The curse of public sector state provision could be broken

I'm enjoying the Olympics as much as the next man ( and that's quite a lot ). And although I enjoyed the opening ceremony I did sigh as the false NHS worship routine carried on. My thoughts were now it will be even harder to save lives in reforming the health service in England than before. Those beds could just as easily have been filled with the before their time corpses that we know the NHS produces by the jumbo jet load each year. Let along the finical doomsday machine that the NHS has become.

That's why I was so cheered to hear this morning on Radio 4's Today program about the revolution going on at Hinchingbrooke hospital where a private company is turning the hospital around. Of course the instinctive left wing interviewer was try the angle of profit from the NHS = monstrous evil, but the over seas lady who runs the operation there was more than a match for him. As she pointed out they were saving money, improving outcomes and taking their fee into the bargain. yes they were doing some obvious stuff - but then no one in the great soviet NHS had done it before. It must be something inherent in public sector provision of public services.

We need to separate the two concepts in the voters minds.

Then perhaps we can have a real celebration.

See the Telegraph report on this here also.

Quote of yesterday

"The NHS does not ration by price or delay, it rations by relying on its patients to lose the will to live." - Simon Jenkins Evening Standard 5th April.

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The shame of our Nurses

The BBC can hardly bring itself to name the problem. Reports talk about the NHS failing to treat the Elderly well. But the truth is that its nurses that don't treat elderly people well.

This morning I heard a BBC presenter interviewing the author of this report, Ann Abraham, trying to tie in cuts to the picture, but she was rebuffed by the author who has clearly said this is nothing to do with money.

Its to do with the way elderly people are viewed by the young.

If nurses have an excuse - its that their failing is also that of our society. The Fascist upbringing of our youth with their cult of self fed by eager marketers and educators in equal measure is in part to blame.

The empty morality of the pick and mix religious view pushed especially by Labour, but continued by the current government is to blame.

People who don't fear being judged for their actions and have no respect for their elders just decide that "I don't do mess". Since in the case of Nurses rather than starting as apprentices under the watchful eye of senior staff they go to University and indulge the cult of self for another three years rather than learning about being selfless this is no surprise.

Here the hard truth that dare not speak its name. Our nurses as a vocational group should be ashamed, if they still knew how to behave - but instead they will hit back and hit out.

The truth is this isn't about money, its about morality and its widespread absence and our societies failure.

PS I have no trouble thinking of a number of recent cases I know of that back the report of Ann Abraham up. It would not surprise me if that isn't the general case.

See also: Julia Manning who says "what has happened to society if we need to be trained to ‘care’ for the vulnerable?".

Also Christina Odone "The NHS is failing our elderly: blame the nurses, not the doctors"

I'm sure Labour never willed the mid Staffs hopistal massacre - but they are responsible for it

A few days ago we had the report on the man slaughter by neglect of hundreds of patients at the Mid Staffs NHS Hospital.

It blamed managers obsessed by targets.

It didn't blame the government, who set and are also obsessed with targets, but it should have. ( Indeed the true nasty nature of Labour can be seen by their legal guarantee ploy of super targets set up just to bludgeon votes by bulling voters over their fears. )

The fault lies with the top down socialist dictatorship approach to running a massive organisation like the NHS.

By failing to recognise this Labour are condemning the same fate to many other unfortunate people. But then if Labour cared they would pay attention to the results of their policies, rather than just how the announcements sound with focus groups.

How the left frame the debate

Cartoon by William Warren from GetLiberty.org

You can see the same thing being done with anyone who questions the NHS and its outcomes.

The problem I have with the left is they see politics the same way a holigan sees football - as a great chance for a fight.

They don't care what happens, as long as they win. Hence they're just not intrested in the dicussion and learning something - just winning the deabte using their bully heavy handed tactics.

These have been misfiring for the Labour party recently as I've commented on Conservative home. But still Labour still have their heads stuck in the sand.

I have to conclude that many of them just don't understand or are too selfish to admit to the obvious failure of the last 12 years. ( Maybe a few are hardened revolutionaries who are trying to drag us all down so that their beloved revolution and its inevitable terror can come about ).

