NHS winter crisis looms

What a silly little post Mair

I might, and do, disagree with DJ and others, but I'd never deny them their voice.

I have just emailed my MP about the desperate state of the NHS and posted on FB asking my friends and family to do the same. Most won't, but I've tried.

Seems Labour Party HQ is rather over represented here!
Haven't you guys got anything better to do?

Crisis

Pleased to see Jeremy popped up briefly on the evening news re this crises.

The constituency labour party will choose the best candidate from the field they have in front of them.

A Labour source told "Business Insider" that if it's an election on the NHS we'll win, but if it's about Corbyn we're f-----d. Sadly probably true.

They are putting forward momentum members for selection ,

Well, it could be interesting.
It was close last time and the MP was not a Corbynite.
If Momentum have moved in they could do a lot of damage to Labour's prospects.

Momentum have moved into Copeland

Good, Jalima. That's how it should be. The NHS is for all of us to save.

The MP fighting against the downgrading of Burton A&E is a Conservative, djen, so there are concerns from all sides of the house.

Good! Labour is under real threat in Copeland. I hope Labour throws everything at it, without breaking any rules.

There's a by election in Copeland soon.
The NHS will figure highly in that because the local maternity unit in Whitehaven is set to close, meaning that women will have to go to Carlisle, an 80 mile round trip.
Jon Ashworth was there yesterday.

We do need to evaluate why, though.
Is it because of failures at each end - ie GP surgeries working on an office-style timetable and the out-of-hours service being totally inadequate so people go to A&E as a first option?

Then at the other end of the spectrum there are insufficient resources so that people can be discharged and they become so-called 'bedblockers.

A&E departments are caught in the middle.

Accident and Emergency - not a sore throat or a cut finger that someone has had since Thursday and it is now Saturday.
Not a rehab clinic for drunks who are out of their minds at the weekend.
Has anyone ever spent Saturday night (or Christmas Day) in an A&E department as either staff or patient? It is enlightening.

Daphne, there's a link to Ashworth's comments on Corbyn's Twitterfeed.

The thing is, that we all get to see things via a variety of different methods/outputs. We can watch what we want when we want.
Some people care about what is happening to the NHS now, not who did what in the past.
Some people couldn't care less because it doesn't affect them or their families.

“The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with faith to fight for it”

Aneurin Bevan.

If there are not too many people why is Durham A&E doubling in size?
Is it because they are regionalising the A&E departments and that is going to be the main one for the area?
I do realise that better treatment could be available at larger centres with more specialists available and a wider range of equipment etc but having to travel 50+ miles at night with a sick child in an emergency or a family member with a potential stroke or heart attack is a frightening prospect.
And I do realise that it is very expensive to keep operating theatres open 24/7 in case of emergencies which may not occur.

But surely a district with about 100,000 people warrants a fully functioning, fully equipped A&E open 24 hours a day?

I was obviously wrong about the DM, but here's the BBC's take:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38538637

The headline is:

NHS rejects claims of 'humanitarian crisis' in England's hospitals

The subsequent article doesn't really support that claim. However, it's known that many readers don't read beyond headlines, so they will read that headline, see that it confirms their belief and possibly not read any more, satisfied that they're right to believe what they do. They don't have the time to check sources or evaluate whether the headline is likely to be true.

So much for the BBC being 'leftie'!

Jen, no I didn't read on Twitter, it was on rolling news , I don't do Twitter but I do get mails from several Labour MP's with links, I just read their comments

Stafford A&E covers the town which has a population of around 70,000 plus surrounding districts - and is shut at night.

There are not too many people, there is too little money.
There is also a lot of inefficiency.

However - the downgrading or closing of A&E units is disturbing.
The 'ordinary people' are beginning to revolt:
www.burtonmail.co.uk/8203-truly-phenomenal-response-to-burton-a-e-petition-as-signatures-hit-30-000-mark/story-30035976-detail/story.html

But - that will probably just mean that another A&E in the County may be downgraded.
Stafford A&E has been a disaster for more years than I can remember and is closed at night and closed altogether to children. The whole hospital was a dangerous place to be under the last Labour administration too. Stoke covers a huge area and it is some distance from Burton to Stoke - various routes all nearly an hour.
How far are people supposed to travel to access emergency services?

Sorry to disagree slightly, Anya. I would have thought that many of us are more likely to watch PMQT, because many of us don't work. I doubt very much whether the 'average' working Brit with children records PMQT and sits down to watch it after the children are in bed.

Yes, I did notice it on Twitter, because I looked for it after reading that he's going that he's going to change his tactics in the New Year. I don't know how many other people would have sought out the tweet. I missed Jon Ashworth's interview and it's not on iplayer yet. However, I read a summary of the interview and, apparently, Ashworth said that Labour still doesn't have any plans how they would fund improvements until before an election is called. They need to do better than that.

We're pretty average I think DJ - don't you?

Anya, I didn't ask the average Brit. I asked people on GN.

X posts, Annie.
So you noticed what he had written on Twitter.
Maybe more people will notice that than watch PMQs.
In which case, posting on Twitter makes sense.