Dessimation of the NHS

nhap.org/for-everyones-sake-for-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-the-country-this-is-a-fight-we-cant-afford-to-lose-warns-dr-clive-peedell/

Does anyone still think that Hunt is the right person to head the NHS?

For anyone who doesn't believe the NHS is slowly being strangled, Polly Toynbee wrote an excellent piece in the Guardian yesterday which shows the affect of forcing healthcare services to be put out to tender. www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/05/if-the-way-the-nhs-is-organised-seems-absurd-thats-because-it-is

The article is well worth reading but, for those who don't like links, here are a few extracts.

Toynbee says:

"Listen to the day's meetings [which the Finance Director of the Central and North West London foundation trust attends] and you will see why he finds the commissioning system "frustrating and pointless", with reams of tenders."

He says:

"I have to contract with 22 different clinical commissioning groups. Then I have to bill score more CCGs on a cost per patient basis when one of their residents uses our services, plus many local authorities .... The contracting costs more than £1m. a year, with one team doing nothing else. Some bids are lost; the London addiction services fell to private providers, cheaper but worse quality.............. Competition law now means services not put out to tender can be challenged in court......Milton Keynes predicts a £1.7m debt by April, with extra pressure on mental health beds.......... One unit had a complete change of staff, as all the nurses left to work for agencies ......NHS pay freezes have had a huge impact, and what are they doing abolishing bursaries for trainee nurses? It'll get worse."

Cher53 the NHS may not be perfect in Scotland and Wales - it's too big and complex to ever be perfect. But at the moment I'd far rather see out my days in either place, as NHS England appears poised on top of a cliff before it starts to descend into chaos.

Jess , given my own experiences and hearing about other peoples with the NHS in various countries within our islands, I think it is a lottery wherever you get treated.

Durham , regarding the money that Scotland receives I am not sure. I do know that the Councils here are toiling. Fife has closed about 15 libraries, Edinburgh is looking at closing Community Centres and all sorts of badly needed facilities. I count myself lucky that I still have our local library and Community Centre. I am not a financial minded person as regards business etc. but all these freebies(prescriptions etc.) are unsustainable and I know I am not the only Scot to feel this way.

I am so sorry that folk are struggling but until politicians actually acknowledge that there are issues up and down the country, nothing will be done.

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/08/public-satisfaction-with-nhs-drops-5-last-year

I wonder if Hunt will blame the doctors for this or if he will realise that it's his policies at fault?

"The government declined to respond in detail to the findings and blamed falling satisfaction levels on the extra pressures created by the ageing population.

“There is pressure on the NHS as our population ages, and that’s why the government is investing record amounts to transform care,” a government spokesman said. "

Would you believe it, it's our fault! Despite the fact that it's the elderly who are most satisfied with the NHS. We ought to change our minds next year.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/jeremy-hunt-vetoed-deal-to-end-junior-doctor-dispute-which-was-supported-by-the-nhss-own-negotiators-a6861606.html

Who would have believed it.
If you want any more proof that the government wants to privatise the NHS, this is it. Hunt is setting junior doctors against the public, manipulating information.

Figure 6 is an interesting graph I'd not seen before.

Can you imagine being a NatCen researcher and having to ask the public those questions?

I was heartened to see that more people criticise the government for not spending enough on the NHS than criticise the NHS for misspending the money.

Hunt is sending his junior minister into the Commons to face questions about doctors' strike.
Priceless letter in the press today from a doctor who tried to get an appointment to speak to his MP on a Saturday or Sunday. Apparently MP only does "surgeries" on a Friday. Guess who? Yes that's right. Jeremy Hunt.

I have just been watching today's debate on iplayer. Hunt doesn't improve, does he?

"Private firms operate under the NHS logo, so the public is likely to be unaware when treatment is being provided by a for-profit company. The private sector is said to have received 70% of contracts awarded over 2013-14, estimated at £20bn of the total NHS budget of £113bn.