Dan Hannan is innocent - unlike Labour's health policy and smears

Which is more than can be said for the BBC and left wing spin and smear machine that's swinging into action for its traditional Tory Witch hunt.

He makes his case about what he actually said here..

The NHS is not beyond criticism and those who claim it isn't are looking to gain political advantage out of the suffering of the people they refuse to help by making the NHS better ( which requires open political debate ).

Its Labour who are the enemy of the sick and dying with their refusal to do the things to improve our health service that would have an impact because of narrow political advantage and the personal finances of their rich life bleeding the public sector dry.

The government is forced to act on face masks - but probably too late

The Labour government are now starting to try and run to catch up. The Telegraph reports orders for 30 million face masks. ( How realistic is that at short notice with very high world demand ? But better to try than to give up ! )

I think they have just woken up to the political implications of being the only country not to be able to provide masks to its population.

And Her Majesties loyal opposition is starting to push the government. See this quote of Andrew Lansley in the Telegraph:

Andrew Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary, said: "The Labour Government were warned by the industry and urged by us for years that they needed to get a stockpile of face masks ready for front line staff.

"It is now unlikely that we will be able to get these masks by the time we need them. I only hope that NHS staff do not suffer as a consequence. This does not inspire confidence that Alan Johnson is in control of the situation."

He's quite right and this is about time.

It will take more than wheeling out the odd "expert" to say that the British don't need face masks for the "general public" to convince people that the government did a good job in not taking a relatively cheap measure to help protect the population.

For those who are intrested a set of gloves could be more important in public settings.

By the way the most use for face mask would be for preventing disease spread within families in home nursing situation ( see CDC advice here ), and given that the only way to handle the peak of an epidemic is to have people looked after at home this should have been a basic consideration. Brown tells us we are well prepared, its clearly not the case.

To those who read this who are in a position of authority - we don't want panic, but we do now want urgency, effectiveness and competence. Forget about being re-elected and if you can't handle things be honest and hand over to someone who can.

NHS unable to vaccinate children

Dr Crippen is reporting that his practice can't get hold of the vaccine for Diphtheria for small children. And yet the we are assure that Tractor production is up int he NHS thanks to the Dour Leader. What can be wrong ?

Tractor production to rise in the NHS !!

The Dour Leader has announced that through his genius tractor production will rise in the NHS forever and ever !

Out will go all the things people mention when they say they don't trust Labour on the NHS and in will come things to do the same thing, but that will be harder for people to spot.

For example Nice will approve drugs faster and everyone will have the same access ! But of course we know this can't be the full picture as the money doesn't exist to fund all this ( after all its all been sent to Wales and Scotland to pay for the Celtic socialist utopia's ), so the rationing will be hidden behind stealthy announcements about what works and what doesn't. All health trusts will be forced to do the same thing - so that no one can spot alternative practice or other drugs being used ! We will sell this soviet crushing of initiative as abandoning the postcode lottery - hail the wise and all seeing Dour Leader for his monocular vision !!!

Targets ( mentioned by David Cameron) are unpopular and so will be replaced by quality ! Of course the government will define the terms by which quality will be determined - in effect still setting the targets - but we hope no one will notice.

The enemies of the people, GPs, will be attacked by rounding the traitors up in polyclinics (an old soviet idea from the 1920's ) and making the remainders suffer from patient satisfaction forms ! Slowly they will be replace by more compliant, and less likely to spot expensive diseases, Nurse practitioners.

The Dour Leader cannot be criticised for all this as he will hide behind the profession of Lord Darzi. Some may call this cowardice - but now thanks to the NHS database we know who they are and have cut of any life support they might get in the future.

And of course these 'reforms' will apply only to the English - who failed - like the people who voted for the MDC in Zimbabwe that comrade Mugabe has had to 'persuade'- to vote for the Dour Leader's party at the last election, so the less of them there are in the future the greater the socialist victory will be !

