Is the NHS really safe in Tory hands?

First topic message reminder :

Here is a news item from North Yorkshire which never made it onto the national headlines

A York-based practice has written to its patients offering them a range of minor treatments privately, claiming they are not funded by the local NHS.

Doctors' leaders said this could be the start of a worrying trend due to the squeeze on finances and NHS overhaul.

The letter, seen by the BBC, said local health chiefs had stopped funding a range of services, but added they could still have them done privately at a number of clinics, including one owned by the practice.

These included removing skin tags from £56.30 to treating benign tumours for £243.20.

Dr Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association, added: "The dire finances of many trusts means that many more NHS treatments are likely to become unavailable in the future".

So. Circle the private sector company who now run Hinchingbrooke Hospital will be able to keep the 1st £2m of any annual surplus they make, and a percentage of further profits.

And the hospital is £40m in debt. I guess you and I will be paying that off.

Should be interesting to watch waiting times, staff levels and quality of service.

In the meantime I'm setting up a new service for the poor and needy. It's called the Witchdoctors Home Medicine Service. Practioners must be experienced in bone throwing and reading, and fluent in the language of MumboJumbo. Joining fee, 2 white elephants. Apply now.

Allyson Pollock writes:-

The NHS is being broken up and liquidated as tens of thousands of commercial contracts are now being let up and down the country. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of NHS staff are being laid off or transferred to private employers, services are merging and closing, and patients doing without care unless they can afford to pay. Primary care trusts in Sussex, Surrey and Devon have signed long-term contracts with Virgin Care that include care of the most vulnerable people including children, people with disabilities, and people with learning difficulties.

The speed at which contracts have been let and the lack of public consultation inevitably seeds suspicions of corruption; but it is politicians who have seriously misled the public over the NHS. At the height of public concern over the Heath and Social Care Bill, Nick Clegg and Shirley Williams wrote reassuringly in February: "No one should be allowed to spend public money without telling us how they are going to use it."

Weasel words from two quisling politicians, aiding and abetting what is probably the most corrupt government this country has ever had.

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It's real-ly ve-ry sim-ple to un-der-stand. Tory philosophy does not accept that Government might have a responsibility to provide people with a service they could purchase for themselves. And now that we have a Tory-led coalition, they're making NHS services available to those who wish to buy them.

This is an absolutely true story though I cannot name either any hospital or NHS trust.

Recently, one of the new commissioning bodies set up by the government to take over hospital services began questioning the amount of anti-depressant drugs been prescribed by specialist doctors and consultants, the health trust in question is a psychiatric one, and the only motive behind this is cost.

In one particular case the management questioned the continued use of anti-depressants by a particular patient, and so under preasure the drugs were withdrawn from the patient, which resulted in that patient throwing herself down a flight of stairs.

This patient has now spent several weeks in an acute surgical ward which has now cost the NHS thousands of pounds.

This kind of thing is happening right now all over the NHS, the jobs and decisions of highly qualified, experienced doctors is been questioned by new commissioning managers whos only interest is cutting costs.

I think some posters know that my wife is a doctor

witchfinder wrote:This is an absolutely true story though I cannot name either any hospital or NHS trust.

Recently, one of the new commissioning bodies set up by the government to take over hospital services began questioning the amount of anti-depressant drugs been prescribed by specialist doctors and consultants, the health trust in question is a psychiatric one, and the only motive behind this is cost.

In one particular case the management questioned the continued use of anti-depressants by a particular patient, and so under preasure the drugs were withdrawn from the patient, which resulted in that patient throwing herself down a flight of stairs.

This patient has now spent several weeks in an acute surgical ward which has now cost the NHS thousands of pounds.

This kind of thing is happening right now all over the NHS, the jobs and decisions of highly qualified, experienced doctors is been questioned by new commissioning managers whos only interest is cutting costs.

I think some posters know that my wife is a doctor

You'll certainly remember, Witchy, that Thatcher's Government came up with the spiffing wheeze to shut the loony-bins and ship the inmates out into the world under the heading of "Care in the Community" in order to save costs. Once released into the Community, those who didn't do away with themselves in short order became a danger to the public. Many innocent people were murdered without reason by some nutter who was later said to have "not been taking his medicine". But a lot of money was saved.

Chivnail wrote:There are lies, and then there are lies that alter the fabric of a nation and kill thousands of citizens.

