Where does the idea of 100,000 medical doctors going on strike come from? Well, just a little detail: the Coalition did not bother to consult with them and basically excluded them from the talks about reforms of the Health Service. In this case, I reckon accountants had more of a say than those who deliver Health Services.
It is a bit like the running of the Armed Forces with somebody at the helm that has absolutely no idea of what he is doing. Oh, reshuffle, reshuffle, reshuffle, who is the fairest of all? They chopped the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and left the Armed forces in tatters but… guess what? They are still planning new wars while, in the South Atlantic, the Argentine government rejoices. Unlike what happened in 1982, Britain will no longer have plane carriers or Harrier Jump Jets and will have merely an airfield that could be bombed out of existence in 15 minutes allowing the Argentine forces to clean up the garrison stationed there without any worries about a British counter attack.
This is how things are run nowadays in Britain. Cut here and there and over there, so that the monies can go to Ireland, Portugal, Greece, India and China and everywhere else while people freeze to death in their own homes and unemployment rises, rises and rises even more.
I reckon those running Britain hope that every ill person could be cured with a spoonful of Calpol. This brings back memories of Virginia Bottomley, the illustrious Virginia Bottomley, who threw British veterans into the streets ‘because there was an over-supply of beds in British hospitals.’ It goes without saying that the number of those sleeping rough in London at the time increased, especially those who had been thrown out after the closure of psychiatric hospitals carried out by Mrs. Bottomley.
The expression value for money is very much in the air. The whole philosophy leading to the creation of the National Health Service is under attack. I wonder when they will start selling NHS shares at the London Exchange. Most hospitals are so tight when it comes to staff that very often they have to call in Agency Staff that costs a lot more than the grossly underpaid NHS staff. At one point, Kings College Hospital broke a record. In one of its wards one evening, eight out of ten nurses were Agency Staff. Was this Value for Money?
The Public Private Initiative was a shambles. The NHS fired staff nurses who were later employed by private companies that paid lower salaries and did not invest a penny. They were merely using the same medical equipment that belonged to the National Health Service. When it came to compatibility, there is another story to tell. Since every hospital was dealing with different suppliers, medical supplies were not always compatible. Was that Value for Money?
Who was the guy who said that anybody in Britain earning less than 44,000 pound a year was in trouble? Do you know how many people earn less than 44,000 pound? Many nurses in Intensive Care services in the UK earn about 27,000 and this before taxes are deducted. The maniacs of Value for Money are the same ones who are using taxpayers’ monies to subsidize other countries. They have no qualms about giving sharks like former Sir Fred Goodwin three million pound in redundancy payments but then they want to make economies somewhere else.
So now you know it. If tomorrow you fall ill, an acceptable choice would be to jump off Tower Bridge. It is a nice and picturesque place and I have to confess that very often I find myself thinking about it when I look at how they treat elderly people in this country.
The National Health Service is not a luxury. The National Health Service is not supposed to make money because it is not a private business. The National Health Service is an absolute necessity and rest assured that almost everybody in this country will need the services provided by the National Health Service.
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