Hail the Dour Leader - Tractor production is up and will rise forever under his wise vision and the NHS Constitution* !

* The word constitution does not imply referendums of any sort - and even if we promised one we would rat on it anyway - that's our moral compass again....

Those who must die for New Labour

In short English people with colon cancer who have the nerve to pay for any treatment they need themselves - and that would have been paid for by the UK state (which they paid taxes into) in Scotland.

Cranmer has the details .....

The NHS is now dead - thanks to devolution

Those of you who travel north of the boarder will have noticed that the health service in Scotland describes itself as the Scottish NHS. The Welsh NHS - with its bone headed Assembly lead commitment to monolithic socialism - performs worse than in England.

We now have different health services for each home nation ( what happened to that term anyway ? ).

In effect there is now an English Health Service. However those words are banned from Gordon Brown's MacLabour government as:

1. The world England is never to be spoken.
2. It would make clear that the health department is in fact a English department of government.
3. It will emphasis the funding inequalities between the Scottish and English health services.

Now in fact I'm not against having a bit of variety in the Health Service. Its good that the failures of the most unrefomed part of the NHS - the Welsh part - can be compared with the English part. Its an idea which should go further.

But it also means the NHS is dead.

Those three letters stop people thinking clearly about what they are talking about. We would have better health care outcomes if we dropped the terms.

I would recommend that an incoming Conservative government rebrand along the lines of:

1) Various English/Welsh/Scots/Irish Health purchase authority's.
2) Various providers - this part already exists as the Trusts.

This could allow for local pay and true flexibility as well as clear comparisons to be made.

Brown's selective Health eugenics and fascism

So we learn that the man who wants to run our lives in minute detail thinks we should all lose some weight and not smoke before getting health treatment.

So how does he arrive at those with a weight problem and smokers to pick on ?

What about the following:

1) Those who engage in sexual activity with more than one partner - ever.
2) Those who have taken illegal drugs ( ie much of the Cabinet ).
3) People who go on holiday abroad.
4) Sports injuries.
5) People who don't eat five fruit and veg a day.
6) Cyclists.

All these are examples of life style choices people take which incur self induced health risk. We all know some people who seem to put on weight just by looking at food, whilst others scoff and stay looking starved.

Is this the best Labour and that old man Brown can do ? ( I add his age in here as it seems open season on categorisations people can do nothing about ).

What on earth are those idiots in New Labour on about when they talk about a Constitution for the NHS. Whatever it is it will cost money ( because it always does ).

They - the socialists - are tired, out of touch but worse of all just clueless and incompetent.

If they want to do the health of the nation a favour they should call a general election.

The NHS will fight for soviet socialism to the last drop of your blood !

The following story from the Times is almost too incredible to believe.

The visceral hatred of the human condition that socialism produces is shown in is vicious true nature.

A woman is being threatened with no treatment for her cancer (aka a death sentence ) if she is middle class enough as to want to live badly enough to pay for a drug the NHS won't provide.

The soviet NHS approach of her hospital trust is that if she does that she must pay for all of her treatment ( which let us not forget she has paid for already through the national taxation system and its effective insurance policy ).

Now if that treatment meant the NHS incurred more costs I can see the point of her being asked to pay those, but it doesn't seem to. The sacred issue here is not her life, but the fairness.

There is the issue of the patient in the next bed - with the same condition but less money. How will they feel watching the person next to them live if they head in the other direction due to not being able to purchase drugs ? Its an issue - but it surely doesn't justify reducing people's chances of life !

She must die so that other don't say its unfair.

Don't get me wrong there is a real issue about the limits on care available through the NHS ( mind you the waste in the NHS is truly massive with the failure of Gordon Brown to get good value for the large amount of our money he pored into the NHS. no doubt a very large number of people have died as a result of Labour failure to lead and manage the NHS effectively).

Given the fuss left wing guardianistas make about executing criminals in places like the USA and China - they seem to quite happy to condemn their fellow citizens to death for reasons of politics.

Update The Adam Smith Institute blog takes a similar line - blaming the government and suggesting the move is illegal anyway.

