it most.

And yet, the % of GDP spent on healthcare in the UK is 19th in the world, with 7.5% - the same more or less than Hungary.

Quite fortuitously, though I missed the Dispatches programme last night, I have just read the associated article

jen, you are so wrong to believe we don't care. We do and have shown it many times in the past year or so. In fact, I did sign your petition, in addition to others that I have signed, mainly through 38 Degrees as well as having written to my MP on several occasions - though he's probably a lost cause. I am well aware of how much I and my family owe to the NHS and hold it very dear. Please don't assume that you are the only one on these forums fighting to preserve it.

It's not about having a private health service.

No-one is advocating getting rid of the NHS, just that it is obviously unsustainable as it is.

I don't know the answers but, at present, my husband cannot treat all the people who are in real need - that can't be right!

Okay, I give up, you can have your private health service.
Can't be bothered any more on this site.
My mother was a nurse before the NHS came into being. Her father died because they could not afford medication for him.
My father died on the ward where she finished her nursing. She got MRSA and died. She worked once in a fever hospital and if she or any of the other nurses passed a disease between patients they would have been sacked.
Just look at how many hospitals, etc. have been built and owned by Balfour Beatty. They not only own the hospitals , they own the catering, the carparks and the cleaning. They have now decided not to stay in building because they get more money from the rest of the services.
This govt. has not stopped doing PPP contracts. Like everything else to do with the health service it just does not tell us.
Last sermon. Goodbye.