A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.
Health campaigners warned today that thousands of job cuts at NHS trusts could lead to more women dying of infections contracted during pregnancy.
A record number of pregnant women are contracting group A streptococcal disease (GAS), according to research by experts at the Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE).
GAS develops into the so-called “flesh-eating bug” where bacteria penetrates deep into the skin or bloodstream. It is commonly found on the skin and inside the throat and in less serious cases causes minor skin infections.
But pregnant women and those who have just delivered are particularly at risk from a more serious type that is potentially fatal.
The centre issued a warning to health workers to be alert to signs of GAS after a steady increase in the number of pregnant women dying from it.
A MUM whose little girl suffers from congenital heart disease fears she may be forced to travel hundreds of miles for treatment because of NHS cuts.
Susan Bastow’s nine-year-old daughter Ebony Fisher goes for check-ups to the children’s heart Surgery unit at Leeds General Infirmary every six months.
But the unit is at risk of closure due to the NHS Safe and Sustainable review.
The CSP is linking up with other health unions to lobby over the Health and Social Care Bill as it makes its passage through parliament.
‘The CSP has grave concerns about the scope and speed of the structural changes proposed in the bill,’ says Lesley Mercer, director of Employment Relations and Union Services.
The society believes they present a major risk to the quality of patient care and the future of the NHS, resulting in increased costs, fragmented care and an unacceptable postcode lottery of services across the country.
There is no evidence base to back the proposed changes, which will be costly to implement and will divert attention away from finding the unprecedented £20 billion of efficiency savings that the NHS has to deliver by 2015, the society believes.
A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.
REDCAR’S health trust, ambulance staff and mental health workers covering Teesside have some of the worst sickness rates in the country.
In July, August and September, NHS sickness rates across the North-east were 4.31%, 4.16% and 4.37% respectively, well above England’s average of 3.99%, 3.82% and 4.11%.
However, Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services, had sickness rates of 5.37%, 5.38% and 5.61%.
A spokeswoman for the trust said: “A range of measures to help improve staff wellbeing and reduce sickness absence rates have recently been put in place and more are planned. The early signs are promising.”
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) says Cambridgeshire and Peterbourough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) is failing to meet five essential standards required of it and “won’t hesitate to use enforcement powers if improvements are not made swiftly”.
The concerns raised by the CQC included care plans failing to be “person centred”, a seclusion suite not meeting environmental or Mental Health Act requirements, less than robust incident reporting and auditing systems when it comes to safeguarding vulnerable people from abuse and a poor standard of decor in one ward which “does not promote the dignity and wellbeing of people using services”.
Staffing levels were also picked out as a problem area with “not always sufficient numbers of staff with the right competencies, knowledge, qualifications, skills and experience available to meet the needs of patients”.
A YORK family doctor says he fears for patient confidentiality under the Government’s plans for the future of the NHS.
Acomb GP Brian McGregor, vice chairman of the North Yorkshire branch of the Local Medical Committee, said private medical records may have to be shared with local authorities as they take on more public health responsibilities.
Under the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill, local councils would be given control of areas such as commissioning carers or running health awareness campaigns.
Dr McGregor said: “They will not only have access to your medical records but be able to disclose it for any number of undisclosed reasons.”
A petition to save the children’s heart surgery unit from closure at Leeds General Infirmary has smashed through the 11,000 signature mark.
More than 8,000 people have signed the petition in the past fortnight after an NHS review of children’s heart surgery provision across the country put the LGI unit at risk.
The Save Our Heart Surgery Unit campaign is now aiming to collect 20,000 signatures – you can sign the petition here. The campaign has also set up a Facebook group which has more than 1,500 supporters and is encouraging people to lobby their MP.
There has been plenty of comment about the Government’s plans to order another NHS reorganisation, introduce competition and pass chunks of the NHS budget to private hospitals, but this misses the £20bn question. Will the NHS have enough money to keep pace with relentlessly rising demand for health care?
The Government has set the NHS three tough financial challenges. First, their spending review cut the annual increase in funding to 0.1 per cent a year for four years – and rising inflation has already turned this into a 0.1 per cent cut. Under Labour, the NHS budget grew by 5.7 per cent a year to keep pace with demand.
Second, the spending review has switched £1bnn a year from health to social care – which is good for frail elderly and disabled people but bad for those needing hospital treatment.
