Is the NHS really safe in Tory hands?

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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".

My question is---- How can any private health care provider be trusted to deliver the same or a better service than the NHS (that has been squeezed to death by this government) whilst at the same time (or without doubt very soon after getting their feet under the table) put profit as ever, before quality service?

tlttf. Same old, same old….if it’s not ‘The Daily Mail’, we can rely on you to dredge up something from that extreme right-winger John Redwood, alias the Vulcan. He’s the lunatic whose installation as Welsh secretary was described by a Plaid Cymru MP as "the most bizarre political appointment since Caligula made his horse a Senator”, the Welsh secretary who made a complete ass of himself by trying to mime the Welsh national anthem at a Welsh Tory Party conference. Still, it speaks volumes that you not only read his claptrap but think it’s worth inflicting on us as well.
 

Source: YouTube
 
Redwood’s blog entitled ‘A privatised NHS?’ is as deceitful as anything we could expect from a Tory. He is sly enough to slip in that “most NHS service is free at the point of need”, rather than all. Since the passage of the Health and Social Care Act of 2012, the government no longer has the legal obligation to provide treatment for everyone. We’ve just read in another source that cataract operations are being rationed to one eye per patient.
 
Then Redwood has the gall to cite a Labour government in 1951 for breaking the “free at the point of use” principle by introducing prescription charges. Redwood was part of a government which took office in 1979 when prescriptions cost 20p an item. When he and the rest of the scum were booted out in 1997, prescriptions cost £5.65 an item, that’s an increase of 2,725%. He tries to claim that Tories have remained “wedded to the free at the point of use principle”, conveniently forgetting that in 1988 they introduced charges for eye tests and dental checks, both of which had been free for the previous 40 years.
 
Yes Redwood, Labour “bought in private sector care for NHS patients”. That was to help reduce waiting times from two years to four months, not to replace the NHS or to force the NHS to use it. Yes, we do like the “no fee and no charge” after paying for the NHS through our NI contributions, but what Redwood omits to say is that some Tory MPs – and Lib Dem quislings like Shirley Williams – want to charge us for going to see a GP, and even ration the number of times in a year that we can do so.
 
Shame that a so-called intelligent MP doesn’t know the difference between practice (a noun) and to practise (a verb). Shame also that Redwood doesn’t remind us of his own connections with private healthcare. Since 2010, he’s received over £300k from Evercore Pan-Asset Capital Management Ltd, a financial management company, which is involved in huge private healthcare deals. He’s also received money from Robin Crispin Odey, a hedge funder who has invested in Circle healthcare. It’s no wonder that Redwood was once dubbed “the Pol Pot of privatisation” by ‘The Yorkshire Post’. It’s also no wonder that he likes to play down, or rather lie about, the creeping privatisation of the NHS by the Tories.
 
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This link says it all.

TLTTF wrote:
"I find that the really popular part of the NHS that most voters wish us to protect and continue is the fact that most NHS service is free at the point of need"

Hiya Landy, The problem arises or should I say actually arisen, not when they start to charge for treatments, but actually cut the treatments available on the NHS, just like they will not now treat two eyes with cataracts. What next only one hearing aid or hip replacement etc. There is no way I will ever trust the Tories with the NHS or anything else for that matter.

"Free" can be a weasel word, and is bandied about especially by advertisers along with "New" and "Improved". Almost inevitably there is a need to part with some cash before receiving the "free" item or service offered. Arising from such misuse, there are some who have come to believe that what cost nothing is worth nothing, which unfortunately debases the currency of genuine acts displaying kindness or generosity.

Those socialists of the 1940s who introduced Welfare provision were not creating a charity, but a compulsory savings scheme which would allow people to claim assistance when in need. Insurance is hardly a revolutionary notion, and is widely supported even by those Tories who most seriously object to the Nanny State. BUPA paying for medical services is OK, but payment from the public purse is not.

That is neither economics nor politics, it's pure snobbery.

Thousands of elderly people are being denied the chance to save their sight with vital cataract surgery.
A report out today claims the life-changing procedure is subject to ‘arbitrary’ restrictions by the NHS across half the country.

Patients in some areas have been told their vision is still ‘too good’ for an operation, even though their cataracts are so severe they cannot drive or read.

Clara Eaglen, of the RNIB, said: ‘Regional variation has created a postcode lottery which is simply unacceptable.
‘NHS “efficiency savings” achieved by cutting cataract operations are a false economy as denying treatment leaves patients at risk of depression, social isolation and fall-related hip fractures which are more costly to treat.’

