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George Osborne confirms an extra £2bn in annual funding for frontline NHS

(57 Posts)
AlieOxon Sun 30-Nov-14 20:47:52

AND - One of the world's biggest weapons-makers is targeting an NHS contract worth £1 billion...Lockheed Martin. (Email from 'sumofus.org')

....comments?

magpie123 Tue 30-Dec-14 11:39:02

Your head obviously is in the sand. Before we joined the EU I had no problem getting a doctors appointment and lots of my friends and family agree with me. Same amount of GP surgeries and Hospitals but too many people needing them now. Same goes for school places, too many people coming over from the EU countries and their children taking school places.

Obviously any money put into the NHS is good.

durhamjen Tue 30-Dec-14 11:37:24

According to the OBR we have lots of room for foreigners still, magpie. We are not full to bursting. It's just that rich people keep most of their money and take it away from the NHS and councils.

vampirequeen Tue 30-Dec-14 11:16:20

Then my head must be firmly in the sand because I thought it was due to lack of adequate funding.

magpie123 Tue 30-Dec-14 10:49:06

Why will some people not face facts, Britain is fit to bursting that's why you can't get to see a GP for days, especially in some parts of the country. Since we have been in the EU things have got worse. It's obvious unless you have your head in the sand.

durhamjen Tue 30-Dec-14 00:16:26

This is what is happening to the NHS and why we cannot see a GP for days.

www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/views-from-the-nhs-frontline/2014/sep/15/burnout-gp-nhs

This is one of the twelve best NHS stories in the Guardian this year.

whitewave Tue 02-Dec-14 11:07:07

Blimey there seems to be a bottomless pit at the moment!

So NHS, roads, flood defences, tax breaks for the elderly - now is the time to guess from where the money is coming. Mine is from the working poor.

papaoscar Tue 02-Dec-14 09:58:54

Robbing us again to bribe us with our own money. They all do it, our lovely politicians. And they are usually well-off enough to be immune from the consequences of their own actions. We are still a very wealthy country with the potential to spread that wealth widely and fairly. But we don't, we let the rich and powerful screw us over again and become even richer and more powerful. Its all very medieval, really, and it works pretty well for the big knobs. Every now and then the peasantry/plebery do rise up in protest, but the status-quo soon returns.

So I shall listen to Osborne's statement on this week and Ball's response without any enthusiasm. Sure, Osborne will drop a bit of pre-election cash into the black-hole of the poor old NHS, but most of that will be swallowed up by paying-off debts, fat-cat salaries and private contractors bills, which means that the money ends up in the hands of the rich again. Same old story. What the NHS needs (and in fact the whole of the public sector and national infrastructure as well) is a strategic, costed plan. Perhaps Santa will drop one down our chimney!

rosequartz Mon 01-Dec-14 23:23:15

You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, and some of the people are just never pleased whatever you do any time.

durhamjen Mon 01-Dec-14 22:28:29

This is what the NHA party thinks of Osborne's bribes.

nhap.org/george-osbornes-nhs-election-bribe-little-late/

durhamjen Mon 01-Dec-14 22:20:56

Dualling the A1 has been promised since John Major was in power, so yes, it's better than nothing. However, it is not going ahead until next May, after the elections, so it will be interesting to see how much he then complains about the new government spending so much, when he's in opposition. Just like he did before the last election.

rosesarered Mon 01-Dec-14 22:16:45

Better than nothing for the road users though?

durhamjen Mon 01-Dec-14 22:08:16

But that's not new money either, roses. Most of it is already in the NHS and just being shifted from one area to another. Mainly from hospitals to GPs.
One of the roads he said about was the A1 upgrading near Newcastle. That's been causing chaos here for the last six months and is going to take another 18 months to complete. The only new bit is dualling it north of Alnwick and a bit between Alnwick and Morpeth. That's the cheap bit, and there will still be over 20 miles between Alnwick and Berwick that will still be single carriageway.

rosesarered Mon 01-Dec-14 21:40:49

To be fair about the proposed road [tunnel] in Hampshire, this money had been agreed and 'put by' if you like, for quite a long time .
I would have thought that most people would be pleased by the money going to the NHS. On Sunday, Andrew Marr did his level best to get Ed Balls to comment that it was a good thing[and failed] because you see, the £2bn being given by George Osborne wasn't as good as that same £2 bn that Ed would cough up [only in Ed's eyes of course.] wink

rosequartz Mon 01-Dec-14 19:57:56

Suppose they abolish the proposed rail link(s), we could all suggest how to spend the billions saved there.

AlieOxon Mon 01-Dec-14 18:53:47

And now, to distract - 15bn towards the roads!

whitewave Mon 01-Dec-14 17:08:54

They haven't succeeded though have they? Which would be no surprise.

durhamjen Mon 01-Dec-14 16:35:53

Whitewave, don't forget before that there was the £20 billion in savings from the Nicholson challenge.

whitewave Mon 01-Dec-14 14:11:31

If the money if forthcoming and it is a big if - I wonder from where the Treasury intends to get it - shall watch with interest to see how the books are going to be balanced.

Nonnie Mon 01-Dec-14 12:40:54

I agree Tiggy I did a double take watching him on television when he said whatever the Conservatives give we will give more. He really did say that just like a child in the playground with mine's bigger than yours.

Its going to be a long ride to May! sad

whitewave Mon 01-Dec-14 12:11:11

£3bn has been spent in the re-organization of the NHS. Supposing that the £2bn was a truthful figure, which it isn't this still leaves the NHS £1bn short and over the past 5 years this would have attracted enormous interest let alone the inflation value so the true lose to date is much more than the £3bn, which everyone now agrees was a total shambles and waste of time and money. Not a single person in the UK voted for it.

GO is electioneering like mad and what really p......s me off is that he seems to assume we are all dim witted enough to believe him, well I have news for you G, we aren't.

anniezzz09 Mon 01-Dec-14 10:08:24

It is almost certainly electioneering and I wouldn't trust any of them. Especially UKIP who have no idea about government and will say anything they think is populist.

What does it mean anyway? Do any of us know? Does the chief exec of the NHS (is there just one?? Is this just NHS England?) suddenly find £2bn in the 'money in' column of his bank account? Does he sit musing, 'now, what shall I do with that then?' How does it sit with the huge debts the NHS has accrued? And yes, what about those vultures, like Lockheed circling?

I am being facetious of course but it sounds so simple yet isn't.

AlieOxon Mon 01-Dec-14 09:48:04

is !

AlieOxon Mon 01-Dec-14 09:47:47

Which - again cynically - is one way to distract the people from what I going on at home......

vampirequeen Mon 01-Dec-14 09:18:28

It's the same whoever they are. Come the election, come the promises hmm

All governments try to save a bit of money so they can splurge just before an election in the hope we'll all forget the previous years of austerity or hell.

Apart from Maggie who cynically took us into a war instead hmm

rosequartz Sun 30-Nov-14 22:53:03

Did UKIP say £3 billion? Or am I getting confused with the little green men from Mars?