Third, the Government has ordered “efficiency” savings of £20bn by 2014 – a squeeze of four per cent a year. Political parties talk about efficiency savings when in opposition, but it is brave in government.
Where will these savings come from? Over the next two years, Ministers say almost half will come from their freeze on pay. I was a health service trade union negotiator when Jim Callaghan’s Labour government imposed pay restraint in the 1970s. The current Government may make their pay freeze stick for two years, but it will be followed by a pay bounce.
Cancer care in the NHS still falls short of comparable European countries despite 10 years of investment and government initiatives, according to an influential House of Commons committee.
A report from the public accounts committee says too many people are dying of cancer in England within a year of diagnosis, usually because they do not seek help when they have symptoms or their GP does not recognise the disease. It is estimated that 10,000 more lives could be saved every year if survival rates were as good as the best in Europe.
The committee gives credit to the Department of Health and the cancer tsar appointed by the last government, Professor Sir Mike Richards, for the progress in the last decade, but says it is not enough.
Since the announcement of changes to the NHS in July 2010, the BMA has practised a cautious approach of critically engaging with the coalition’s proposals. Concerns which have been highlighted have largely been ignored by the government. The independent trade union and professional association represents over 140,000 members and could be a strong voice. At the Special Representatives Meeting (SRM) of the BMA convened for 15 March 2011 the views of all doctors across the country have the chance to be heard for the first time.
A snapshot survey of doctors throughout the country found an increasing opinion that at the SRM the body must move to all-out opposition to the Health and Social Care Bill. All respondents to the survey recognised absolutely a need for change in the NHS. None felt the proposed reforms represented the correct solution.
Exclusive: Thousands of GPs are being told to delay referrals until the next financial year, sparking fears that consortia will be passed crippling ‘legacy debts’ in the form of back-logged hospital activity.
The Government bowed to pressure following Pulse’s A Clean Slate campaign and spared consortia debt built up by PCTs in this financial year – but anything accumulating from April will be GPs’ responsibility.
A Pulse survey of 450 GPs has found as many as one GP in eight has been asked to delay referrals for the final quarter of the year until April, as trusts desperately seek short-term fixes for deficits.
EXETER will see the highest number of public sector job losses in the region, according to economists.
Experts say this is largely due to the city being a key administrative centre serving a wider area.
It is home to both the city and county councils, while “substantial losses” are also expected in Exeter’s health and emergency services, points out the report by the South West Observatory – a research body for regional decision-makers.
Another day another lie from the Tory-Lib Dem con merchants.
This time ‘Posh’ Dave Cameron told us all the NHS was safe in the Tory ‘nasty party’s’ hand yet we are now told by activist group ‘False Economy’ that at least 50,000 NHS jobs will go.
This is another blatant lie told by ‘Posh’ Dave while looking we public straight in the eye with his lies.
Senior Lib-Dems are threatening to oppose Health Secretary Andrew Lansley‘s flagship reshaping of the NHS giving GPs control over the bulk of its budget. MPs and peers accused Mr Lansley of putting the NHS at risk by pushing through “monumental reorganisation” while seeking £20 billion of efficiency savings.
Andrew George, who sits on the Commons health committee, warned: “The Government has already gone through three red signals and is heading for an avoidable high-speed train crash.
“Although the easy pickings from the wreckage will be gleefully picked up by the private sector, most informed observers are warning that the rest of the NHS may be fatally wounded.”
A BRIERFIELD nursery is set to close in April as it is no longer financially viable.
The Tree House Nursery, based in the Family Tree Centre in Tunstill Square, opened its doors four and a half years ago offering a service for children aged between six months and five years.
Despite growing numbers of children at the nursery, NHS East Lancashire has decided to close it as it has relied on additional funding from the Family Tree Centre that is no longer available.
Shirley Williams, a Liberal Democrat peer, has challenged Andrew Lansley’s plan to reform the NHS, saying it will “dismember” the service through an “untried and disruptive” reorganisation.
Williams said in a column in the Times that she remains “unconvinced” by the health secretary’s policy to reshape the National Health Service by scrapping health authorities and handing over funding control to GPs.
The health and social care bill outlines plans to hand 80% of the NHS budget to family doctors who are forming consortiums to work on commissioning services.
Traditionally, the Liberal Democrats have always stood on a political platform promoting a more just and progressive society, based on a mixed economy, supporting public institutions to ensure equal opportunities for all.
