Health Secretary says no more money for NHS

Coastal gran: I'm sure HR would pick up a pattern of school holiday absences if it was an ongoing occurrence.
Perhaps "Dishy Rishi" should reverse his decision to ignore the billions that were wasted or obtained fraudulently during the early days of covid and get it back with interest.
The Tory party should read Gransnet as the vast majority of contributors can see right through them having lived their blatent lies for so long now. Obviously there are still some fans, but you only have to raise the name Johnson for practically 100% agreement and it's not saying anything good.
Our media is almost 100% owned by the right wing many non dom. So inspite of this relentless attempt to tell us black is white the oldies, the Tory bread and butter voter, are seeing them for what they really are.
Remember the NHS every time you vote. You never know when you may need it. People are now dieing in the back of ambulances due to lack of them. Dial 999 even if your life is in peril, now it could be hours before you get treated.

I forgot to add that neither of us attending the clinic had received our appointment letters. I went because I received a reminder text the day before, the other woman had missed her first appointment and received her second letter mentioning that she had missed her first appointment.

As regards private companies doing NHS work, I've had two cataracts done under the NHS in private facilities. I understand that it is cheaper to do it this way, and the clinics were certainly very well organised and ran to time. But ALL the surgeons involved were from the local NHS department, leading me to wonder why they have the time off?
I also had a recent recall after a mammogram. There were two of us attending the clinic and at least eight staff present.

I thought the increase in NI contributions was to fund the NHS & Social Care!!! Does this government think we are so stupid and have such short term memories that we’ve forgotten this? We all know their plan is to run the NHS into the ground so they can privatise it. If the higher NI payments aren’t going to NHS & Social Care what are they funding - empty planes destined for Rwanda standing on runways perhaps???

I know several people who have opted to pay for their treatment than to stay in pain for months/years.
This is what the Tories want for us all to pay for our treatment.
It's the poor who lose out again as they can't afford to pay but it's clear this government doesn't care about the poor.

What about the money Sir Tom raised during the pandemic. Wasn't that for the NHS?

the reason the NHS is costing more at the moment is because each of the services they use are increasingly run by a private company and private companies require profits to give shareholders. The nhs needs to go back to employing people directly like it always had until the Torys took control

Ladyinspain

Then why is UK even CONSIDERING funding the Eurovision Song Contest next year!??? And sending migrants to Rwanda?(millions is ongoing costs) and now announcing that our troops may have to go fight for Uraiane!!! But NHS-no more money !?

Our troops are not going to fight for Ukraine, there is a proposal for training Ukrainian fighters.

I'm simply irritated that so much of the budget goes towards management. The drive towards larger hospitals and away from smaller local cottage hospitals and units has meant that the establishments are too large to manage simply.
Small procedures may be carried out tens of miles from home, meaning that costly hospital transport has to be used or patients spend hours on public transport or pounds on parking. The largest building projects in many hospitals seem to be car parks.
More elderly people have to stay longer because there are no local "cottage hospitals" where they can stay until they're ready to go home.
And don't get me started on those built using PFI! I've worked in such a building where we weren't allowed to buy and change a light bulb but had to wait two weeks and pay £50 for the management company to do it. Also we weren't allowed to buy in platters of sandwiches for meetings but had to use the in-house caterers at three times the cost. Same goes for approved stationery providers. I'm assuming that supplies in the NHS are also bought in this way; it's certainly not true that centralised buying is always the best way to go about these things.
I'm not convinced that such money as there is is being spent sensibly.

I have a friend who needs a new hip. The obstacles in his way are many and because of these obstacles he is not even counted as being on the list yet - another way of keeping numbers down. His hip is actually completely 'shot' and he is considering going private... but why when he has paid in so much? Because he will become pain free far sooner whilst the NHS are passing him from pillar to post.

Then why is UK even CONSIDERING funding the Eurovision Song Contest next year!??? And sending migrants to Rwanda?(millions is ongoing costs) and now announcing that our troops may have to go fight for Uraiane!!! But NHS-no more money !?

My friend's daughter is an NHS nurse in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, she also works agency and gets paid anything between £250-650 a shift for this private work in other NHS hospitals. A woman who also makes sure that she is off with stress related illness at all the school holidays so that she doesn't need childcare. Maybe the reduction in funding is justified if there are a few more like her.

