Witnessing the end of the NHS

[francovendee]

My wife was shocked to see her elderly mother transferred from the hospital back to the care home. As it was classed as non urgent service she was moved by DHL. The two guys, nice enough although one had no English, were clearly not medically trained. Their gurney was taken to her bedside and they lifted her onto it. She was in great discomfort and cried out in pain. The nurses stood back and let them get on with it!
Once in the van the guys didn't know how to lock the gurney down!
They then drove at high speed to the home, all the time her mum was crying out from being thrown about.

The NHS is dying from a thousand cuts.

I could tell you how different the treatment is in local French health care is but you wouldn't believe it.
By the way there are staff shortages here too.

[reohn2]

That's an appalling story.
IMHO the NHS' downfall is being engineered by a thoroughly evil government with it's business interests in private healthcare for individual MPs own profit, there is no doubt of that in my mind and I strongly suspect it won't change anytime soon under a Labour government.

[Debs]

[Stevek76]

But, as I understand it, tax is not part of the inflation calculation so paying more tax to pay for public sector pay increases is thus not inflationary.

Tax is payed by taxpayers, and if it goes up, they're prone to asking for pay rises to cover it.

Evidence of that seems thin on the ground? If anything, looking at high end wages vs tax rates over the last several decades suggests the opposite.

Also high income/wealthy individuals largely just stash excess cash into assets which has been a main driver of pent up inflationary pressures and thus will have relatively inelastic responses to having less.

[Debs]

This latest NHS news won't be mentioned in the Tory Press:

[reohn2]

The Tories intention is clearly to do as much damage to the NHS and the rest of the nation before the next GE when they know they'll be out on their ear!

[pwa]

The Tories intention is clearly to do as much damage to the NHS and the rest of the nation before the next GE when they know they'll be out on their ear!

Not quite as cynical as yourself, I think their disastrous handling of the NHS is down to a combination of incompetence and lack of concern. Even here in Labour controlled Wales we have NHS problems due to tight central government funding. But on a positive note, it is gratifying to be able to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the Tories attacking each other as they sail relentlessly towards election defeat.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66630308

[reohn2]

The Tories intention is clearly to do as much damage to the NHS and the rest of the nation before the next GE when they know they'll be out on their ear!

Not quite as cynical as yourself, I think their disastrous handling of the NHS is down to a combination of incompetence and lack of concern. Even here in Labour controlled Wales we have NHS problems due to tight central government funding. But on a positive note, it is gratifying to be able to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the Tories attacking each other as they sail relentlessly towards election defeat.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66630308

Whilst I agree about the Tory infighting,it's always been there though kept undercover as much as is humanly possible to appear united.The present mad Nad dummie out of pram debacle is a circus of lunatics,though I must confess I'm enjoying it but the ticket price is extortionate.

The Tory raison d'etre these past 13 years has been to ride the gravytrain for as long as possible and pour as much money into their own pockets and that of private compaies including health companies,as is hunamly possible before they're kicked out. One only need look at Tory second job incomes as an indicator.

As for the Welsh government's problems,ask yourself who ultimately controls their funding especially after the withdrawal of EU funding.
I firmly believe the NHS strikes have been purposely manufactured to give private health companies,mainly US companies,a bigger foothold in the NHS,companies who's only interest as can be witnessed in the US health system(which is a scam)is profit for their shareholders,not unlike privatised failed water and rail and power companies here in the UK.

A statistic though nothing directly to do with the NHS but ultimately having an impact as the money has to come from somewhere:- The three Bibby Stockholm barges are costing the taxpayer £1.6billion,they're supposedly going to "house" 1600 people which will mean them being overcrowded,that's if my maths are correct,£1million per person spent on so called temporary housing.
That's a LOT of wasted money on a self made Tory problem made far worse than it ever would have been were it handled in a competent and efficient way,and that's just one debacle among many on which the Tory scoundals and vagabonds have embarked upon,Brexit,Covid,etc,etc,etc the list is endless.
Yes I am very cynical but I've very good reason to be,the damge the Tories have done to this country is immeasurable!

[Bonzo Banana]

Of course the NHS will be scaled back and the police will have less resources etc. That is the reality of a country close to needing a IMF bailout. You only have to look around to see the absence of factories and wealth generating infrastructure.

Despite the apparent best efforts of the government this country is not poor. A relatively small wealth tax would be ample to fund the increased public service requirements.

