Can the Tories be trusted with OUR National Health Service

pogs That seems a tad overreaction. I simply said as I experienced. And suggested that you post needed perspective not that it was untrue.

"At the Royal Liverpool, a paramedic waiting in the early hours for his next call attests to the scale of the problem. “A lot of people coming in now have been found drunk in the centre,” he says. “They’ve had accidents, got into fights or, most likely, drunk so much they just can’t control themselves. Often they don’t need A&E help – they just need to sleep it off. But then they’re drunk so they don’t know what they need and just call us.”

That kind of misuse of the emergency services has become a huge issue. “A lot of people treat the ambulance like a free cab service,” says Ged Blezard, director of emergency services for the North West Ambulance Service, citing a man in Manchester who rang to ask if he could book an ambulance for 11.45 in case he needed one due to drinking too much.

“We definitely have our ‘regulars’,” says the paramedic outside the Royal Liverpool, who asks to remain anonymous. “You can often guess from the area who it’s going to be and we’re on first-name terms with them. They get absolutely hammered every weekend and that’s normal for them.”

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/02/alcohol-accident-emergency-keep-drunk-people-out-of-hospital

Yes I recognised the issue in my post if you had taken the time to read it properly.

WW

I took the time to read it.

You gave with one hand and took back with the other when you again challenged my words by saying.

'So no, staff are not wasting their time'

That is your opinion, I have stated mine.

Instead of just suggesting that pensioners pay a reduced rate of NI, shouldn't we question the whole basis of NI as it now stands? It's fundementally just another tax now
That is true; perhaps it should be just added to income tax; but then part of it is counted towards a State pension - would that make it more or less difficult to calculate?

Other countries have good services but a higher rate of income tax; do they also pay NI? When calculating our rates of income tax compared to that of other countries do people take into account the NI we pay here until we are in receipt of a State pension?

Joelsnan the figures are interesting but I'm not sure what your point is about NHS pensions? Or were you just letting us know the cost?
WW - "underfunding" is just too simplistic. Any number of other issues, but, while more money is needed, where should it come from? If anything is pure and simple, it's that question.

Could you imagine the outrage if tax and NI were counted together as just one tax?
Even though, when an employer collects both, they are sent to HMRC as just one tax, i.e. one cheque or transfer, sent to the same place with the same paperwork.

Fitzy54 the figures were just to show the current state of pension lability, add to this the cost of Private investment loan repayments it is evident that there is a dwindling amount in he pot and that the easiest way to ameliorate this is to cut front line services and/or outsource them. I can see the logic behind this move but not really happy with it.
It would be interesting to understand the health provision in other countries such as Canada and Australia and even France, Spain and Germany, their service provision, staffing costs etc. Something for me to do if it snows.

Fitzy, if there was no ceiling on NI payments, that would garner a lot more for the treasury.
If HMRC was allowed to have the number of officers it needed to collect the tax owed through tax evasion, etc., it would go a long way to filling the gap.

http://www.aihw.gov.au/australias-health/2014/health-system/
here's a link
I'm not sure if it is going to snow!

Most, but not all, people I know pay into a private healthcare scheme; some use a mix of private and public healthcare. The Medicare levy is, I think, 1.5% of taxable income which all goes directly to healthcare but Medicare does not pay the total cost of treatment.
www.aussiemove.com/healthcare/the-cost-of-medicare

www.aihw.gov.au/australias-health/2014/health-system/

Thanks Jalima
It keeps teasing with a few snowflakes now and then here which is keeping me indoors just in case it decides to do a dump.

It looks as though most countries use Medicare which appears to be mainly publically funded private provision. Many service costs have to be topped up by the patients either through private insurance or direct payments.
A lot of peripheral services such as prescriptions, optical, dental and in Canada it seems some mental health care is not covered as well as physio, occupational therapy etc.
Most seem to provide general cover for poor, children and seniors.
It looks as though most have health cards and a lot of the pay for services require up front patient payments which are refunded in part or wholly.
Maybe this is what we are heading towards.

Only if the government wants it.
It has the money to pay for it. It prefers to give tax breaks to businesses.

Hunt is being ridiculous. He is saying that if we move people to another part of the NHS, there will be more avaiability in emergency care.
Doesn't he realise that all parts of the NHS are in the same trouble, not just A&E?

Even more ridiculous.

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/malcolm-hancock/protests-mount-against-swingeing-cuts-to-childrens-health-services

He said he had a plan today on the 1o/c news if it's the one to sell it off the highest bidder than that is believable nothing else is.

I thought it was the silver bullet(s) for the elderly.

Yes, when he said that about there being no silver bullets, I felt quite relieved.

well, silver is too expensive anyway
although it is a good anti-bacterial.

To stop MRSA? When we are in the hospital corridor as Hunt has just injured, not killed?

Drunks are not the cause of the NHS problems. Neither are immigrants or tourists.
Jeremy Hunt is the main cause and the architect of the NHS's problems. Aided and abetted by Tory chancellors who want to impose austerity on the most of us and a light touch tax regime on the very rich.
I know people who would not notice if they paid an extra 5K tax a year. They'd still be able to buy cars for their kids and have several 5* holidays a year. But they are getting a tax cut.

A graph that shows definitively that the NHS is not safe with the Tories.

politicalscrapbook.net/2017/02/this-graph-destroys-the-governments-claims-on-adequately-funding-the-nhs/

Produced by the BBC with information from the IFS.

politicalscrapbook.net/2017/02/jeremy-hunt-finally-admits-the-nhs-is-in-crisis-but-doesnt-have-a-plan-to-alleviate-it/

For anyone who hasn't seen the nonstop coverage today.

Been out of the loop for a while.
Jen - I agree extra NI might well be a solution or at least would help.
Jess - our taxes on the wealthy may not be the highest but they stack up reasonably well against other European countries - 47% with NI contributions and for some no allowances. Certainly not a "light touch" especially when you take into account the council tax they will pay on expensive properties and the VAT they will pay on those cars and 5 star holidays. We really need to get away from the old Labour one dimensional answer to everything: soak the rich until the pips squeak, borrow as much as you can, spend, spend, spend, cross your fingers and trust in Keynes.