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I understand that further cuts are to be made for dental treatment.
More work for the private sector, if one can afford it, or otherwise
hard luck, suffer in silence is the Tory attitude today.

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(mirror.co.uk)

" I see no hardships..."

I have been waiting for new tablets that were due out 3years ago for some of my medical conditions, but alas every time I SEE MY SPECIALIST THE ANSWER IS NO. so I carry on and suffer.

They never had such difficult choices 500 years ago, Stu, when there were just two classes - The Quick and the Dead. Medical progress since then amounts to increasingly powerful chemicals and/or the application of sharp instruments.

Or like when I was on a life support machine for 8weeks mate, leave him on it or turn it off. Well just before they were going to turn it off I came round,and shocked em all.     

A merry Xmas to you all, except of course if you happen to require A&E. You could end up there over the Xmas whole period so keep well and take great care folks.

Stroke victim turned away from hospital

The distraught wife of a stroke victim says her husband was turned away from a hospital because it was too late in the day.

Mr John Mallalieu, 89, was just three minutes from King’s Mill Hospital, Sutton-in-Ashfield, in an ambulance when the crew was told to divert to City Hospital, Nottingham.

King’s Mill, a major centre for strokes and heart attacks, runs those services from 8am on Monday to 6pm on Friday only. The cut-off time for receiving new patients is 5pm on Friday.

Simon Evans, divisional general manager for emergency care and medicine at Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust, said: “A hyper-acute stroke thrombolysis service, with a stroke consultant, is provided 24 hours a day from 8am Monday to 6pm Friday at King’s Mill Hospital.

“Outside of these hours the service is provided by the Nottingham stroke team at the region’s comprehensive stroke unit.

“It takes approximately one hour to treat (thrombolyse) a patient so the agreed cut-off time for receiving new patients is 5pm on a Friday. We will investigate this particular case with our EMAS colleagues.

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Of course the NHS is safe in Dave's hands.........

Life is lovely in nottingham, glad I use to be a staff nurse, then it's called treat yourself.

This story emerged in August 2009, but most people were only listening to Rupert Murdoch’s incessant attacks on Gordon Brown in those days:-

Key Tory MPs backed call to dismantle NHS

Several members of Cameron’s shadow cabinet – including Jeremy Hunt - put their names to a manifesto criticising the NHS and calling for it in effect to be dismantled.

Full story here:-
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Yes - we really had every opportunity to see what a disaster was being visited on the country - but the vote went against Labour anyway.
I guess that's one of the consequences of running politics as a beauty show instead of concentrating on the issues

Hopefully people will be more thoughtful in 2015 before reaching a decision not to vote.

Just a cockeyed optimist aren't you?

A nice one though, eh?

Many will not bother to vote. Then we have the blue rinse Tory brigade along with the Daily Mail propaganda suckers. Next those who have done well under this shower, those who are in good full time employment and the rich and the healthy and the UKIPPERS and those who care not and those who still stand by the Lib Dems.

What is left is the void for the Labour supporters to fill. Let us pray that that void is a massive one and filled to the gunnels.

Merry Xmas folks.

However, Labour has promised to repeal the Health and Social Care Act when elected.

The BBC and some of the press have for quite a while, on the orders of their Tory masters, been doing their best to undermine the British love of the NHS with an incessant stream of anecdotal stories casting the service in a negative light. Now it's time for criminal scum like Liam Fox (who was once a GP, I think I'd have preferred Harold Shipman) to move the debate on:-

Liam Fox: "Wasteful" NHS should not have funding ringfenced

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"...scum like Liam Fox (who was once a GP, I think I'd have preferred Harold Shipman)..."

   Quite. At least Shipman has the good grace to be dead...

Source: YouTube

Health commissioning groups preparing to put certain medical services out to tender

GPs set to lose out on income as private companies like Bupa and Alliance look to move in.

For the full story:-
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Labour should be able to achieve a landslide victory at the next General Election merely by repeating at regular intervals their intention to reverse all such Tory enactments without compensation.

The NHS is on the brink of extinction – we need to shout about it

Extracts from an article by Dr Kailash Chand OBE:-

Nye Bevan once said: "No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of a lack of means." The new Act has not just repealed society's contract with the health service, but it has made the NHS a repository of privateers with the mindset of venture capitalists.

Throughout 2013, the NHS came under relentless attack on grounds of “quality” by politicians and the right-wing press, driving the privatisation agenda. We are inexorably moving toward a system ruled by bogus choice, competition, market forces and diversity of suppliers. By opening every NHS corner to "any qualified provider", the whole service can be taken over by private companies, with a few token charities and mutuals.

