NHS Cuts

[tonybloke]

Proposed cuts to the National Health Service.



The British Medical Association has weighed in on the new Prime Minister David Cameron's health care proposals.

The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had a sort of a gut feeling about it, but the neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.

The Obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception.

Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted.

Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the Paediatricians said, "Oh, Grow up!"

The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.

The Surgeons were fed up with the cuts and decided to wash their hands of the whole thing. The ENT specialists wouldn’t hear of it.

The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter...."

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.

The Anaesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.

In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the ar*eholes in London .

 

[mbc]

and the gynecologists recognised Cameron from somewhere

 

[tonybloke]

R o f l

 

[buzz lightyear]

and the GP's said "give it a week and if its no better come back and see me".

 

[madasafish]

And the Rheumatologists thought it was a pain in the backside.
Whulst the Cardiologists did not have the heart for any changes..

 

[Somerford]

fnar fnar

but you can hardly expect it to be immune from cuts when we have 11% of GDP as debt !!!

don't blame Cameron or Clegg.....the blame rests firmly with Brown & Blair and 13 years of profligate and wasteful spending

S

 

[Nellie]

Cuts is one thing, the effective privatisation of the NHS by the back door might be considered making the most of an opportunity to pursue something on idealogical grounds.

 

[Poly Hive]

I don't think there is an "ideology" at work, I do think there is a burning desire to cut costs and rightly so. What the army of managers actually achieve is beyond me.

My wife and I have both been forced to go private to keep us functioning. The NHS couldn't begin to help us for 4 months, not a lot of use when you are in dire pain and a business to run to survive.

PH

 

[Nellie]

The privatisation, sorry "opening up for competition", of the NHS isn't an ideological move?

For all it's bloat the NHS is a million miles away from where it was 20 years ago and you can make legitimate savings within the organisation without slashing funding to frontline services or forcing those who can afford to pay into a vastly more expensive and inefficient service while leaving those who can't to suffer. GPs are going to need a whole raft of managers soon, so starting there would be a good place.

Still it is vaguely amusing that while we look to emulate the US health service (god help us!) they were looking to the NHS, amongst others, as a pointer to what's wrong with the US health service which costs 2-3 times as much as the NHS, per person, while simultaneously delivering a worse standard of overall healthcare, accusations of "death panels" not withstanding.

While I'm not actually a huge fan of "big government", there are some services that I feel are basic rights and a benefit to society as a whole when there is free access to all for them. Both education and healthcare fall into those categories for me.

"Look what Labour left us" was fine for a bit, but it's becoming increasingly clear that it's also a smokescreen for pushing through the Tory agenda in the guise of making necessary cuts.

So yes, I see it very much as a Tory policy of desire rather than necessity, especially as it's another policy not on anyones manifesto.

 

[victor meldrew]

Manifestos issued by all political parties use poetic license to the standard required to be awarded the status of 'Poet Laurette '

John W.

 

[For want of a better word]

AND....

........................
The Haematologists said yet another bloody mess the ConDems are going to make and the Seriologists agreed that the government were crossed ~ up and not cross#matched, thut then they always were B neg about most things, never A pos!!!

And the Parasiteologist merely commented that...........................
every
flea
has
a
smaller
flea
upon
its
back

to
bite
'em,
and
every
flea
has
another
flea
and
so
on
ad
infiniteum !​

​

​

 

[For want of a better word]

Nye Bevvan must be rolling in his grave!

 

[madasafish]

Well of course, anyone who looks at the NHS future - as it stands - and the aging of the population (baby boomers becoming senile and living longer and expecting medical and social care till they die) can see the NHS will become full of senile dementia patients.

Been warned about for the past decade or so.. and not very much has been done about it..

The current NHS cuts will look like a picnic as the working population will be unable to fund a continuation of current health services for the retired - whose numbers will rise 50% in the next 30 years...

http://www.21stcenturychallenges.org/focus/britains-greying-population/

I don't care: I'll be fit or dead.

 

[Cazza]

GPs are going to need a whole raft of managers soon, so starting there would be a good place.

I can't see how putting GP's in charge of service selection will save money. It will just lead to another layer of management, only in smaller, less efficient groups.

I also don't entirely trust GP's to select/choose to pay for specialist but non life saving services such as Speech and Language Therapy.....

