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NHS news review

Critic of Health Bill claims Lansley ‘smear’

 

An NHS chief who spoke out against the Government’s controversial Health Bill last night claimed he had been the target of political “smears” by Andrew Lansley’s department.

Professor John Ashton, the head of public health in Cumbria, who was awarded a CBE for services to the NHS, claimed that someone on behalf of the Health Secretary called his local BBC radio station to allege that he could not speak objectively because he was a member of the Labour Party.

The 64-year-old said he had been a member since he was 17, but it was an “outrageous smear” to suggest this clouded his independence as a doctor.

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NHS bill opposition
Opposition to Health and Social Care Bill in context. http://www.nhscampaign.org/

 

http://www.nhscampaign.org/NHS-reforms/the-reality-behind-the-hype.html

Mis-sold, ill-conceived, unsupported

We have all heard about how the government’s health bill will make the NHS a better service: more clinician-led and more patient-centred. We have also been warned by the Prime Minister and his Health Secretary that their reforms are the only way to address the unprecedented financial and demographic pressures facing the NHS over the next few years. But how much of this salespitch is actually based on facts?

Below are some of the more common claims from the government – claims that simply don’t stand up to proper scrutiny. Click on any of the claims to reveal just a selection of the evidence that undermines them.

“Doing nothing is not an option.”

“We’re giving more power to GPs.”

“We’re going to cut bureaucracy.”

“We’re going to make the NHS better for patients.”

“We will never privatise the NHS.”

“We have listened and we have the support of NHS staff.”

 

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NHS news review

Conservative election poster 2010

A few recent news articles about the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat (Conservative) coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

There’s a warning that the illegitimate ConDem coalition government intends to lie in the coming week in an attempt to bolster support for the Health and Social Care / Destroy the NHS Bill.

Despicable ConDem scum intend to employ the lie that medical unions are using opposition to the bill to fight their seperate battle on pay and pensions.

ConDem scum also intend to push the lie that the bill will decrease health service bureaucracy.

The Standard has obtained a copy of a five-page briefing note for MPs, prepared by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and No 10, on how to sell the shake-up which is being fiercely opposed by many doctors, nurses and health professionals.

In the briefing document, ministers accused unions of using the health reforms to fight their battle against pay and pension changes.

MPs were told to stress that the reforms, which will hand GPs more control over the £60 billion budget to commission health services, scrap primary care trusts and allow the private sector to play a greater role in the NHS, would mean:

More power to doctors and patients.

Competition to get better treatment.

Slashing bureaucracy to transfer money to the front line.

The three remaining royal colleges that do not currently oppose the bill will be voting in the next fortnight over whether to oppose the bill.

Tomorrow, grassroots members of the 26,000-strong Royal ­College of ­Physicians will attend their ­extraordinary general meeting where they will urge leaders to “kill the Bill”.

On March 8 the 25,000-­member Royal ­College of Surgeons will hold its EGM. Members will ­decide ­whether to come out in opposition to the plans. On March 9 the 15,000-strong Royal College of ­Obstetricians and ­Gynaecologists will gather to ­consider whether they should do the same.

If all three vote to oppose the Bill it will mean that all the hugely ­respected royal colleges are lined up against Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans. ­Privately officials from each group say that among their rank-and-file, opposition to the ­reforms are ­growing. They say they have listened to the Government’s ­arguments but it has failed to win them over. ­Opposition to the shake-up is growing as key ­parliamentary votes on the issue loom.

Labour Leader Ed Milliband calls for support from the Libe Dems

This week the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords must join with Labour to hole David Cameron’s health plans below the water line.

The House of Lords has the chance to puncture the arrogance of an out-of-touch Prime Minister who thinks he knows better than patients, nurses and doctors and persuade him to drop this Bill.

If they do not the betrayal by the Lib Dems in allowing this Bill through will be bigger than the row over ­university tuition fees.

They will betray not only the people who rely on today’s NHS, but also generations to come.

It will strike at the heart of Britain’s proudest institution.

Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron says that the bill should have been dropped.

 

…
Mr Farron said the legislation to implement Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s reforms should have been scrapped or “massively changed” at an earlier stage before it progressed this far and it would be “stupid” to ignore medics’ concerns over the proposals.

He demanded that all elements of new competition in the NHS should be stripped from the bill in order for Lib Dems to support it.

Lib Dem peers have tabled a number of amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill, which resumes its difficult passage through Parliament next week in the Lords.

Speaking on ITV Granada’s Party People Mr Farron, said: “Lots of us are guilty for allowing it to get as far as it has done now.

“Basically this should have been dealt with far earlier in the cycle.”

Asked whether that meant it should have been dropped, he said: “Dropped, massively changed.”
…

British Medical Association to ballot doctors on strike action over pensions

Ballot on strike over NHS pension changes will be first time doctors have voted on industrial action since 1975

The British Medical Association has decided to ballot doctors for industrial action over the government’s reform of the NHS pension scheme.