How Labour is creating new and dangerous waiting lists for England

It is still necessary to spend some money in England on health treatment, although the Celtic Labour government much prefers to send the money to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

How can the English be conned out of more they must have asked themselves ? The answer is an ingenious system where the local primary care trust second guesses the GP and cancels referrals makes sure none of them happy too quickly - to save money. After all where else will all the money to pay for the extra drugs and services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland come from ?

Maybe this seems to be an over reaction - but it is the impact and effect of the way the Labour Government now runs the English NHS ( the only part of the United Kingdom where they have responsibility for the NHS).

Brown's command economy screws up supply of nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, speech therapists etc

Here we have the true nature of our education and health service.

They are one area where coordinating demand and supply should have a fighting chance of working. But even so the soviet system fails again.

We have too many junior doctors this year. ( See posts everywhere else.)

Apparently 69% of graduate nurses can't find jobs.

I was at a party a few weeks ago where a young woman was telling how the course for speech therapists had just competed had only 1 in 10 employed afterwards !

So the soviet state sector is wasting our money by the truck load, and crushing young peoples dreams and chances at the same time.

Yes - this is the time to have a once in a life time review for political reasons (spin - the sign that Gordon was here) of the NHS to help stop any reform of the system.

Gordon Brown and his NuLabour government have their finger prints all over this one.

Cuts in budget only for English hospitals under Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown continues to show his anti-English bias by cutting the budgets for English hospital building and equipment. See today's FT where Chris Giles and Nicholas Timmins say:

Prompted by the tightness of the public finances, the new prime minister, who has placed the NHS as his “immediate priority”, cut the capital budget of the English NHS for 2007-08 from £6.2bn to £4.2bn. The move could delay the government’s hospital building and reconfiguration programme in England.

However, Mr Brown avoided equivalent cuts to the Scottish and Welsh NHS budgets even though the funding formula for the UK nations suggests they should have shared the pain. That decision leaves him open to criticism that he favoured patients in his home country.

If only English politicians would stand up for England against this Scottish favouring government under Blair and now Brown then at least the cuts could have been shared - as they should be. The article points out that the cuts were slipped out under the radar in the March budget - how very Gordon.

This is a clear act of political malice that the Scottish Labour party and its English quislings thought no one would notice. Hazel Blears will no doubt be out protesting in her capacity as someone with no future parliamentary seat - if she dares under Gordon.

So Gordon is keeping his oath to favour Scotland ....

(Hat tip to Ex-Labour's comments on an Iain Dale post here ).

How many of the 190,000 children killed by abortions in the UK each year are born alive ?

Now the use of the word child instead of foetus may seem very provocative. And well - it was meant to be.

A survey reported by the BBC suggests that 1 in 30 of abortions carried out for medical reasons on 20-24 week pregnancies results in a live birth ( aka a child ). The doctor is by law required to terminate (aka kill) the child before birth.

It makes me think of all those official foetuses at 20-24 weeks as really being children.

The question that is being asked is what is the incidence in the many abortions carried out for life style choices ? If its one in thirty then how many of the 190,000 does that represent ? ( I'm guessing that most abortions happen before 20 weeks so the number may not be as high as you might initially think ).

You have to wonder what is going on, and what the pro-lifestyle choice groups are hiding from us.

By the way each time you here a government minister telling us we need mass immigration - remember the 190,000 per year of our potential citizens who are never to get the chances of life.

So how did the Welsh pay for this (the BBC doesn't ask)

So the Welsh are to get Free Prescriptions. Will that buy Labour enough votes in May ?

But the question I have is how is this paid for ?

What I suspect is its paid for by the English - whom vastly subsidise Wales. The English of course will continue to be bled dry by NuLabour as it takes money to bride its Celtic heart lands.

Not that you'll be any the wiser by reading the BBC version of events - as of Sunday, 1 April 2007, 04:58 GMT 05:58 UK . ( Surely this is a direct violation of impartiality as they should explain the pro's and cons of any such move ? )