NHS hospitals, faced with the consequences of cherry-picking by private consortia, risk bankruptcy when left to deal only with complex cases. Patients are being denied prompt hip or cataract operations – and the list of hard-to-get services will grow and grow, reducing the NHS to a skeleton.  Meanwhile, Hunt blames individual cash-strapped trusts for “making bad choices”.

In the past two years, £11bn worth of our NHS has been put up for sale, while 35,000 staff have been axed, including 5,600 nurses. Half of our 600 ambulance stations are earmarked for closure. One-third of NHS walk-in centres have been closed and 10% of A&E units have been shut. Waiting lists for operations are at their longest in years as hospitals are consumed by the crisis in A&E.

For the whole article:-
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Jeremy Hunt does not expect to be still around to take the blame when the NHS comes crashing around our ears. Like fellow members of the Tory front bench he doesn't need the money anyway.

Cameron's Bedside Manners

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" We are giving priority to lobotomy patients in the hope they'll vote Tory in 2015.."

bobby wrote:...Much of the NHS in my County Surrey is already in private hands, The bastards have sold something they never owned as we the people owned it...

It is amazing isn't it that a government can do something that were you to do it would be illegal. For example if I borrow your lawn mower and flog it off this is called (I think I have the technical term right) felonious conversion. This latter, which sounds akin to a sex act in the loft is known in government terms as Privatisation. Governments of all stripes resort to this act of thievery when they run out of money.

Bellatori wrote:-
felonious conversion....which sounds akin to a sex act in the loft

Brilliant! I'm nicking that one to use on Twitter (unless you have a copyright certificate?)  
 

Governments of all stripes resort to this act of thievery when they run out of money.

You must have noticed a drastic increase in privatisation in the last four years, even to include police dog handlers. It's not just being done for money, but for ideological reasons and to reward Tory donors.

P.S. Two posting tips:-
1. There's no need to bother with the 'reason for editing' box if there are no posts after the one you wish to amend.
2. Please don't type anything in red - that's the colour used for moderation. Thanks.
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The Rich have been passing Laws to protect themselves against The Poor for almost a thousand years.

If we want to change that we'd better get moving.

oftenwrong wrote:The Rich have been passing Laws to protect themselves against The Poor for almost a thousand years.  

If we want to change that we'd better get moving.

Ain't that the truth   Hallelujah   brothers and sisters  

He can't really mean that can he? Dave looks such a nice man.

Some of you who are perpetually moaning about what Labour isn’t doing might like to read this article by Andy Burnham, a man who certainly has some fire in his belly. Will his comments be reported by the BBC? You can bet your life they won’t.
 
Tories want to privatise NHS as cuts fund profits for fatcats while front line staff struggle to cope
 
Before the 2010 election, the Tories promised “no top-down reorganisation of the NHS”. They were lying. They were secretly planning the biggest ever. The shake-up, signed off by the Lib Dems, has cost £3 billion and rising. To pay for it, the PM took cash off the NHS front line he promised not to cut. The result? Six-figure payoffs for hundreds of managers and P45s for thousands of nurses. It stinks. Cameron’s reorganisation has left the NHS weakened, confused and short of staff.

And now the vultures are circling. Agencies are profiteering off the problems of the NHS by charging it exorbitant fees to fill a single shift. And it only gets worse. Government cuts to NHS community services, mental health and social care are pushing more people to A&E, which in turn need more staff to cope. So our hospitals are trapped in a vicious circle as agencies keep raking in the cash.

Cameron’s reorganisation is giving private firms the green light to cherry-pick services. This arrogant PM needs to be reminded he has never been given the public’s permission to put their NHS up for sale. If he is not stopped, the NHS will be broken up. That’s why the choice on the NHS at next year’s election is as stark as ever: a public service under Labour or a privatised utility under the Tories.
 
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Following Ed Balls' decision to restore 50p tax for those earning more than £150,000 p.a. perhaps Mr. Burnham should announce that whatever changes the Coalition will have made to the NHS will be reversed by a Labour administration. Without compensation.

oftenwrong wrote:-
....perhaps Mr. Burnham should announce that whatever changes the Coalition will have made to the NHS will be reversed by a Labour administration. Without compensation.

That's an idea which I would support wholeheartedly, but I suspect it may be illegal, either under Westminster-created laws or EU laws. And I don't think leaving the EU is a good idea.  

Tories spending more on the NHS? Pull the other one!   
 
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