Axe falls on NHS services

[Raggz]

Source: Telegraph (UK)

NHS bosses have drawn up secret plans for sweeping cuts to services, with restrictions on the most basic treatments. ...An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered widespread cuts planned across the NHS, many of which have already been agreed by senior health service officials. They include:

* Restrictions on some of the most basic and common operations, including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and orthodontic procedures.

* Plans to cut hundreds of thousands of pounds from budgets for the terminally ill, with dying cancer patients to be told to manage their own symptoms if their condition worsens at evenings or weekends.

* The closure of nursing homes for the elderly...




Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7908742/Axe-falls-on-NHS-services.html

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It is a secret because when this comes out there will be riots.

[jaxx]

1. How could it be a secret when it's published in this paper?

[CountAllVotes]

2. another one bites the dust

so much for the great NHS. I knew it wasn't so hot personally as I have relatives over there and have heard all of the stories already.

It has been in a state of decline for the past several years. Now it has come to this.

I really hope they can do something to prevent having folks tossed out of nursing homes with no where to go. How could they possibly consider this? In the long run it will cost more to care for such persons as eventually they will require immediate care that will cost a hell of a lot more than the nursing home ever could.

Same goes for the other "secret" cuts mentioned.

Shame on you UK! How could you do this after ripping off your citizens that have worked and paid into this system for many years!

There is personal insurance in the UK that many people have as a supplement to what the NHS offers. I can only hope that many people have this other insurance so they don't have to rely 100% on the failing NHS.

:dem: :kick: & recommend.

[IcyPeas]

3. what did Alan Grayson say?

Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.

He nailed it.

[drm604]

5. That was a criticism of private health insurance.

It's not really applicable here.

[drm604]

4. Well, it's come out

so where are the riots? :shrug:

Maybe they're not rioting because they know the telegraph is a right-wing rag.

[jaxx]

6. That'll be tomorrow's headlines...

Riots Are Coming. Be afraid.

I thought we were done with the fear factor but the Rove legacy lives on.

[LeftishBrit]

7. The main threat to the NHS comes from the Tory-controlled government...

who are (especially the RW idiot Health Secretary Andrew Lansley) trying to put forward all sorts of privatization policies and cuts that were NOT mentioned in the election campaign. Pre-election, the Tories indicated that the NHS would be protected, whatever else was cut.

The health authorities are reacting to the impending cuts.

It's a bit much to blame the NHS and those who are trying to keep it going for the RW government policies that are undermining it.

But this is the Torygraph, a hard-right newspaper that doesn't think Cameron is RW enough. Norman Tebbit and Daniel Hannan both write for it, for example. See some of their bloggers' commentaries on Obama, for example.

[non sociopath skin]

8. Amen to that.

Please understand that that nice, civilized Mr. Cameron has views not that much different from George W. Bush, although they sound prettier in his private-school-educated, articulate English.

And despite the talk before the election of the Lib Dems as a left-wing party, Nick Clegg and the rest of its right-of-centre leadership (imagine the Democrats led by Joe Lieberman)have said on paper that they'd prefer an insurance-based Health Service, more like what you guys have now.

Believe me, the health service unions and professional associations HAVEN'T been consulted on this and don't like the sound of it.

The Skin

[dipsydoodle]

9. What we've got will remain

better than the alternative they've got in the USA. As an example my 86 year old mother is having an op in August for an issue diagnosed in July - 3 day stay in hospital. Don't sound that bad to me.

[LeftishBrit]

14. All the best to your mother!

and yes, even the Tories will not dare to make the system as bad as the American one. We are too used to something better.

[Raggz]

11. torygraph

Why would a right wing paper make any of this up? Clearly if does not help the right at all. The people of the UK want more from the NHS and not less. Any party that contracts the NHS will suffer politically.

[LeftishBrit]

13. A right wing paper...

would wish to imply that the NHS and those who run it are fundamentally inadequate, and that the problems are due to the NHS's inherent shortcomings, not to cuts by a (mostly) Tory government. And by implication that privatization of health care would be a good thing.

Daniel Hannan, a regular Torygraph writer, is the politician who, during the American debate on health-care reform, called the NHS 'a 60-year mistake' and urged the Americans not to imitate.

'The people of the UK want more from the NHS and not less. Any party that contracts the NHS will suffer politically.'

You are quite right there. If the government persists in these policies, it may well prove their downfall. The NHS is something very important and valued by most people here. But the Torygraph don't really want to admit this.

[Raggz]

15. I thought that the UK had a financial crisis

Doesn't the UK have a financial crisis?

Other sources say that the NHS is supported by borrowed funds. True - or not?

[LeftishBrit]

16. Most of the world has a financial crisis at present.

Doesn't the USA, for example?

And the main cause is the banking crisis, not anything to do with public services.(The NHS is no more 'supported by borrowing' than anything else at present.)

Recent statistics show some degree of finacial recovery in the UK. This was under the last government. We shall have to see whether this continues under the new government. I fear that it may not.

[non sociopath skin]

10. Good article from the NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/world/europe/25britain.html

The Skin

[Raggz]

12. excellent link

This is an excellent article. Thank you.