If the NHS employed fewer ‘inclusion and diversity’ managers and stopped hiring so many admin/ managerial staff it might improve. There’s so much wrong with this bloated and frequently inefficient organisation, inaugurated in 1948 by a Labour government who had altered the original private/ public partnership first mooted by the conservatives. The PFI initiative was accelerated under the Blair government at huge cost, not least in legal fees, (an under reported scandal in itself). We need a cross party committee-, yes another one!- which this time will work together to plan a way forward as this issue is too much of a hot potato to leave to one party alone, in government or not. Scaremongering about ‘privatisation’ must stop. So too our refusal to look to other excellent healthcare systems abroad from whom we may be able to actually learn something! Stop the farcical (and expensive) ‘wokery’- requiring an elderly MAN to indicate whether or not he could be pregnant before a procedure, allowing pre operative trans woman to share female only wards etc. etc. Sort out the GP mess so that patients can actually see their doctor face to face if they so wish and relieve the overburdened A&E departments. Charge non nationals for their treatment. Politicians must stop treating the public like credulous fools to be manipulated in order to gain votes. I have several relatives who work in senior clinical NHS posts; I myself used to work in finance for that organisation, so I do have some notion of its problems, many self inflicted. The NHS is not ‘free’ nor can NI contributions fund it. Taxation is the main source of revenue and that very same source is desperately needed for other essential services to society such as housing, elderly and children’s social care, education etc all of which are necessary to our well being and may improve the nation’s health. No other country obsesses over its health services like we do. The ‘sacred cow’ status of the NHS should end.

The problem with the cost cutting or efficiency measures is they are largely implemented by people who don’t have to work under them. One example from my long time in the NHS-‘efficiencies’ in the laundry service resulted in shortages in the maternity unit I was working in with babies in j cloth gowns and mums on paper sheets. I was searching the linen cupboard in the hope of finding a proper cot sheet when some bod with a clipboard gave me a proper telling off for putting the light on during the day! Priorities???

What about all the money that was supposed to go to the NHS when we left brexit. What happened to all of that

Brexit comes home to roost! The pandemic created golden opportunities for various profiteers and fraudsters. Johnson couldn't care less so long as his wife is happy with the gold-plated wallpaper. And most Tory MPs are solely concerned to continue in their well-paid jobs. The Labour Party must pull its socks up. Starmer may be worthy but he's as dull as ditchwater.

Then if we are that cashed strapped how about returning the millions of money spent on equipment that was no use in the last 3 years, how about cutting the payments to the rich, how about a fair taxation system. So many ways to save money for the vulnerable and needy.

vegansrock

What about the £350m a week for the NHS which we would be saving after Brexit?

That lie was the reason many people voted leave, dreamed up by Dominic Cummings.

On Midlands news yesterday 500 new paramedics are being recruited in this area.
There is money and as growstuff says the Government decides where it is spent.

There was an article a couple of days ago about higher education (university) places. Apparently, it's going to be harder than ever to get a place to study medicine and dentistry? Why? The government has promised 6,000 more doctors - surely it needs to start by funding extra places at medical schools.

TillyTrotter

You are right Calendargirl , but also life expectancy has lengthened and the population has grown immensely.
The sums just don’t add up unless the Government pour more funds in. Which they don’t seem to want to do.

Don't forget that it's our money the government is deciding not to spend. The government isn't being generous when it funds the NHS. It's deciding how to allocate the country's wealth. Working people pay a far higher percentage of their income in National Insurance, so the money should be there.

PS. Maizie will be along to tell me that the government can spend what it wants anyway - it chooses not to spend on healthcare for everybody.

HousePlantQueen

Just a quick reminder that the demonised Corbyn warned us all about this pre 2019, and was dismissed.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-nhs-trade-deal-trump-corbyn-brexit-general-election-manifesto-a9219566.html

Thank you! He said on live TV, in interview with BJ, that the Tories wanted to do away with the NHS and Boris lied.

It makes me so angry. All those who chose to believe the Tories, because they 'Just couldn't vote for Corbyn.' did this.

You are right Calendargirl , but also life expectancy has lengthened and the population has grown immensely.
The sums just don’t add up unless the Government pour more funds in. Which they don’t seem to want to do.

growstuff

"It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child-can use it or any part of it. There are no charges, except for a few special items. There are no insurance qualifications. But it is not a “charity”. You are all paying for it, mainly as taxpayers, and it will relieve your money worries in time of illness."

But this is nearly 75 years ago.

So many more treatments, operations, procedures, tests, scans, available nowadays. It must have been so much simpler then.

And much cheaper. Just thinking of dental treatment. There would be fillings, extractions, false teeth. No implants, crowns, root canal treatments surely?

OK! So how would eliminating the waste you've personally experienced enable the NHS to cut down waiting lists and provide a better service, especially in primary care (GPs)?

www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2016/feb/08/how-much-have-i-cost-the-nhs

Here are some average costs for NHS treatment (from 2016). I don't know what the average per patient is, but let's say £1,000. To treat the 6 million people currently on waiting lists would cost £6 billion. How could the NHS save that much on waste? - and that's before improving GP services and replacing delapidated hospitals.