They have a proud heritage in assuming responsibility for the social security and health of the nation’s citizens, which includes David Lloyd George’s introduction of a welfare system between 1908-14. This was followed by the Beveridge report in 1942, which led to the creation of the Welfare state and set the foundations for the formation of the NHS by the Labour Party.
A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.
I started analysing Cameron’s speech on multiculturalism yesterday. I’m looking at the speech in more detail today.
DC: But the biggest threat that we face comes from terrorist attacks, some of which are, sadly, carried out by our own citizens. It is important to stress that terrorism is not linked exclusively to any one religion or ethnic group. My country, the United Kingdom , still faces threats from dissident republicans in Northern Ireland . Anarchist attacks have occurred recently in Greece and in Italy , and of course, yourselves in Germany were long scarred by terrorism from the Red Army Faction. Nevertheless, we should acknowledge that this threat comes in Europe overwhelmingly from young men who follow a completely perverse, warped interpretation of Islam, and who are prepared to blow themselves up and kill their fellow citizens. Last week at Davos I rang the alarm bell for the urgent need for Europe to recover its economic dynamism, and today, though the subject is complex, my message on security is equally stark. We will not defeat terrorism simply by the action we take outside our borders. Europe needs to wake up to what is happening in our own countries. Of course, that means strengthening, as Angela has said, the security aspects of our response, on tracing plots, on stopping them, on counter-surveillance and intelligence gathering.
The threat from terrorism is hugely exaggerated. “some of which are … carried out by our own citizens”. Unfortunately we are subjects rather than citizens in UK. While I accept that USUK often kill their own people, it is wrong to attribute it to ordinary citizens or subjects.
I do not accept that “… we should acknowledge that this threat comes in Europe overwhelmingly from young men who follow a completely perverse, warped interpretation of Islam …”.
DC: But this is just part of the answer. We have got to get to the root of the problem, and we need to be absolutely clear on where the origins of where these terrorist attacks lie. That is the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism. We should be equally clear what we mean by this term, and we must distinguish it from Islam. Islam is a religion observed peacefully and devoutly by over a billion people. Islamist extremism is a political ideology supported by a minority. At the furthest end are those who back terrorism to promote their ultimate goal: an entire Islamist realm, governed by an interpretation of Sharia. Move along the spectrum, and you find people who may reject violence, but who accept various parts of the extremist worldview, including real hostility towards Western democracy and liberal values. It is vital that we make this distinction between religion on the one hand, and political ideology on the other. Time and again, people equate the two. They think whether someone is an extremist is dependent on how much they observe their religion. So, they talk about moderate Muslims as if all devout Muslims must be extremist. This is profoundly wrong. Someone can be a devout Muslim and not be an extremist. We need to be clear: Islamist extremism and Islam are not the same thing.
It is quite possible to have extreme hostility to so-called Western democracy and liberal values without resorting to terrorism. So-called Western democracy is about Western politicians pursuing extremist foreign policies that are intended to simultaneously satisfy powerful interest groups and increase their own personal wealth.
This implied distinction between Islamic extremism and Islam being distinct is interesting. Surely an Islamic extremist is a devout Islamist. I think that this is a false distinction and Cameron is attempting to cause splits within Islamism. This would mirror the propaganda we saw in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq playing on assumed differences.
DC: This highlights, I think, a significant problem when discussing the terrorist threat that we face. There is so much muddled thinking about this whole issue. On the one hand, those on the hard right ignore this distinction between Islam and Islamist extremism, and just say that Islam and the West are irreconcilable – that there is a clash of civilizations. So, it follows: we should cut ourselves off from this religion, whether that is through forced repatriation, favoured by some fascists, or the banning of new mosques, as is suggested in some parts of Europe . These people fuel Islamophobia, and I completely reject their argument. If they want an example of how Western values and Islam can be entirely compatible, they should look at what’s happened in the past few weeks on the streets of Tunis and Cairo : hundreds of thousands of people demanding the universal right to free elections and democracy.
“If they want an example of how Western values and Islam can be entirely compatible, they should look at what’s happened in the past few weeks on the streets of Tunis and Cairo : hundreds of thousands of people demanding the universal right to free elections and democracy.” Tunisia and Egypt have Western values? I wondered yesterday what Western values were and arrived at the conclusion that the West is dominated by Capitalism. Dick Cheney, Berlusconi and Tony Blair have supported Mubarak. If Cameron’s argument that there are unified “Western values” is accepted, then these influential Western voices must represent it.
