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

I wouldn't vote for Robert Halfon, because he's a Conservative, but his constituents think highly of him. This is the article I read:

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/robert-halfon-conservative-dying_uk_5776b79be4b0c9460800c912

He gets votes and that's what matters.

I thought he didn't sound much like a Tory until I read that he thinks that extra tax cuts for the rich will generate more tax and enable tax cuts for the poor. Really? When did that ever happen?

I can't find the 2016 results for Halewood Academy, but in 2014 they were 24% for 5 GCSEs A*-C including Maths and English.

He's not Chancellor and he only wrote it this year. I'm not saying that I agree with him, but what he says appeals to aspirational working class voters. Harlow is very typical of many towns in the UK. It's actually a marginal, but seems Tory, because Halfon has wooed them.

Ooops. Info on Halewood on wrong thread.

Apparently Hunt is complaining about bias against him at the BBC, and has threatened its future as a public service broadcaster.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/views/blogs/history-repeats-itself-with-jeremy-hunt/20032828.blog

He must be getting friendly with Murdoch again.

He's been saying that all the threats of imposition of the junior doctors contract wasn't by him, it was by his minions.

Junior doctors have called off the strikes as they have consulted and realised that it could harm patients.
Well done to them. Now all we need is for Hunt to call off the imposition of the contract.

This is the woman who is standing for the NHA in Witney, Cameron's constituency.

'Dr Salisbury says, “In Witney, a GP surgery is closing as Virgin Healthcare withdraws, Chipping Norton Hospital has been handed to a charity and effectively downgraded, and plans are in place to remove maternity care and more from the Horton Hospital in Banbury. The JR in Oxford will struggle to cope with the extra demand.

I am a GP in Oxford and I am standing in the Witney by-election because I know how important these services are to the people here and I want to do my best to save them. I think that to fight effectively in parliament you have to understand what is really happening both locally and nationally.'

I find it interesting that a surgery is closing because Virgin Healthcare is withdrawing.
I wonder how many of those patients, or service users as they are now called, knew that Virgin owned the surgery.

Are we allowed to say this is tragic- or is that a 'gross exageration' too?

Could be tragic if they can't find another surgery to go to.

It definitely is tragic that Virgin and other private players are winning contracts for NHS services, and then just handing them back when they can't make them pay. I was shocked to see how many private companies have contracts worth millions for running community health services, including GP surgeries, and often the patients ie "service users" are not aware until they fold, as has happened in Witney, because these private providers are quite discreet with their branding. The NHS is fast becoming a logo under which private companies operate, with no overall accountability it seems. I am glad you are keeping this topic to the fore dj and others.

Junior doctors are now talking about leaving the BMA and setting up their own union because they are disgusted with the union. The BMA unilaterally called off the strikes.

Can anyone make head or tail of this, particularly anyone who thinks the government can be trusted with the economy?

fullfact.org/health/can-seven-day-nhs-be-paid/

The government is going to give the NHS another £34 billion by 2020, but wants the NHS to make £22 billion in efficiency savings. They said they wanted a 24/7 NHS but forgot to tell anyone what it meant and forgot to factor it in.

nhap.org/17149-2/

About the junior doctors dispute.
Jeremy Hunt had no power to impose the new contract.

The efficiency savings is another way of saying "cuts"

Like these ones.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/fury-shotley-bridge-hospital-axes-11961411

This is the hospital that Simon Stevens was shown walking round when he was given the job as CEO of NHSE. It's where he did he work experience, and he took pains to tell everybody that Shotley Bridge Hospital was the sort of community service he wanted to keep. That was two years ago.

Jeremy Hunt was in the North East on Friday and said the rest of the country could learn from the hospitals in the North East. He obviously didn't mean Shotley Bridge.
They were saying that Shotley Bridge needs to close the ward because it was built in the 60s.
The Freeman, which Hunt praised, was built in 1977, so it won't be long before that slips down the list. I was in a ward built for four beds. There were six beds in it, not enough room for all the furniture. I bet he never went in that bit, just the newer parts.

Jeremy Hunt lied about not imposing the contract.

skwalker1964.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/did-jeremy-hunt-commit-perjury-to-win-junior-docs-court-case/

Is that not contempt of court?

While the Tory conference has been going on in Birmingham, this has been happening in Manchester.

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/government-duplicity-exposed-at-expo-in-manchester

If you want to know why you can't find out about what's happening in your STP, this is why.

Next week there is a Health select committe enquiry into the finances of the NHS.

calderdaleandkirklees999callforthenhs.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/health-select-committee-inquiry-into-the-state-of-nhs-finances/

This is why.

'This is in response to the recent request from NHS Providers – the trade association for NHS Foundation Trusts and Trusts – for an inquiry into how to get NHS Providers out of the impossible situation they are now in, as a result of NHS underfunding. That is ok. What is not ok is that they said the inquiry should look at a range of chilling proposals – including ending comprehensive NHS care that’s free to all at the point of use, based on people’s clinical need.'

Apparently MPs are being told that they should support commissioners!

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/07/jeremy-hunt-plan-to-end-nhs-reliance-on-foreign-medics-could-backfire-hunt-told

This is why the NHS is in financial difficulty.

www.opendemocracy.net/uk/shinealight/clare-sambrook/190k-payoff-for-ex-chief-of-nhs-trust-that-failed-to-investigate-hundr

Why should she be given a payoff?
She should be in court.

Are we ever going to do anything about 'health tourism' I've just been reading about St Georges in Tooting. 'Health tourism' particularly in maternity cost the £4.6 million last year. They know where most of these people are coming from and its a very lucrative business arranging these 'trips'

This is going to be interesting.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/home/finance-and-practice-life-news/at-least-12000-new-gps-needed-by-2020-new-workforce-data-reveal/20032973.article

We will need 12000 more GPs by 2020, at the same time as Hunt is teeling foreign doctors they will not be needed.

I suppose if they let practices close, we will not need so many.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/hot-topics/stop-practice-closures/vulnerable-practices-to-be-allowed-to-fail-and-wither-says-nhs-england-director/20032943.article

Petra no evidence that this is widespread. It will be interesting to see the results of the Tooting trial.
A far bigger threat to the NHS is the cutback in funding on home care by local authorities combined with increasing lifespans and increasing "diseases of civilisation".
As someone said the other day - the NHS is suffering from it's own success because we are living so much longer.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/hot-topics/stop-practice-closures/labour-condemns-nhs-memo-saying-practices-should-be-allowed-to-fail/20033013.article

Some GPs are being told the best thing for them to do is to go bankrupt!