Humanitarian Crisis in UK

Whose mother? I don't know what you're talking about.

So what you've heard is hearsay.

If the person has been compulsorily relocated, it's not uncommon to have some kind of package. That's not the same as paying home to work expenses as a normal process.

Someone's mother is boasting, then ddill
I'm glad to hear it
It was said also that this person will not move (all expenses paid) nearer her work so gets home to work expenses paid.
(Not my area)

Anya - sorry!

This thing has a mind of its own today.

I agree with you, Jalima, about the use of 'humanitarian crisis'.

Just going to correct you about NHS travel expenses. Until being made redundant, my sister was an NHS manager (formerly a nurse).

Her trust didn't allow first class travel and it's now been banned across the NHS:

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/13/nhs-bosses-first-class-travel-take-bus

There are strict tax rules about claiming home to work travel expenses. If you have evidence they're being broken, you should report the people to HMRC, which you can do anonymously.

I agree Anta and yes, Stafford Hospital was a cause of shame for Andy Burnham and anyone connected with it.

But they all move on, don't they, unlike the relatives of those who died there from neglect.

Sorry - 1st class trains not brains as I doubt some managers have one of those.

Living with the risk of being shot down, blown up, raped, decapitated, kidnapped, married off at 9 or 10 to an old man -
THAT IS A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

I do dislike it when our speech is devalued.

The NHS is inefficient, unwieldy, paying out huge sums on PFIs, agencies, its own management and needs a huge injection of efficiency and common sense in order to function better.
Yes - from the horse's mouth - an account of how some managers are greedily taking all they can get (paid travel miles to and from work, 1st class brains, planes, hotels) whilst nurses etc have to pay car parking charges at the hospitals where they work.

It may also need more money from one of the sectors using it most heavily - NI from senior citizens to help in home care and thus alleviate the number of old people who could be sent home but are blocking beds.

Ankers,

Rather than becoming involved in a personal dispute with a hospital, I assumed you were talking about general wastage and incompetence in the systems used. Incompetence is not so easy to address, because employers do have a duty of care to their employees to protect them from bullying. Nevertheless, something should be going on away from the public eye.

If you honestly think/know that there is wastage in the supply chain, you can make FoI requests of your hospital and some of a similar size and similar specialisms and ask specific questions, such as how much the hospital spends on stationery, dressings, etc. You can't ask how much they spend with specific providers, because that's commercially sensitive, but you can ask questions about specific categories of items and, by law, you should be given an answer. If your hospital is spending significantly more than other hospitals, you can challenge them and hold them to account.

Unless you have facts, it's hearsay and nobody will do anything.

Very cryptic AnkersAway

Straighten? Blasted predictive text.

I'm guessing DB from your posts that your favourite GNetters (!) has returned

Listening to some Tory MP on the Jeremy Vine show earlier, and one who used to be a nurse (which makes it worse) I had to turn it off before I crashed the car with anger.

Typical politician, wouldn't answer a question straighten, twisted everything around and sounded so insincere I'm surprised she wasn't struck by a bolt of lightening. Trouble is I remember the Stafford Hospital deaths and inquiry as it's not far from us, and that was under Labour's watch.

It's about time the NHS was taken off the political agenda and a x-party approach was taken

dd, I have definitely put my head above the parapet in another area of my life.
It has taken probably more than a 1000 hours of my time. There have been a group of us doing it. Others have become ill with the stress[not myself, I seem to not have it touch the sides with me so to speak].
It has also taken more than a year of our lives, while putting other things on hold so to speak.

As regards the hospital, unfortunately, it is many many miles away. And as I am not directly involved with it, it makes the whole situation much more difficult.

In the situation I have just described above, I was in the midst of it so to speak, and had access to all kinds of things, that I would not have access to if I had not been that much involved.And becuase of the grave injustices, many people, including some in the justice system, were willing to help us.

For anyone that is wondering, we won the case. But even then, it all does not end there in some ways. Some people remain in post, and are not willing to give up their ways very easily.

The Freedom of Information requests were used, and were extremely useful.

If I had all the time in the world, I could get involved in several things like that, but I do not.

I am only now getting back to "normal" life so to speak.

But yes, thank you for the idea. Who knows? I may take up your specific idea at a later date.

personal and commercial lives.

No-one is calling people who want to fix things "demagogues", ankers. Many many people want to fix things - including those who are "in charge" though you doubtless won't believe that. That name is reserved for people like Trump who talk revolution to get thmselves into positions of political power so as to extend the power nthey have in their personal and commercial.

@roses

You can't be too careful with what you write on here. People have been known to take things literally.

@dj

I didn't hear Hunt saying that, but Conservative HQ will have had a hand in it.

It's meaningless, unless he explains what he means by 'rich countries' (The top 5? Top 10? Top 20?)

How is he defining rich? (GDP? Wealth per capita?)

What does he mean by average? (Mean? Mode? Median?)

What does he mean by 'we'? (The state? The people as a whole via insurance companies or privately?)

That sentence will have been checked to make sure he's not telling downright lies, but he's not telling the truth either.

Ironically, one of the people who is prepared to put her head above the parapet is Sarah Wollaston, a Conservative MP. She also knows what she's talking about.

That made me laugh dd (last paragraph 'not literally')

???? Nobody's called you a demagogue (not that it's a 'name' anyway).

Ankers, Have you thought of putting yourself forward for your local Patients' Panel? All CCGs have them. If you think you could do a more effective job than those appointed with the resources available or, at least, challenge and hold people to account, you really should let it be known.

There's a real contradiction here. I'm not getting at you, because it's commonplace. People have complaints and can sometimes see where things are going wrong for themselves. Unfortunately, different people see different things going wrong. A management team (or a committee) has to balance the views of all stakeholders and inevitably some people will be disappointed with decisions. By saying it's the 'job' of people in authority, people abdicate their role in decision making and then complain about the decisions people make.

In the UK, there is no reason why anybody can't become (or at least influence) one of the decision makers, but that involves putting one's head above the parapet and being shot down (not literally). You are a stakeholder in your local NHS. Even if there isn't a vacancy on the local panel, you could find out who is on it. There will be contact details online and you could contact them. They have a duty to consider your complaints and should give you reasons to justify decisions they make. You could also make Freedom of Information requests and scrutinise them.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/dentaid-third-world-charity-steps-in-to-help-britains-dental-crisis-a6803106.html

gillybob you said it! so I don't need to.

The proliferation of the word demagogue. The subject is being talked about on another thread as well.

Hunt said "We actually spend a little bit more than the average for rich countries on our health services" on the Today programme.

Not according to this.

www.pgpf.org/sites/default/files/0006_health-care-oecd-full.gif

Who is calling who names???

By blaming bad contracts, management and a wasteful supply chain, you are behaving exactly like the people in Elegran's committee
You really think people have not done that??

Abd calling people who want to try and fix these types of things names is not at all helpful.