I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again… it’s a little motto, adage, axiom, if you like.
‘Never write when you’re angry’.
Abraham Lincoln if he felt the urge to tell someone off, would compose what he called a ‘hot letter’, pile all his anger into a note and then; ‘put it aside until his emotions cooled down.’
Truman, almost informed the treasurer of the US; ‘I don’t think that the financial advisor of God Himself would be able to understand what the financial position of the Government is, by reading your statement.’
In 1922, Winston Churchill nearly warned PM David Lloyd George that when it came to Iraq; ‘we are paying £8m a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having.’
And so it is; what you are reading now, saw the light of day over the weekend. I’ve since had time to cool down.
The source of my ire? The twin stupidity of Silly-Boy Streeting and his boss. Their casual abuse of the NHS and their complete ignorance of how and why it works.
Really, I’m angry with myself.
I had almost come to the conclusion that voting for Labour was probably they only way we’d help the NHS dig its way out of the hole it finds itself in.
I was willing to trust Labour.
Then the drivel in the weekend, pay-walled Telegraph. The choice of the Telegraph? Interesting… it's the hymn sheet for the Tories. Starmer, the Charmer, like a double glazing salesman, saying anything to anyone, to get a deal.
Charmer knows, to get into power he needs a swing of nearly 11%. More than Tony Blair pulled off in the mid-90’s. And, without the Scottish Labour vote, the figure is over 13%.
Thus he is prepared to say anything and do anything. He’s the vote snatcher. Stalking the land. Lurking, schmoozing, oiling.
Between us, we know a thing or two about the NHS and between us we know, based on Silly-Boy and Charmer’s performance on the NHS at the weekend, they're a couple of duffers.
Here’s the question, what other policies do they have, that we may not realise, are equally duff? Education, law and order, migration, economics? We can’t trust them.
They are to politics what snake oil salesmen are to the pharmacy.
Blair transformed NHS performance with a huge injection of cash. Workforce was complete, properly paid and waiting lists came down to 191 waiting more than a year.
Charmer and Silly won’t commit to the money.
They have a funding plan based on non-doms, who’re nimble, bright and flexible. By the time Labour get into power, non-doms will have changed their arrangements and moved their wealth to the Isle of Man and still enjoy the British way of life.
Charmer’s plans for the NHS?
Encourage patients to self refer. He said;
‘… those suffering from internal bleeding, being able to self-refer. If you’ve got internal bleeding and you just need a test, there ought to be a way that doesn’t involve going to see a GP.’
He is confusing screening with testing… hopeless error.
Anyway, SR has been in the NHS since the 1978… physiotherapy. Now; MH services, sexual health, physio, screening and principally, A&E… full of people who've self referred and don’t need to be there.
About 1 in 20 GP consultations result in a referral to imaging, testing, diagnosis or consultant led care.
Moving the point of triage doesn’t reduce the numbers, risks failure demand and would require a huge upheaval in processes, plus investment in IT to access records.
And, by the way, the cost of a GP appointment is about forty quid, an out-patient appointment is anything from £250 upwards.
The answer to delays in primary care as the gatekeeper is more GPs.
Fix that.
More use of the private sector? Why not? Well… they're centred 60% in London many have operating theatres without ITU back-up and presently are full of people paying premium rates, more than the NHS pays at tariff.
And, by the way, they only have 8,000 beds and the NHS about 150,000.
'Bureaucracy' says an exasperated Charmer.
The NHS doesn’t like it either, mate. Bring yer chequebook and invest in some decent IT, that speaks across the service.
If Charmer&Silly, Labour's dynamic-duo, are short on policy ideas, try this half dozen for starters;
Fund social care, create a salary structure, training and a career pathway.
Publish the NHS workforce plan, implement and fund it
Retention programmes across the service with mandatory exit interviews, find out why people leave
>> I'm hearing - The Times newspaper is setting up a 'Health Commission' to sort out the NHS (!) It will hold fortnightly evidence sessions, with witnesses including senior doctors, nurses, midwives, hospital managers, scientists and business leaders, as well as politicians and health experts. Dame Kate Bingham, the former head of the vaccine task force, Dame Sally Davies, the former chief medical officer, Sir Paul Nurse, the director of the Crick Institute and the former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Alan Milburn are among those who have already agreed to give evidence.
