NHS

Except that water is a good drink and cardboard isn't good food

Of course you can dilute fruit juice jen, but that makes it a different drunk and doesn't alter the fact that a glass of juice the size that many people consider normal, contains more sugar than a piece of fruit does.
It's like controlling your calorie intake by mixing shredded cardboard into your breakfast cereal.

Yes and we must make sure it doesn't happen to the rest of the medical services.

Back to the NHS. Here is our experience from the other night. DH as a dental abscess which refused to respond to antibiotics. On Tuesday night he was in more agony than even he could bear. His face was swollen. His eye was closing and the pain went into his temple and behind his ear. His temperature was through the roof.

We decided to look for a out of hours dentist. Unfortunately there have been cut backs in our area and the out of hours system no longer runs after 8pm so I phoned 111. I explained about the swelling etc and they said that he should go to a and e even though they don't usually send dental patients there. We were to explain to the receptionist why we had been sent and that DH needed to be seen preferably within an hour.

On arrival a and e was heaving. We explained what 111 had told us. The receptionist told us that it didn't matter what 111 said. They didn't do teeth and we'd have to go to the out of hours dentist. We explained that it wasn't open. She checked then said that we could wait but it would be hours then perhaps someone from maxo-facial would come down if they weren't too busy in surgery (this was 2am). Basically she told us to get lost but not in so many words. DH didn't want to stay there and there seemed little point if we were going to sit for hours and then not even see anyone who could help.

We went home, phoned our dentist at 8am and was seen that day.

He eventually got treatment so why am I so upset? Well we found out that if we'd been able to pay a £75 call out charge and then £150 per hour we'd have been able to see a dentist within the hour. But because we rely on the decimated NHS service DH had to continue to suffer. Punished for being poor.

Add water.

Of course you can jen but 100ml isn't very much. Less than a very small glass of wine.

Surely if you have orange juice you do not have to have 200ml. You can drink half of that.

I do agree about fructose being more harmful than other sugars.

Daphne I can't comment on your diabetes and the effect it has on your metabolism, but a medium-sized orange contains about 12 g of fructose, compared to a 200ml glass of orange juice which contains 20g.
That alone means that eating oranges as whole fruit is less harmful than consuming it as juice.
Apples vs apple juice is similar.

Some scientists think that fructose is worse than sucrose. Glucose and fructose are absorbed directly into the bloodstream.

@janeainsworth

I disagree with you. I am diabetic and I have experimented with BG testing strips after eating fruit, fruit juice and spoonfuls of sugar. Some fruits and fruit juice raise my BG levels just as much and as quickly as plain sugar.

Daphne It's not true that the sugar in whole fruit is as damaging as the sugar in fruit juice. Nor are the sugars in plain youghurt harmful.
When fruit is macerated to make juice, the fructose is released from the cells and when you drink it, the fructose is immediately absorbed and goes straight to the liver where it is converted into fat.
With whole fruit, the fructose is contained within the cells and much less of it is absorbed.
The sugar in milk and plain yoghurt is lactose and is not harmful.

If the gov was genuinely concerned about nicotine, alcohol and sugar they'd do more about it than simply loading taxes on them. This is a money maker.
No government is going to do much more than tut, tut, put warning notices on packs of cigarettes and keep taking the tax vq.
Nicotine is a drug, alcohol is a type of drug but I am sorry - sugar is a food.

No Lazigirl, although it would clear Whitehall
I suppose if I had a spray tan first

Oh dj not more bad news I can't bear it and the only way I can think of to draw attention to all this is for a few militant grandparents to travel to Dept of Health in Whitehall and stage a NAKED protest outside! It will at least raise awareness! Anyone for it? Perhaps wait til weather's a bit warmer, it's quite chilly today.

I'm not going to argue about tobacco and alcohol taxes, but vq has a point about sugar tax. If a sugar tax on fizzy drinks leads to lower consumption, it's not a bad thing, but what about the sugar in fruit juices, tinned fruit (including tomatoes) and so-called natural yoghurts, etc?

I hope people aren't lulled into a sense of false security by the sugar tax. The body doesn't know whether the source of sugar is a can of coke or a bunch of grapes. The only advantage the grapes have is that, if eaten with their skins, they have some fibre and will keep you feeling fuller for longer. A big bowl of fruit salad or a handful of dried fruit is likely to have as much sugar as a fizzy drink and be just as calorific. Orange juice has more sugar than the equivalent amount of coke.

nhap.org/nha-issues-warning-about-selling-nhs-blood-plasma-supplier-to-chinese-company-creat/

This is worrying.

I think you will find that the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, disagrees with you VQ as she clearly states in her latest annual report on the state of the public’s health that sugar is a large part of the problem.

I'll go with her considered and expert opinion based on statistics I think.

If the gov was genuinely concerned about nicotine, alcohol and sugar they'd do more about it than simply loading taxes on them. This is a money maker.

We have to accept that smokers are addicts so they need support to give up but we also need to make it harder for new smokers to become hooked. Addicts should register with their GP and get their cigarettes from a pharmacy. Addicts should have some sort of registration card and without it no one should be allowed to buy cigarettes. The new vapour things are a nightmare imo. No one really knows what the smoke is doing to the smoker or the passive smoker.

Alcohol is a different problem. People drink for a variety of reasons and it's a drug that society accepts. I don't drink because I hate the sensation of being drunk and, due to ex, drunk people scare me but I accept that a lot of people enjoy the odd glass of wine or g and t. DD2 works in a bar. She has to decide if someone has had too much to drink but it's a subjective decision. She may refuse to serve someone but they simply go to another bar and get served there. Perhaps we should ban people who cause trouble when drunk from firstly going into any pub and if they continues to drink and cause trouble we should ban them from consuming any alcohol. Rather than ban the substance ban the people who abuse it and cause trouble.

Sugar is a natural substance. You can't tax something that exists in a multitude of forms. I like a nice apple. At the moment fruit is zero rated but it contains natural sugars. Should fruit be taxed? Sugar isn't the cause of obesity. We're in the very fortunate position of being able to access lots of food and not have to do heavy work which burns off the calories. A lot of people simply eat too much. There are many reasons why this happens Sugar isn't to blame.

I didn't really suppose they would leave themselves open to the NHS. An article further on in the DT says that a cancer specialist Dr Karol Sikora suggests getting to know consultants receptionists and secretaries and sending them small gifts such as chocolates "to ensure they bag a prompt appointment". That says it all for me. I'm off to Thorntons and expect to get my new knee very very quickly.

Yes the Lindo Wing is private but the staff are NHS employees.

The Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital is private Annsixty . If the royals want to pay for 23 people good luck to them. Thank goodness they didn't all want to be in the delivery room at once!
It used to be a requirement that the Prime Minister was present at the birth of the heir to the throne. Presumably to avoid hanky panky with warming pans and smuggled in babies of the correct gender. What a thought - DC or JC or BJ should it ever come to it!!!

If you believe everything you read in the press the Duchess of Cambridge had a 23 strong team of specialists of every type each time she gave birth. They all met monthly and then nearer the time weekly, for a planning meeting to ensure everything was covered.
Some peoples NHS seems " to be safe in their hands".

All hospitals are 'compensated' for seeing people out of their area.

Historically there has always been an arrangement that people in mid Wales use Shropshire hospitals and this is reimbursed from Welsh budget. A friend who lives in Powys does have a longer waiting time for hospital appointments than we do I think.

Lazigirl, they need a good lawyer on the case.
If we get too depressed we can end up not trying to do anything about it. In which case the privatisers win.