But it is different is today if the NHS is proved to have been neglectful there is the Courts to sue the NHS, and this gov't will not enjoy having to pay out huge sums of money not just for the sake of the money but it will make them look bad in the eyes of the voters, it will also prove what all of the medical profession have been saying about Lansley's top down re-organization of the NHS.

Those Tories are such nice people, aren’t they?

“Those who drink, smoke, take drugs or are obese should be told to shape up, ship out of Surrey or endure a slower healthcare service. That is the message in an e-mail, leaked to ‘The Elmbridge Guardian’, from a Conservative councillor who sits on Surrey’s health committee.

Cobham councillor John Butcher, elected in Surrey and Elmbridge, said offering a slower moving waiting list for the ‘self-inflicted’ would force them out of Surrey to areas where politicians believe in equality in the NHS.”

Full story here:-
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David6. If you’ve worked in the NHS for eleven years, you clearly have some first-hand knowledge of at least one hospital. However, I guess that means you started in 2001 and may not have seen the state the hospitals were left in by the Tories in 1997, no doubt as an excuse for future privatisation. There was an acute shortage of nurses then, and while more were being trained, Labour brought in 12,000 from the Philippines. (Some might argue that that involved depriving the people of a poor country of some hospital staff, but the nurses received better pay here and there may not have been jobs for them at home.)

As new treatments and drugs increase, so do the demands on the NHS budget, which can never be big enough. Labour increased spending on the NHS from £32.997 billion in 1996-7 to £92.173 billion in 2007-8 and gave us 85,000 more nurses and 32,000 more doctors. Labour brought back matrons to hospital wards, brought in free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50 and 70, and set up NHS Direct. But above all, waiting times for treatment dropped from up to two years to no more than four months. I think Labour has every reason to be proud of its record on the NHS, which the Tories are now hell-bent on privatising.

Copy of my new blog post. (For links, please refer to the original article at skwalker1964.wordpress.com as I don't think the embedded links will copy across and I don't have time to redo them all!)

In 1988, as George HW Bush ran for election as president of the US, he made a statement that swept him to power, as Americans voted for him in droves (as a country, the US is among the most deceived by the ‘small-state’ ideology promoted by the privileged). That statement, which quickly became iconic, ran thus:

‘Read my lips: NO NEW TAXES!’

In 1992, under criticism from his own side and opponents that he had broken this emphatic promise, Bush lost his bid for re-election to Bill Clinton.

In the run-up to the 2010 election, David Cameron made an equally emphatic promise. I don’t believe he ever said ‘Read my lips’, but he might as well have done. What he said was, ‘NO top-down re-organisation of the NHS!’ This statement played a key role in the Tories out-performing Labour at the polls (I won’t say in their winning the election, because they were unable to achieve an outright victory in spite of the deep unpopularity of Gordon Brown), as it served to neutralise a major Conservative weakness in the minds of many British people.

The ramming-through of the Health and Social Care Bill into law showed that Cameron’s promise wasn’t worth the breath he used to say it. But the Tories’ treatment of the NHS is a veritable roll-call of lies, broken promises and hidden agendas. A number of excellent articles have been published recently (I’ll link to some of them in my article) that show specific areas of impact of the Tory lies and actions. But in this post I’m going to try to give, in a clear and hopefully concise way, an overview of the main areas of deception and criminality, and to demonstrate that the Conservatives are not merely untrustworthy when it comes to the NHS, but engaged in an active campaign to dismantle the nation’s most treasured possession until nothing meaningful is left.

1) LIE: ‘No top-down re-organisation’ (see here)

We’ll start with the most obvious! Cameron promised, and yet within 2 years he and his Andrew Lansley had forced their bill through Parliament – a bill that nobody in the service wanted, as we’ll see below, and that most of the public would have disapproved of were it widely known what it meant. And note – this Bill was first proposed in January 2011. It takes many months to prepare a bill this complex and far-reaching. This means that the preparation of this bill was begun as soon as the Tories took office in May 2010, if not before. Which means that this is not a case of Cameron getting into power and then finding out that a change was necessary – he knew, when he made his campaign promise of no more top-down reorganisation, that the Tories were going to conduct, from the top down, the biggest attack on the NHS in its history. In other words, he lied.