DC: The point is this: the ideology of extremism is the problem; Islam emphatically is not. Picking a fight with the latter will do nothing to help us to confront the former. On the other hand, there are those on the soft left who also ignore this distinction. They lump all Muslims together, compiling a list of grievances, and argue that if only governments addressed these grievances, the terrorism would stop. So, they point to the poverty that so many Muslims live in and say, “Get rid of this injustice and the terrorism will end.” But this ignores the fact that many of those found guilty of terrorist offences in the UK and elsewhere have been graduates and often middle class. They point to grievances about Western foreign policy and say, “Stop riding roughshod over Muslim countries and the terrorism will end.” But there are many people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, who are angry about Western foreign policy, but who don’t resort to acts of terrorism. They also point to the profusion of unelected leaders across the Middle East and say, “Stop propping these people up and you will stop creating the conditions for extremism to flourish.” But this raises the question: if it’s the lack of democracy that is the problem, why are there so many extremists in free and open societies?
Cameron is copying Blair’s July 2005 speech here with the use of straw men arguments. Blair –
If it is the plight of the Palestinians that drives them, why, every time it looks as if Israel and Palestine are making progress, does the same ideology perpetrate an outrage that turns hope back into despair?
If it is Afghanistan that motivates them, why blow up innocent Afghans on their way to their first ever election? If it is Iraq that motivates them, why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror in defiance of an elected Iraqi government?
What was September 11, 2001 the reprisal for? Why even after the first Madrid bomb (in March 2004) and the election of a new Spanish government, were they planning another atrocity when caught?
Why if it is the cause of Muslims that concerns them, do they kill so many with such callous indifference?
The straw man argument proposes a similar but incorrect position in order to demolish that position. The problem is that this is far to simplistic, suggests and has the flavour of propaganda. There are too many different actors with different motivations for such a simplistic analysis. However, I can play that game too.
If it is the plight of the Afghans that motivates them, why did they first try to reach agreement to lay the proposed pipelines and only later invade along the route of the proposed oil pipeline?
If it is the plight of Iraqis that concerns them, why did they invade using the strategy of Shock & Awe and manage to kill and traumatise so many Iraqis? Why did they engage in such degrading torture at Abu Ghraib?
If it is the plight of Iraqis that concerns them, why did they have to poison the environment for years to come using Depleted Uranium?
If it is concern for democracy and human rights that concerns them, why have they got Guantanamo Bay engaging in such horrific torture?
If they are on the side of truth and justice, why do they have to torture people to get the false confessions of terrorism that they need?
This article is the first part of a response and rebuttal of the claims made in UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech of 5 Fubruary 2011. I suggest that Cameron was being deliberately untruthful in a deliberate attempt to mislead.
Cameron criticised “state multiculturalism” at a security conference in Munich on 5 February. It wasn’t much of a speech from somebody we are led to believe has a formidable intellect and graduated with PPE from Oxford. Either he’s not that able or he’s simply not making the effort.
The speech is an attack on Muslims and Islam. Despite appearances, Muslims and Islam are the only issues attacked by Cameron. Multiculturalism is a fact in UK. Cameron is saying that those that support “extremist ideology” should not be supported by the UK state. It’s hardly a controversial topic except that it is only Muslims that are identified as extremists. It’s unnerving that Cameron blames “extremist ideology”.
The speech echoes Tony Blair’s “evil ideology” speech to the Labour Party conference nine days following the London explosions of 2005. Blair’s speech in turn was based on and echoed George Bush’s speech of 911. We see the theme of attacks on “our way of life” in all three speeches. Cameron also echoes Blair in “our values” and going for the root of the problem. Blair emphasised that the roots are deep.
It is disappointing that Cameron is continuing in Neo-Con policies of terrorism. I had hoped for a more informed and enlightened approach. While many stupid and brainwashed Americans may believe discredited 911 bullshit, hardly anyone else does.
Since UK is multicultural, there is no definitive “our way of life”. What we have is domination of the economic, political and social spheres by Capitalism. Capitalism serves the interests of a tiny elite of extremely rich individuals and families. Capitalism is against the interests of the vast majority of UK subjects.
Bullingdon club features David Cameron (top 2nd left) and Boris Johnson.
