Looks like it could soon be 'RIP the NHS'?

Ah, but the junior doctors said it isn't about money, blinko

Statistically patients simply don't do as well at weekends and this is what the government wants to change, so that care does not depend on what day of the week it is. Although there are doctors and nurses on duty at weekends, perhaps there aren't enough.

Bags the evidence is still not at all conclusive that there is a need for major changes to provide more service at weekends.
It has long been the case the SHOs and registrars work at weekends in areas where they are needed - emergency admissions, wards where people are very sick, maternity etc. It is possible that they need more consultant cover at weekends in some areas but Hunt has not chosen to tackle this issue.
Other than that, there is no urgent need. Some people might like to have an outpatients appointment at weekends - but there is no urgency about this. Any changes will have inevitable cost implications.
The "junior" doctors (i.e. anyone who works in a hospital below consultant level) are incensed in part because they are very bright people who can see no logic or benefit to anyone in Hunt's attempts to re-arrange the way they work.
It is already a difficult and demanding job, with the requirement that they move hospitals every year (with little or no choice about where in their region they are sent) and the requirement that they keep doing exams through their 20s and beyond in order to get to the stage where they can apply to a consultant post in a hospital of their choice - when they get into their 40s.
This is incredibly disruptive for any woman wanting to have a family, or a settled family life. Hunt's contract changes, they argue, will make life more difficult for women doctors to work and to progress in their careers.
I am not surprised that many of them have concluded that Hunt is attempting to undermine the NHS with this policy. Along with others, such as removal of bursaries for nursing students and cutting the amount of money hospitals need to operate effectively.

Apparently, there's some doubt about the statistics. I read somewhere or other that hospital patients are more likely to die on a Wednesday. Patients admitted over the weekend are more likely to be very ill, because they're admitted as emergencies or they couldn't access GP care.

It isn't just about renumeration. Hunt is trying to spread out the existing staff over more days for routine appointments as well as emergencies and critical cases, which means there won't be as many staff for weekdays. They won't be able to provide full service care without all the support staff, who will be next in line for contract change.

@dj

The FullFacts article fullfact.org/health/spending-english-nhs/ is interesting, because it shows that taxpayers are already paying a top up for the NHS, but through the back door.

£3 billion is being 'saved' on education, training and social care - except that it's not being 'saved'.

The education and training saving is being paid for by student nurses, who now have to take out a student loan rather than being supported by the NHS. The responsibility for social care and public health has been transferred to local authorities, who have been told that they can raise council tax 2% to cover social care, but not for public health.

The £3 billion saving is part of the money which the NHS is being given as an 'extra'. Some local authorities, particularly those with a high percentage of elderly and/or vulnerable, are going to struggle to raise the money from council tax. May's announcement about eradicating health inequalities sounds very hollow, especially as there is no funding for public health.

Quite Daphnedill - the areas with the highest numbers of older people in need of care are in the areas with less council tax income.
The NHS needed extra money every year, because:
baby boomers are getting to the age when they need more services
and
increasingly unhealthy lifestyles are causing more diabetes etc
Instead Hunt, Cameron and Osborne have squeezed expenditure and then had the cheek to talk about the need for "efficiency savings" - another word for cuts.

I nearly said something about perhaps there being a need for more consultants in hospitals at weekends.

I don't know whether more consultants at weekends would improve patient care, but if more are needed, more need to be employed, unless it's accepted that patient care during the week will suffer.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hypocrite-david-cameron-complains-nhs-8756564

Hard to believe, isn't it? Next he'll be complaining there aren't enough junior doctors at the weekends.

A good article here by Diane Abbott.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-hunt-nye-bevan-both-8751231

Anyone remember Harry Leslie Smith?
He's asking everyone to ask their CLP to support this resolution at the Labour conference.
It's about saving the NHS.

labournhslobby.wordpress.com/2016/08/28/harrysmith/

How can we ask our CLP to support anything if we are not allowed to have a meeting to discuss it? Conundrum. I predict a very stormy conference don't you?

www.standard.co.uk/news/health/we-re-fighting-for-patients-claim-junior-doctors-in-court-challenge-to-hunt-a3339791.html

Doctors going to court to stand up to Hunt and his contract.

This puts a new light on the Vale of York situation.
They are in special measures. When they said they would put hip and knee operations off for obese people, NHS England actually intervened and told them to rethink it.

nhap.org/the-friday-surgery-18/

politicalscrapbook.net/2016/09/watch-sadiq-khan-makes-a-joke-about-jeremy-hunt-to-timeout-magazine/

nhaspace.com/2016/09/11/how-badly-is-the-nhs-underfunded/

Some good information on here. Apparently if we wanted to catch up with the French, Germans, even Japanese on spending on the health service, we would need an extra £35 billion.
At least those at the top of the NHS spending have realised now what experts have been telling them all along. All they have to do now is persuade Theresa May.

Hope Cameron doesn't want to join the board of a private healthcare company.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/09/11/the-end-of-life-as-we-know-it/

This is quite sad. I have never met in real life people who think like this, and I do not know what I would say to them if I did.

@dj It's because Vale of York is in special measures that NHS England can intervene. It can't intervene in the CCGs where this policy is already in place.

I suspect there's some politics going on here with the press release. If you look at the figures I posted before about the rate of hip and knee replacements in Vale of York compared with its arthritis rate, it's VERY high, although doctors think they're justified.

Presumably there will now be meetings. The doctors will say why the rate is justified and the CCG will put their case. NHS England will now have to decide and will be responsible for any decision. It's unlikely that Vale of York will receive any more money, so the choice is going to be continuing with the ops and/or boosting obesity/stop smoking support programmes or cutting back on other services. Whatever the outcome, savings are going to have to be made and NHS England will be responsible.

NHS England is responsible in the form of Simon Stevens, who ran United Health in the US, and wants NHS England to fail so United Health can make lots of money from NHS England.

This shows a bit more about STPs and privatisation.
The idea of there being 44 footprints and only 40-70 A&Es is very worrying.
The Durham footprint goes from the River Tyne all the way down past Middlesborough to the North Yorkshire coast. I can't imagine that area with just one A&E.

nhap.org/17086-2/

There were seven crisis meetings about the NHS over the year. Jeremy Hunt never attended one of them.

www.indy100.com/article/jeremy-hunt-hasnt-attended-any-of-these-nhs-crisis-meetings-in-the-last-year-no-biggie-7308776

Junior doctors are enjoying this revelation.

So far this is just a story. About the death of Jeremy Hunt.

nhap.org/the-friday-surgery-19/

If that's the sort of things that make you happy.

You haven't looked at it, then.

On here is a whole raft of links to people who stand to gain from what's happening to the NHS.

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/caroline-molloy/only-article-about-leadership-campaign-i-ll-write

I'm sure you won't look at that either, but somebody might be interested while we still have an NHS.

Yes I did Durhamjen

I repeat if that's the sort of thing that makes you happy.