NHS - Still free after election?

Have you read my three links, soontobe?

Just asking.

(How will you know?)

Just asking.

ouch.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-how-private-firms-make-quick-killing-from-pfi-9488351.html

No-one has to read my link if they dont want to. I shall not mind!

remember PFI

'PFI was introduced by the Tory party in the early 1990s, but Gordon Brown oversaw a huge expansion in these ridiculous one-sided contracts, that have been described by the Treasury Select Committee as "an extremely inefficient method of funding [public infrastructure] projects".
The debt legacies from these absurd economic alchemy schemes have already driven numerous NHS Trusts into severe financial difficulties, and will remain an enormous burden on future generations of taxpayers. '

Got annoyed today by my GP surgery.
I had to go for a blood test yesterday and the surgery rang up today to give me a telephone appointment with Doctor A. I said I would rather talk to Doctor B who asked me to have the test as she was monitoring medication that she had altered.
The receptionist said, "But Doctor A will have the results in front of him just the same."
I said that Doctor B knew more about me and I had never seen Doctor A before. Never heard his name before either, so I think he was a locum.
I said the last time that happened I had been sent for an unnecessary scan, so could I please speak to Doctor B.
I was given the same time! So why did I have to beg for an appointment to speak to my own GP? It's getting ridiculous.

In the latest polls I've seen, anno, Labour and SNP will have enough seats not to need the Libdems. There is talk of socialist Libdems, untainted by association with the Tory government, dumping Clegg for Farron.

Touching faith in the Lib Dems, DJ, In coalition for the past five years, surely they could, if they wanted, have put more spokes in the Tory wheel? As usual with the Lib Dems, it depends on which ones have the influence. The 'yellow book' crowd are hand in glove with the Tories, but the Party President, Tim Farron, took a more detached view. Luckily his seat is one of the relatively safe ones.

That's a cast iron guarantee, is it?

No they will not, soontobe.
The last election, the Tories promised no top down reorganisation. Nicholson said the reorganisation was so big it could be seen from outer space.
If the Tories and UKIP are in charge after the election, it will continue to be eroded.
If Labour with help from SNP and Libdem get in, the erosion will be halted.

I think of the NHS like a large rock. Little pieces are being eroded or cut off, so that we hardly notice or make a fuss.
I suspect that all the parties will carry on doing this after the election.

I dont get how Pension60 keeps getting deleted, but still pops up with the same user name.
Pretty sure the rest of us could not manage that.
Presumably they hack?

I have been reading a very disturbing thread on mumsnet from mother's who have given birth in NHS hospitals and the conditions in the wards they are placed in. The NHS has been eroded by every gov since it was set up post 2nd WW. Equal opportunities for health care does not exist in UK. This includes dental, etc.

In our family, we are now starting to experience what Clive Peedell is warning about - the gradual disintegration of the NHS.

My mum, who is 94, has over the last few years developed a succession of small growths on her forehead and nose. Up until about two years ago, these were dealt with quite quickly. There would be an appointment made with the dermatology department to examine the growth and a short time later we would receive an appointment for it to be removed.

Last May we visited her GP with another growth on her head. It was not very large at that time. We attended an appointment at the hospital, and then a further appointment for the growth to be photographed. Then she has attended another appointment and some time later we received a letter from a private hospital 30 miles away saying they were taking over her treatment. When we heard nothing further, I telephoned the private hospital and was told that these letters had been incorrectly sent out to everybody, and mum was certainly not on their list for treatment. I made several phone calls to her local NHS hospital and eventually another appointment was made - to look at the growth yet again - but this has been cancelled and re-arranged for 6 May. What in the past took a couple of months or so to sort out will now have taken over a year to treat - and will be more difficult to remove and more painful afterwards.

She has also had to attend the eye clinic for about the last ten years or so and there were never problems with appointments. Now, however, appointments are frequently subject to cancellation and are sometimes re-arranged more than once before she can finally attend.

From Clive Peedell of the NHA.

clivepeedellnha.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/why-it-does-matter-who-provides-healthcare/

A Full Fact on the report, Eloethan.

fullfact.org/health/nhs_privatisation_private_income_nhs_providers_election_up_58_per_cent-43735

Apparently four hospital trusts get at least 10% of their finance from private patients. This will only get worse if the Tories are allowed to continue.
When people say that privatisation has not increased much in the past five years, they forget that it's only two years since the new Health and Social Care Act came into being.

Jane10 There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the NHS, at least in the form that we know it, is at risk.

In the I yesterday was a report entitled "Nearly half of GP contracts going to private sector". Given that private companies run services for a profit - this will have obvious cost implications and if this sell off is allowed to continue there will no doubt come a point when politicians will say the NHS in its present form is unsustainable.

The usual response to news about private concerns taking over public services is "Oh well they are more efficient, provide better value for money", etc., etc. But research published by the Imperial College, London, found that for-profit providers of GP services do not perform as well as traditional GP practices.

In the same report it was stated that income from private admissions to NHS hospitals have risen by 58% since 2010. Is it a coincidence that during the same period waiting times and operation cancellations for NHS patients have increased considerably?

Definitely politics, minimouse.

theconversation.com/tax-based-financing-of-the-nhs-is-better-than-the-alternative-40494

Apparently 347 GP practices are run by private companies. However, they fare worse than those completely in the NHS.
I know that GPs are private anyway, but there's a difference in the contracts for APMS, which are private providers of NHS services.

Of course it will still be free after the next election. No party could risk the NHS. There's too much scaremongering going on about it with every party saying they're the only ones who will preserve it.

I refuse to be hectored, even in a good cause. There are far more effective ways of getting one's message across. Anyway, I've voted. There is no NHA candidate here.

Definitely ignored, fed up with whoever Pension 60 is..........
NEVER read his/her/their posts so completely counterproductive.

Are yoy shouting it from the hustings, Pension60 ? If so, I must tell you that on Gransnet being shouted at is usually either ignored or resented. That would give you the opposite result to the one you want.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

signed and shared

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