The ballot will be the first time that doctors have voted on such action since 1975.

The decision followed an overwhelming rejection by doctors and medical students of the “final” offer on pensions.

The BMA said the changes would see younger doctors paying more than £200,000 extra over their lifetime in pension contributions and working eight years longer, to 68. The highest earning doctors’ contributions would rise to 14.5%.

Officials have urged the government to reopen talks with the health unions, but said neither the Treasury nor the Department of Health had signalled any change to their position.

The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has said the NHS pension scheme is “amongst the best available anywhere”.

But a survey of 130,000 BMA members in January found almost two-thirds of the 46,000 who responded said they would be prepared to take some form of industrial action if the government did not change its offer.

27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy

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In other news

Hands Off Our Land: two thirds of rural England at ‘mercy’ of developers, warns Sir Andrew Motion

Two thirds of rural England will be at the mercy of developers because of proposals to relax the planning laws, former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion has warned.

 Sir Andrew was speaking as he was formally unveiled as the next president of the Campaign of Protect Rural England.

In his first public comments since accepting the role, the former poet laureate made clear his concerns about Government reforms to planning rules.

Ministers want to replace over 1,200 pages of planning guidance with a new 52 page document called the National Planning Policy Framework, which campaigners say will make it easier to build on parts of rural England.

The CPRE is worried that the draft NPPF includes a new “presumption in favour of sustainable development”, and puts communities at risk of large scale development. The Daily Telegraph is also urging ministers to rethink the reforms.

Earlier this month, the CPRE warned that an area in England which equates to an area almost three-and-a-half times the size of Wales was at risk from the reforms.

…

 

Oxbridge splits Coalition

IN Easington, in County Durham, there were five or fewer, and the number was only slightly higher in Middlesbrough (7), South Sunderland (9) and Redcar (11).Now those lowly figures are at the centre of the latest Coalition bust-up between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, which broke out into the open this week.

The statistics refer to the number of young people, from each parliamentary constituency, who applied to study at the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge last year.

A stark North-South divide was revealed, with the seat of Easington bringing up the rear. Applications were so low that officials refused to reveal the actual number, recording it as “five or fewer”. At the other end of the scale, several hundred applications came from leafy parts of the South such as Oxford West and Abingdon (232), Richmond Park (230) and Cambridge (208).

This divide was predictable, but that made it no less shocking. Remember, the top jobs in law, politics, business, medicine, academia and the media are grabbed by Oxbridge graduates.

…

Cameron’s ‘Families’ tsar steps down – Channel 4 News

Emma Harrison, the head of a welfare-to-work firm which is being investigated over fraud allegations, has resigned from her post as David Cameron’s ‘Families Champion’.

Ms Harrison, the boss of the welfare-to-work-company A4e, said she was standing aside from the voluntary role to avoid it becoming a distraction. “I do not want the current media environment to distract from the very important work with troubled families”, she said. “I remain passionate about helping troubled families and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute in an area where I have been active for many years.”

A spokesman for Number 10 said the Prime Minister respected her decision, and thanked her for her work.

The Prime Minister asked Ms Harrison to lead the Working Families Everywhere campaign back in 2010, to help 120,000 problem families into work, calling her “inspirational”, and citing her “proven track record of turning lives around”. But she’s been coming under intense pressure to step aside, as it emerged that her multi-million pound firm had become the subject of a series of fraud allegations.

Thames police have already arrested and bailed four members of staff, and last night that probe widened: according to the Daily Telegraph, officers are focussing on the ‘business practices’ of the company as a whole. The Department for Work and Pensions said it had launched nine investigations into alleged fraud in recent years, and A4e was forced to pay back public money five times.

…

PM insults public with ‘snobs’ sneer

 

David Cameron swanned around a pro-market event with Prince Charles today to defend profit-hungry businesses against “snobbery.”

The Prime Minister and Prince of Wales attended the Business in the Community charity annual conference to hit back at “the snobbery that says business has no inherent moral worth like the state does.

“Frankly I’m sick of this anti-business snobbery,” wealthy Mr Cameron snorted.

“In recent months we’ve heard some dangerous rhetoric creep into our national debate, that wealth creation is somehow anti-social, that people in business are out for themselves.

“We have got to fight this mood with all we’ve got.”

He called on “those of us who believe in markets, business and enterprise” to come together and “prove the sceptics wrong”.

Mr Cameron’s speech follows massive criticism of the government’s work programme to force people on benefits into a month’s unpaid work.

It has been branded “slave labour” as benefits could be stopped if a participant leaves before completing a placement.

And Left Economics Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher said: “Big business has been rightly pilloried of late for dodging taxes, paying excessive bonuses, rampant profiteering, and now exploiting the unemployed through workfare.

“Cameron’s speech is a reaction to the inevitable public distrust and growing anger with his government handing over our schools, welfare system and the NHS to big business.

“Activists should be proud that we have forced the government on the defensive – and keep up the pressure!”