To minimise public outcry, the Tories have engaged in a concerted spin campaign that has included systematic attempts to demonise anyone who has tried to resist its measures, aided and abetted by their mates in the media. Regular stories of ‘failing’ hospitals, interviews with relatives slanted to portray isolated incidents as indicative of endemic incompetence/callousness and tales of supposed inefficiency have been used to erode public confidence in and affection for the NHS and its overworked staff. Attempts to resist erosion in pay, conditions and pensions are portrayed as selfishness and a denial of reality, and contrasted with the poor conditions and insecurity faced by many in the private sector (in other words by those whom the Tories’ corporate backers have already robbed – see more) to further undermine the public perception of people of whom we should be justly proud. And now the Bill, in direct contravention of Cameron’s very public promise, is in place and the rate of damage is accelerating rapidly.

2) LIE: ‘Change will be ‘driven by the wishes and needs of NHS professionals and patients’ (source)

A strong statement ndeed – the key drivers of any change in the NHS would be the wishes of the people who work in it, and the people it treats.

So, what did health professionals say about the changes as the Bill was discussed in Parliament? Simple: absolute rejection. Out of all of the health professional bodies, only one did not reject the bill outright – and that one (the Royal College of Surgeons) said it ‘considers that the Health and Social Care Bill, if passed, will damage the NHS and widen healthcare inequalities, with detrimental effects on education, training and patient care in England.’ The comments of the others, as you will imagine since they rejected the bill and called for its immediate withdrawal, were no less damning. You can read them in detail here.

And patients?

Well, patients haven’t had much time yet to experience the consequences of the new Act, but patient groups were soundly against the bill when it was mooted and in the run-up to its passage into law (For example, see this article in a newspaper which is a natural Tory ally). As for impact on patients after the Act’s implementation, the edited version of the now-famous risk-register (which you can see here) warns of – at the least (remember, this is the edited version, so the worse stuff will be left out!) – closures of health facilities, consortia going bust and an impaired ability of the NHS to respond to emergencies such as epidemics and terrorist attacks. None of which is good for patients. (For more on the consequences highlighted in the Risk Register, see my article on the lowlights of the risk register)

A glimpse into real Tory attitudes to patients was given recently when a Tory councillor in Surrey called for patients with chronic illnesses he considers self-inflicted to be treated more slowly on the NHS, so that they would move away to other areas and drain their health resources while less ill people moved to Surrey, pushing up house prices(!) Health provision as a form of social cleansing – could the true heartlessness of Tory ideology be any more clearly demonstrated?

So, in complete contrast to a promise the Prime Minister made before he came to power, the Act has been forced through Parliament in spite of massive opposition from both health professionals and patients, and in spite of warnings of negative consequences for both patients and staff in the government’s own risk assessment.

3) LIE: ‘Tories can be trusted with the NHS’ (source) and the bill is not a ‘backdoor privatisation’ (source)

In the same speech in which he made his promise that any changes would be driven by the wishes of health workers and patients, Cameron called the NHS ‘one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century’, and even went so far as to say, ‘it is not just a question of saying the NHS is safe in my hands – of course it will be’. And in May 2011, he went so far as to say that only Tories can be trusted with the NHS (see link above).

That’s a big claim, and one that had better stand up to some scrutiny. Except, of course, that it doesn’t. The new Act expressly ends the Health Secretary’s duty to provide or secure health services to the UK people. Abdicating responsibility for health provision?! What else is a Health Secretary there for? In short, Lansley has absolved himself of all responsibility for what happens to the NHS. Hardly the actions of someone who can be trusted with it.

It goes further. In a speech in March of this year, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, in a speech to a right-wing ‘policy think-tank’ said that the Conservatives’ aim was to not just to privatise the NHS but to eradicate all public services! (see more). Tory MP will take part in a discussion next week organised by the odious and shady free-market ‘charity’ the Insitute for Economic Affairs, titled ‘Should we abolish the NHS?’. These are not rogue elements within the Tory party. ‘By their deeds you shall know them‘, and their deeds show they’re all cut from the same cloth, at least at Cabinet level.

This process has already begun. Eoin Clarke’s excellent article on NHS privatisation includes a map showing the extent to which it’s already happening. This article (among others, for example here) by NL Group shows how private cartels are already being formed to force down NHS staff’s pay and conditions in areas outside Tory heartlands, which of course the Tories cushion from the worst of the changes to protect their vote.