Regardless there are numerous confused and incorrect points on economics in your post. You conflate public and private debt several times and the idea that we would need an imf bailout is nonsense. This is not the 70s, we have moved beyond trying to keep currencies backed by gold. We can make a mess of our economy but we cannot 'go bust'.

You also appear to overestimate the overseas deficit. Only about 30% of government debt is held overseas, a figure that's not changed much for over a decade, it's also all sterling denominated so not really a problem. The government itself (in the form of the boe) holds 33% of its own debt and most of the rest is held by pensions.

As for private debt, whilst there is plenty of that about, ultimately all money is debt, where there is a debt there is a matching asset. If you did want to crash the economy, mass paying off of debt, and thus destruction of the money supply, would be an excellent way to do it.

Unfortunately we are poor. GDP is just a reflection of wages, house prices, industry and how much money is swishing about the economy. By having an inflated value currency and wages we end up unable to export and import much more because of its lower pricing and this has led to the destruction of industry and skills. When it comes to assets vs debts the Net International Investment Position is probably the best gauge which is easy to find online.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_inter ... t_position

We are in a terrible position with more liabilities than assets plus a huge national debt as well as other issues like public sector pension liabilities which are huge. We have to return to a balanced economy with a trading surplus as a priority and start paying back debts which of course will take perhaps 50 years or more. At the moment about £4k of tax (income, VAT etc )for every home is just paying interest on our government debts before anything can go towards services. The longer we leave it the more the economy will suffer. At the moment the government is borrowing about £1 in every £10 that goes on public services. We have to stop pretending we can tax ourselves out of this situation. A trade deficit causes massive damage to a countries economy and its not difficult to understand why, you are giving your currency away and then you either have to borrow it back with interest or such currency is used to buy assets in your country making you even poorer. We have to stop running the country like some pyramid scheme and get back to sensible choices. None of these mechanisms like Quantitive Easing are safe they just delay financial problems with inflation being one of the main problems as the world starts to realise we have printed too much money. This mentality of accepting debt and a trade deficit is like a horrific cancer to our economy it has done horrific damage to our economy for decades now. You can't repair a economy with massive economic issues just by trying to find someone else to tax to fill the void you have to tackle the real problems. You can't just keep giving someone a blood transfusion you have to deal with the wounds that are haemorrhaging blood. Ultimately you have to have a hands on approach to the economy like after WW2 not a ridiculous hands off approach where you let international competitors dictate what happens. It's clear the current mentality which has existed for about 40 years or more has not worked.

[Debs]

[reohn2]

The Tories "said" 2019 they were going to build 40,that's right 40 new hospitals instead waiting lists have gone up to 8million and more hospitals are unsafe to be used.
These people really do beggar belief!

[djnotts]

Over 8 weeks wait so far simply for results of routine post-prostate cancer treatment PSA Level blood test. A year ago, 2 weeks. Collapsing.

[briansnail]

Easy peasy .Are you happy to pay more tax?
************************************
I ride Brompton and a 100% British Vintage

[Psamathe]

Easy peasy .Are you happy to pay more tax?
************************************
I ride Brompton and a 100% British Vintage

There are many many alternatives. It's nothin g like as simple as you suggest.

Ian

[toontra]

A personal anecdote. I noticed a small groin hernia in mid September. Went to my GP who confirmed diagnosis and referred me for an ultrasound.

A month later I rang the hospital so see what the wait would be. They had no record of my referral so the GP had to send it off again. Finally got an appointment at the start of November. Turned up but had been booked for an abdominal scan rather than groin so was sent away and another scan booked.

By this time the hernia had grown from pea-sized to a large egg and was very painful. Had to stop all activities and work. Despite ringing my GP several times to make him aware of the rapidly worsening problem I was never asked to come in for another inspection or advised of any way of speeding up the process.

In desperation I rang a private clinic on 10th November. I saw a consultant surgeon the same day and was booked in for tests the next day and the surgery later that week.

If I'd waited for the NHS to deal with this (probably defined as elective surgery with a wait time of many months) I would have lost all my hard-won fitness and been out of work and in pain for an eternity.

For the first time in my life I saw the 2-tear system in operation. I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd pay for private health care as it goes against my moral and political instincts but I didn't see as I had any real choice.

That's where we are now. The NHS simply isn't functioning in a way that services people's health in a competent and timely way. I was lucky to be able to afford the operation but my heart goes out to the tens of thousands who can't and are suffering as a result.