NHS Reforms

[BetweenTheStaves]

Likewise, ferretfancy, I have generally had superb service from NHS Hospitals. I don't buy in to all this moaning about what the Coalition are going to do etc etc. I look forward to this breath of fresh air running the country rather than a load of deadweight knee-jerk idealists with a scarce grasp of reality....like the last Govt. !!

[scottycelt]

I had a bad fall a couple of days ago ...

Sorry to read that, Ferret ... hope you are now well on the road to a full recovery!

[salymap]

Ferret, hope you are okay after your fall.

On NHS, My GP already spends most of his time at a local hospital as he is on several committees. The practice is left in the hands of generally competent nurses, but my heart sinks when they reach for a little book and prescribe yet another pill. To be fair, he [Dr] is available if one persists but it would be nice to have a Dr available for a chat sometimes, as in the 'old days'.

[amateur51]

Likewise, ferretfancy, I have generally had superb service from NHS Hospitals. I don't buy in to all this moaning about what the Coalition are going to do etc etc. I look forward to this breath of fresh air running the country rather than a load of deadweight knee-jerk idealists with a scarce grasp of reality....like the last Govt. !!

That's interesting BTS - which country are you living in?

The reason that the UK NHS is as good as it is, and it is superb, is because Mr Brown spend billions helpinmg it to cvatch up after over a decade of market-idealist Tory neglect when it was frankly hopeless.

As Aneurin Bevan said: 'I stuffed their mouths with gold!'

Sorry to hear about your accident ferretfancy - but glad to hear too that you are well-mended

[BetweenTheStaves]

That's interesting BTS - which country are you living in? ....

I'm not going to bite. There's them who think the sun shines out of Labours' backside and there are t'others the other way round. And ne'er the twain shall meet and so it's pointless trying to argue the toss either way as we'll never convince the other. Just that sometimes these threads seem to get hijacked by a stream of left-wing grumpy old men and so I feel duty bound just to lob in the odd viewpoint that there are others of a different persuasion

[scottycelt]

The reason that the UK NHS is as good as it is, and it is superb, is because Mr Brown spend billions helpinmg it to cvatch up after over a decade of market-idealist Tory neglect when it was frankly hopeless.

I'll have you know the NHS was far from hopeless before my old friend Broon and his comfy middle-class liberal/socialist chums came to power. What an insult to the many hard-working doctors and nurses etc, and many associated working-class trades-unionists employed by the NHS when Thatcher was in charge. I had two operations during that period and the treatment and attention that I received was utterly superb.

God bless and save the NHS, no matter what miserable bunch of politically-motivated incompetent rascals happen to be in power at the time ...

[amateur51]

I'll have you know the NHS was far from hopeless before my old friend Broon and his comfy middle-class liberal/socialist chums came to power. What an insult to the many hard-working doctors and nurses etc, and many associated working-class trades-unionists employed by the NHS when Thatcher was in charge. I had two operations during that period and the treatment and attention that I received was utterly superb.

God bless and save the NHS, no matter what miserable bunch of politically-motivated incompetent rascals happen to be in power at the time ...

Well I too was trying to have operations under the Thatcher regime and my experience was that waiting list times were truly abysmal.

And please don't put words into my mouth scotty - I made no criticism of the NHS staff.

My experience is also flavoured by having worked in the NHS from 1971-76.

As a Welshman, I am rightly proud of what the NHS represents for our society, in spite of how much the Tories hate it

[Dave2002]

Ferret

Sorry to hear about your fall, but glad you're reassured and recovering. Part of my comments re GPs is related to my practice taking 3-4 weeks to get blood tests arranged. Not just a one off, either. I'm sure some GPs are excellent, but in my experience there are some GP practices which are hardly satisfactory.

[amateur51]

Two years on from the last post and what a lot has happened ....

Here's Andrew Lansley's 'report' on the progress o the reforms to date at the Conservative Party Conference in October 2011, within a report from Channel 4 including input from Dr David McCoy, a leading public health expert.

http://www.channel4.com/news/sharks-are-circling-around-the-nhs-a-doctors-warning

And here's Dr McCoy's speech to UK Faculty of Public Health from this weekend ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2--2IT6sU84&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b48nWa4huw&feature=related

Worrying stuff but a call-to-arms nonetheless

Why aren't our politicians leading this?

[amateur51]

The government has lost the latest stage of its fight to prevent publication of an internal civil service assessment of the risks posed by the controversial NHS reforms. A Department of Health appeal against an order by the information commissioner to publish the "transition risk register" was thrown out by a tribunal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/09/nhs-reforms-appeal-risk-register?CMP=EMCSOCEML657

[handsomefortune]

The government has lost the latest stage of its fight to prevent publication of an internal civil service assessment of the risks posed by the controversial NHS reforms. A Department of Health appeal against an order by the information commissioner to publish the "transition risk register" was thrown out by a tribunal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...P=EMCSOCEML657

fabulous news isn't it!! well done and thanks o all those who put pressure on at the tribunal, particularly those that judged it unfair to be secretive. thanks too to all nhs doctors, nurses etc who marched in london on wednesday - and to all those who showed their support in whatever way. (much better than xmas, so why not mistletoe)?

(way to go though - there's another 20th march deadline that still has to be sorted too iirc ....(one day at a time, n all that).

[John Skelton]

http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/what-will-the-nhsbill-do-i-dont-think-youre-w

[Serial_Apologist]

http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/wha...-think-youre-w

Thanks John.

No question that as proposed these amount to the biggest qualitative changes to the NHS any of us have seen in its lifetime, effectively marking its end.

Scary.

[teamsaint]

My NHS experiences have been mixed to say the least.
However, the NHS represents, at its best, many of the good things about a civilised society.

These changes, which from reading this analysis look even worse than I feared, are a recipe for division, profiteering, and bureaucratic excess.
I fear very bad outcomes.....
Perhaps for once the doctors will stand up for the system that has been so good to them.i think they are the ones with the best chance of saving the sould of the service.

[Serial_Apologist]

saving the sould of the service.

Freudian slip o' t' fingers, ts?