Business expert Professor Roger Seifert described Mr Cameron’s words as strangely Victorian.

Mr Seifert said: “Clearly in a capitalist society the profit motive and profit making are seen by its supporters and apologists as the engine and the steam of all things.

“We know that it does not actually function in that way: businesses, in order to secure profits, exploit workers and consumers alike, do not pay their way in terms of tax and costs they inflict through pollution and ill-health.

“They also distort the use of resources away from socially useful and economically needed to the useless and the wasteful,” he added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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NHS news review

Conservative election poster 2010

A few recent news articles about the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat(Conservative) coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

Cumbria health boss John Ashton defends NHS reform letter

Cumbria’s director of public health has defended his right to speak out on the government’s planned health reforms.

Prof John Ashton co-signed a letter in a newspaper earlier this month. It defended the Royal College of GPs’ chair, who opposes reform.

NHS Cumbria said in a letter to Prof Ashton that it was “inappropriate” for him to express his personal views and summoned him to a meeting on Friday.

According to Prof Ashton, this meeting has now been postponed.

“Trying to gag me at this stage in my career won’t have an effect,” said Prof Ashton.

…

NHS reforms bill should be scrapped, say paediatricians

Royal college calls for withdrawal just days after NHS summit, saying most members are concerned it puts children at risk

 

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has called for the health bill to be withdrawn just three days after meeting the prime minister to discuss the controversial reforms.

Its president, Professor Terence Stephenson, said the college never supported the bill but it was now clear a substantial majority of voting members believed it “carries risk for children and young people“.

He said there was also deep concern among the wider health profession and public over the impact of the bill on patient care.

The government’s determination to push the bill through was “creating disaffection amongst the very people – the clinicians – who will be delivering these changes on the ground”, he said.

A survey of 1,492 college members published on Thursday found 79% wanted the Health and Social Care Bill to be scrapped. They voted for the college to call for the “outright withdrawal” of the bill rather than continue to push for amendments.

…

 

Lib Dem peers table package of amendments to health bill

Proposals addressing competition and regulation designed to defuse party anger over controversial legislation

The Liberal Democrat health front bench in the Lords has tabled a series of amendments to the health bill, designed to constrain competition and maintain regulation over foundation trusts. They are likely to be critical in deciding whether the Lib Dem leadership can fend off a party rebellion that could lead to the bill’s collapse and a rupture in the coalition.

…The leading Lib Dem health activist Martin Tod told the BBC that the Lib Dem peers’ amendments were helpful but would not be enough to satisfy those calling for the bill to be dropped.

“The bill is impossibly complicated, hugely disruptive at a time when the NHS needs to concentrate on efficiency savings and has little or no confidence from the people that are expected to implement it,” he said. “We want it withdrawn. You get to a point when something is so flawed that you try and fix it and you try and fix it, but the outcome is still not good enough.”

Tod expressed frustration with the party leadership, saying: “I don’t think they have engaged enough. There are some conversations going on with the leadership, but frankly it has been very hard to get their attention on this and make them realise the degree of concern there is.”

 

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Divorced from reality David Cameron talks ridiculous nonsense

In a pro-business speech today insane lunatic David Cameron said “Business is … the most powerful force for social progress the world has ever known”.

What transparently ridiculous nonsense. Why is a British Prime Minister talking such utter bullshit? This man has a first in PPE! That can’t be at all difficult if this is the standard of argument.

I look forward to hearing David Cameron explain how the PIP company that made substandard breast implants was such a powerful force for social progress. I was under the impression that this business was knocking out substandard shit and hiding the fact from inspectors to increase profits. We’re waiting for the explanation Cameron.

Then there’s the bankers that caused the global recession. Once again I will be very interested to hear David Cameron explain how greedy bankers lining their own pockets and causing a global recession are such an unequalled force for social progress.

He could perhaps explain how the UK’s privatised train service with huge public subsidies, ridiculously expensive ticket prices and useless standards of service is such a wonderful force for social progress.

I’m looking forward to hearing how fast food retailers McShit and Kentucky Fried Shit are such wonderful forces for social good. I’d like to hear what they’ve achieved in the way of social progress.

I wonder how EDO and other businesses building weapons of mass destruction are such an unequalled force for social progress. I can’t wait for Mr. Cameron to explain.

Then there’s the Bhopal disaster. There was me thinking that Union Carbide had cut costs to increase profits and consequently killed hundreds and ruined thousands of peoples’ lives. I’m waiting for Mr. Cameron’s explanation.

I don’t really expect to hear Mr.Cameron explain these events as examples of unequalled forces for social progress and to be quite honest I’m not expecting Mr. Cameron to provide any examples at all of businesses being such wonderful forces for social progress. That’s because he’s talking absolute, ridiculous crap. Businesses are about making profits. They have no interest in social progress.

edit: Cameron’s speech actually mentions McShit

 

Continue ReadingDivorced from reality David Cameron talks ridiculous nonsense