Virgin Care – awarded some of the biggest contracts, including £140m for children’s services in Devon – admits a profit intention of at least 8% – is this use of taxpayers’ money defensible while the health budget is being squeezed?"

This is from this article. It just shows how much profit private companies want to make from the NHS.

www.theguardian.com/society/commentisfree/2016/feb/09/nhs-part-privatised-health-service-complexity-costs-billions

I wonder how much Hunt will stand to gain from destroying the NHS?

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/dominic-pimenta/exhausted-of-course-i-am

Some people have said that it is a huge exaggeration to claim that there is an explosion in NHS services being contracted out to the private sector. In the I today there is a report relating to this issue. Figures released yesterday show private companies have won £5.5bn of NHS clinical work since the Health & Social Care Act was implemented - this states that all new NHS contracts must be put out to tender. A graph accompanying the article shows that in the period 2010-11 less than £1bn. worth of contracts were in the private sector. The figure for the period 2014-15 is £3.5 bn.

Furthermore, rules introduced by some Clinical Commissioning Groups to prevent tax-avoiding companies from securing NHS contracts are going to be scrapped. This is because there have been indications that global corporations are making noises about taking the NHS to court, claiming discrimination.

Virgin Care's parent company is based in the British Virgin Islands, and the American owned GE Healthcare's parent company is based in the Netherlands.

A Unite representative said "Patients and staff have a right to be furious that companies can win NHS contracts and then scheme how to siphon profits out of the country into far-flung tax havens."

"I'm sick of noxious columnists pumping out toxic nonsense; d’Ancona, Baxter, Lawson, Vine…the cogs of the Tory spin machine are many, and they are all dirty.

Most of all I’m exhausted by fighting for an NHS on the brink of destruction- whilst the public remains largely unmoved. When you go to the doctor and she tells you something is seriously wrong- how do you respond? Do you then go to the Daily Mail to fact check it? Do you ask for a balanced opinion from a close-to-government think tank, deeply invested in privatisation? "

This is from the opendemocracy link I gave above, written by a junior doctor.

I do not think it's because the public remains largely unmoved. It's just that we are not told. There is one newspaper that seems to be on the side of the NHS. That's the Guardian. The rest are right wing, and are not in the business of promoting the real NHS.

At the moment there is a series in the Guardian titled "This is the NHS" which gives lots of stories from the staff and others. It's worth reading.

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/10/why-i-left-us-to-work-in-nhs-compassion-tara-mastracci

This is an interesting piece, from a specialist in aortic surgery moving from the US to the UK because of the NHS.
A comparison of the two systems.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/121262

A petition to ask Jeremy Hunt to resume meaningful negotiations with the BMA. Just started today.

www.onmedica.com/newsArticle.aspx?id=e62a90c3-96af-4fc8-a962-c90283f33f3f

A report to look at statistics over the last five years. We are heading for winter problems all year round in the NHS.
The number of beds removed is 8000. If there are 8000 fewer beds and more people to need them now, what is going to happen from now on now Hunt has decimated the NHS?
How many years will it take for the NHS to be non-existent?

The petition to ask Hunt to resume negotiations has over 10,000 signatures already.

As many years as Hunt works at it

Over 14,000 now.
If he does what he says he will, the NHS will have disappeared in a year.
I bet the partner in my surgery finishes this year. Not that I mind, as I never liked him, but there is only one other GP on the list. The rest are locums.

Sorry, NHS England will have disappeared in a year.

Over 15,000 signatures now.
5000+ in the last hour.

Question time will be interesting tonight. It's from Llanelli. I wonder if there will be a comparison of the two NHSs.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/121262

Over 20,000 signatures now. Anyone else signed it?

Over 70,000 signatures now.
Last night Hunt was supposed to attend a meet-and-greet in his constituency, selling tickets for £15 each.
It had to be cancelled because some junior doctors bought tickets for it.
That's nice, isn't it? He doesn't want to meet junior doctors.

durham, sadly does not surprise me, there is not a politician among them that will acknowledge the NHS everywhere is in crisis.