It may have escaped the notice of many, but the government has already formed a registered company, PropCo, to manage the NHS’ ‘excess’ land, and has legally obliged every NHS Trust to hand over ownership of this land – worth appr. £5.2 billion – to PropCo, so that it can be sold off. Already 591 hectares of NHS land is being sold to private developers. This money will not go to the NHS, and the government is free to sell off PropCo to private owners. If NHS Trusts need land for expansion, instead of using land they used to have before being forced to hand it over, they will have to buy land at commercial rates (and not necessarily in the most workable locations) – draining funds away from service provision and patient care.

So much for able to be trusted, and the bill not being a back-door route to privatisation.

4) LIE: The NHS is inefficient and needs to be ‘fixed’

This is a lie in so many ways that it’s hard to know where to begin. To support his determination to push through unpopular reforms, Andrew Lansley, claimed that the NHS was inefficient and growing more so, stating that productivity had declined by 15%. Cameron even taunted Labour about this in Parliament. However, an analysis by the Lancet showed that productivity had in fact risen over the last 10 years, making a complete farce of Lansley’s claim.

Moreover, the National Audit Office published an article claiming that the NHS wasted over £500 million because fragmented purchasing meant that higher prices were paid in some areas for the same items than in others. Yet the government’s own risk register - even the edited version - states that fragmentation under the new system will be worse (see ‘Extract 2′ here) and that this will result in a loss of cost-control.

Far from being inefficient, the NHS is actually the 2nd most cost-effective health system in the world, behind only the Irish Republic. Yes, you read that right. In the benefit delivered compared to the amount it costs, the NHS is genuinely world-class and outperforms by light-years the privatised US health system that Lansley and his colleagues so admire. As I pointed out in an earlier blog post, the US spends more than twice as much per head of population as the UK does. In fact, even when you strip out the vast and exorbitant cost of private US health care, the US - without a public healthcare system – spends about 30% more per head (not just on the uninsured, but averaged out across the whole of its population of c. 300 million people) on health provision.

This last fact shows that it’s not just a lie that the NHS is inefficient. It’s also a lie that allowing privatisation and ‘competition’ into the NHS will improve things. In fact, it’s absolute logic that adding a profit layer into the cost equation must make things more expensive. Virgin’s healthcare subsidiary made a formal complaint against Yorkshire NHS regarding a bid Virgin failed to win, on the basis that not charging a profit meant that the public provider was competing unfairly. And again, the Tories’ own risk-register states that the new Bill will (not might!) increase cost.

If a company is to make a profit, it has to either charge more than a non-profit provider – or else it has to cut costs: drive down wages, reduce staff numbers, use lower-quality materials (drugs, bandages etc) or find excuses not to offer treatment to ‘expensive’ patients. Or, most likely, all of these measures combined.

So much for efficiency and cost-reduction as a reason for this invidious Act. And so much for reforms that meet the wishes of NHS staff and patients.

5) LIE: The bill will give choice to NHS patients

Conservatives have long claimed (here, for example) that competition and patient choice are important factors in delivering a quality health service. We’ve already seen that competition not only fails to guarantee better services, but actively works against them and increases cost. So what about choice? Again, what the Tories promised is not what it delivers. Eoin Clarke’s map tells a clear story. Once contracts for NHS services are handed over to a private company for a whole region, patients have no more choice about who provides their healthcare than they had before. In fact, they have less – and they’re forced to look for that care from a company with a vested interest in finding reasons to deny it, as it strives to cut cost and maximise profit.

The picture is clear. Any kind of considered examination of the Tory record on the NHS, of its words versus its actions, shows absolutely clearly that they ‘speak with forked tongue‘.The Tories will say anything to defend their actions and worry about the consequences later, if ever. They will deceive the public in order to rob us – and only on very rare occasions, when they feel secure in speaking to their ideological allies, will they say plainly what their real intentions are. But the facts speak for themselves – the Tories hate the very idea of the NHS, of something being provided by the State to those who can’t afford to pay for it directly. Of treatment provided free and at the point of need. We must not stand passive and allow them to steal it from us.

George Bush paid for his broken promises by failing to win a 2nd term – a relative rarity for an American President. David Cameron has not merely broken promises, but definitively lied to the British people in order to gain office. He must pay the price.

If, like me, you’re unwilling to wait until the next election in 2015 to see Cameron and the other snake-oil salesmen out of office, please go to the petition below, sign it, and get as many others as you can to do so. At the very least it will send a message, and provide ammunition to the opponents of this scandalous Act.