I can feel a rant coming on.
Cazza

 

[drstitson]

two things really annoying me since may.

1. "ideological" policies - that's surely the point of our political system - you for for the party who's ideology you support.

2. progressive and regressive policies - i can't believe that the media is being allowed to get away with repeating this codswallop at every opportunity. one man's progressive is another man's regressive.

 

[Storm™]

I've worked in the NHS - and omg is all ou can say about it really. Its a shower of the brown stuff. So many things wrong.

- Plymouth's Derriford GUM clinic policy - test for everything and go home. If you do not hear from us in two weeks by letter - assume your in the clear. No phone calls any more please.

- Across the road is the Nuffield (Private), See your consultant - he can treat your condition in 3 to 4 months. Go private 3 to 4 days, and you can watch your consultant nip out of Derriford, cross over the road munching a pastie, to come see you. Same consultant, different timescales.

- I know I should not say this but it is true - if you are going to nurse someone I thing the most basic requirement is that you at least, at the very least have a basic grasp of the english language. My nan died in pain, bed sores, stroke after stroke, and her staff nurse, yes her staff nurse (nominated nurse), had to communicate with me via sign language and guesswork. Obs not done all day, no scan after the first stroke, no entries in her fluid in fluid out chart - i'm gonna stop cause that one really gets me. (broomfield hospital 1994)

- We had a ward cleaner margaret (Derriford), she was like a rottweiler, if she saw dirt she went ape. Always cleaning end to end and back again. Replaced by cheap labour, then the floor had a quick lick and a promise. Sheets came back from the laundry stained with blood etc etc

And I am afraid the list would take up this forum. You can only ever rectify a situation of you work it. Otherwise you are listening to others. And with the best will in the world, looking good to the bosses always comes first, "we an cope" etc . . .

The debt as people call it is blamed on banks, businessmen and various other sources. But to be honest that is drop in the ocean stuff. What you should be looking at is what the War cost us. Thats why we are in the poop. It was the same with the Falklands. I think people forget. You would not believe the money that is spent. The Falklands was defended as part of our property and to protect our citizens. But if your into conspiracies, just have a look at how close it is to the largest unused virtually unexplored mineral and fuel resource left. The falklands is or would be and excellent staging post to refine and store such goodies. So no way were we going to let that go. We could have given it back like we have every other part of the world we have "owned" but we wont. And the cost of that war was depthless. Hence the Poll tax. An extra @£340.00 a year from everyone over the age of 18 in each household. That produced billions.

Here we are again - oh we are in the poo, - taxed again but more subtly this time. Cuts, we wont spend as much. We are all in this together blah blah blah. We are cows I am afraid and we are being milked.

 

[Nellie]

two things really annoying me since may.

1. "ideological" policies - that's surely the point of our political system - you for for the party who's ideology you support.

2. progressive and regressive policies - i can't believe that the media is being allowed to get away with repeating this codswallop at every opportunity. one man's progressive is another man's regressive.

I've no problem with parties persuing their political objectives. But dressing this up as saving the country from Labours spending is dishonest as are the changes to education and privatising the forestry commission. This is pure Tory philosophy thinly masqueraded as spending cuts to balance the books.

They must be rubbing their hands with glee at the moment, but this is pure shock doctrine tactics to push through changes that'd have no chance otherwise, thankfully they're not getting quite the smooth ride over this that they anticipated, even from their own supporters.

 

[Black Comb]

Re. Forestry Commission. As I posted elsewhere, they've planted many parts of the fells with spruce, spruce and er spruce. Messed them up completely. Only after much pressure did deciduous make a partial come-back. Good riddance to them I say, let the fells be returned to their former glory.

 

[madasafish]

If a political party declares in its manifesto it is going to adopt a course of action if elected, and then does so.. it is hard to complain..

NHS reform, education, cost cuts - all were discussed pre election.

 

[Black Comb]

Yes and the monotonous drip drip of cuts in every news bulletin by a national news organisation only adds to the the gloom. One of the things Roosevelt did in the 30's was to get all the newspapers together and ask them to stop being so negative. Confidence counts for a lot. In many cases we are only going back to Yr.2000 levels as the expansion of all this spending since then has been via extra debt.