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The last post, which I only uploaded an hour or so ago, was burning me for the last couple of days. I thought writing it would help stop it burning, but the more I found out and wrote, the more fired up I felt. So I’ve submitted the following Freedom of Information request to Andrew Lansley’s Health Department:

To: Department of Health
Subject: Freedom of Information request – Creation of the Health and Social Care Bill/Act

Dear Department of Health,

I require to know, regarding the Health and Social Care Bill (later Act):

1) Names, roles and companies of each person or entity involved in creating the bill or deciding on its principles, whether employed by DH, by the Conservative Party, or in a consultative or other role.

2) When the principles of the bill were first discussed, by whom and in what context.

3) Copies of all emails, letters and texts relating to the bill sent to or by David Cameron, Andrew Lansley or any other ministers, or their assistants – and including any sent from private phones or email accounts.

4) Details of any funding or contribution provided by non-governmental entities to the creation of the bill, including training, hospitality, clerical/organisational support and non-financial facilitation.

5) The above questions apply also to the Conservatives’ last period in opposition, i.e. before the 2010 General Election.

Yours faithfully,

Steve Walker

They may well block the request, but if they do that will tell its own story. If they provide the required information, it should prove very revealing…

Negative news is piling up so fast against the Coalition government that its duration must surely be truncated long before 2015.

The primary response will undoubtedly be that it would cost too much to compile an answer.

When the Health and Social Care Act was still a parliamentary bill, Dr Kailash Chand OBE (@kailashchandOBE on Twitter) started an e-petition on the government site demanding that the bill be abandoned. The epetition.gov.uk site's rules state that any petition reaching 100,000 signatures or more must be considered for Parliamentary debate. The petition easily exceeded 100,000 signatures, at times averaging 1000 signatures per hour - a clear sign of the wishes of the British people.

If you want to know what the Act means for the NHS and how the government has lied about it, see here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The petition was closed, and the discussion never happened. The government - as it is technically entitled to do - let the motion disappear into a parliamentary black hole.

I believe we have to maintain the assault on all possible fronts, so I've started another petition. However, while I've submitted the petition to the government site, I'm also setting it up on gopetition.com, for the reasons below:

1) The government site is likely to block the petition from even appearing on their site.

2) Even if it goes ahead, once it reaches 100,000 signatures, it is closed, limiting the number of signatures and the petition's ability to create political pressure. I believe that far more than 100k people will sign the petition - potentially in the millions - sending a far clearer and harder-to-ignore message to the government that we will not tolerate the selling-off of our most treasured national possession.

The wording of the petition is as follows:

Petition wording:

We, the British people, demand the immediate repeal of the Health and Social Care Act, commonly known as the NHS Reform Bill/Act, with all actions, sales and contracts under the Act to be immediately reversed.

There is no place for the profit motive in our Health Service. It is completely unacceptable for the Health Secretary to abdicate responsibility for health provision and to submit the NHS to market forces and private provision that cannot possibly offer the same services at better cost, and which will damage both patient care and NHS pay, conditions & morale, which again will be adverse for patients.

Our NHS is among the most efficient and effective in the world, and it does not require reform.

I believe this petition will strike a strong chord with the British people's love of the NHS and distaste for the attitudes and actions of the coalition government. If you agree, please sign via the link below - and don't stop there. Circulate it to your Twitter followers, post it on your Facebook page, link to it from your blog and do whatever else you can think of to get it known and signed as far and as fast as possible:

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Thank you!

all singed up



Yeah!! OK signed. (just trying to bring some levity to this rediculous sate of affairs)

Signed.

Me too.

Petition away, lads, for what good it may do you. Mr. Lansley had already begun dismantling the NHS before the reform bill was passed. Primary Care Trusts were scrapped by Ministerial Order, and other changes made to procurement systems and provision of services. Many thousands of NHS employees have been made redundant.

Intentionally, reversing such changes would be very expensive. (refer also to the effects of PFI).

Thanks Sickchip, Mel, Adele.

Oftenwrong - nobody says it's going to be easy. But the more pressure can be applied from every direction, the better.

Not just on the Tories, either - Ed Miliband says he'll repeal the Act but he isn't emphatic enough about all parts of it, nor necessarily clear that he'll renationalise any parts that have been sold off (predatory companies will lose out - tough, IMO). If millions sign a petition demanding it, it frees/forces him politically to do it in full.

Probably. And then I'll break it down into various parts and submit each separately.

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" Yes, Mr Lansley's told me all about chaps like you who get treated and then conveniently can't find their wallet..."

Nurse! Put that man's appendix back in!

No Timewasters! It's painted over the front door.

Welcome to Cameron's NHS

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"Sadly, Mr Cameron, we've examined the patient's wallet and there's nothing we can do for him..."

oftenwrong wrote:

trevorw2539 wrote:

Phil Hornby wrote:Welcome to Cameron's NHS

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"Sadly, Mr Cameron, we've examined the patient's wallet and there's nothing we can do for him..."

But nurse, didn't you see the BUPA and Tory Party membership cards?

"Yes, of course Sir, the BUPA card dates from the last employment he had - two years ago, and the other one has of course been totally discredited since then also."

Did anyone hear on the BBC News this am. that hospitals are already putting off the less important operations? - hips replacement etc - due to lack of finances.

Needless to say the Government reckons there is money available. That deferments are not necessary.

You're right, OW. totally discredited - as above.

I believe, and some of you may disagree, that our NHS is only surviving by the dedication of the Nursing Staff. I know there are occasions when things go wrong, but I have had to use our local hospital fairly often recently, and the nursing staff have been excellent, although they have frequently been rushed off their feet.

that our NHS is only surviving by the dedication of the Nursing Staff.

I could not agree more with you! Hats off to you Sir!

Actually, if you examine closely the structure of ANY successful business, it usually produces riches for the owners at the expense of the staff who really do all the work. Precisely the same as the Tory-led Coalition.

oftenwrong wrote:Actually, if you examine closely the structure of ANY successful business, it usually produces riches for the owners at the expense of the staff who really do all the work. Precisely the same as the Tory-led Coalition.

I agree with the above.

However what the Tories do not understand is that the NHS is not meant to be a 'business' nor to produce 'riches'. It is meant to be for the benefit of the people. To provide physical and mental relief, regardless of cost. That also means transforming the 'waste' in the service into useful purposes.

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" Doctor says he is on strike today, but is willing to make an exception for you three and will gladly cut off your testicles with a blunt knife..."

Still, it's good to see that our Ministers of the Crown know how to agree on the really important things.

Like what to wear for a photo-opportunity.

Though l'enfant terrible Clegg seems to have eschewed the undervest.

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" Doctor says he is on strike today, but is willing to make an exception for you three and will gladly cut off your testicles with a blunt knife..."

OW quote. Though l'enfant terrible Clegg seems to have eschewed the undervest.

Not so. Said vest used as a bandage when above (Phils) suggestion tried by disgruntled NHS supporter. Note look of pain on DC's face.

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Next time - vote for Genghis Khan. He couldn't possibly be worse than this shower!

Critics have hit out at a Government initiative which could see NHS hospitals set up profit-making branches abroad.

The Patients Association claimed the scheme could shift focus away from local services and Labour said that ministers should concentrate on "patients, not profits".

Some of Britain's best known hospitals, such as Great Ormond Street, the Royal Marsden and Guy's and St Thomas', could take part in the initiative to raise funds for patients at home and promote the international profile of the health service.

Crafty Tory tyrants at it again.

Chipping away at the edges. As they are doing to the Benefits system. Interesting to see the Republicans following a parallel course in the USA - our home-grown posh kids couldn't have come up with those ideas all on their own.

Great Ormond Street, the Royal Marsden and Guy's and St Thomas'

With these particular hospitals in the firing line, I dont think it is chipping away at the edges, but going straight for the heart. It seems they have missed St Barts, but give the Bastards time.

Those Tory Health Promises

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" I suffered from amnesia once. Or was it twice...?"

NHS to Consultant:

1. We've no money, but stretch to a Ward in Abu Dhabi and there should be spondulicks available for a similar one where you are now.

2. Which includes enough for another couple of weeks in the Caribbean for you and the Missus.

3. Though you might not want to waste too much time here when you see what the Yanks are prepared to pay, even after taking care of me and MY Missus.

The Future's Not Yellow...

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" I've got schizophrenia. Certainly beats being alone..."

No Matter what the filthy Tory slags do to the NHS, Labour should make returning it to what it should be their second priority, the first being the economy. Lets not forget, thanks to the pox ridden Tories we (Labour) will have a full 5 years at least in office to deal with the crap we will inherit from the previous Tory led Coalition Government.