To think the goverment are out of order to try and bury an annoucement on the privitisation of NHS services on a day when everyone's watching the enquiry?

[capricorn76]

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/19/nhs-services-open-to-competition

They are even privitising wheelchair services for children.

[AtYourCervix]

why am i not at all surprised?

[izzywhizzyletsgetbusy]

It's called 'spin', and today is a good day for bad news.

Don't worry; there's always tomorrow and August is almost upon us.

[EvenLessNarkyPuffin]

Link

[2shoes]

doesn't surprise me, especially the bit about wheelchairs, but saying that, most people I know get theirs from charities anyway as the nhs ones are often awful. there is also a where you live lottery on them

[Riveninside]

:(

health should not be run 'for profit'.

[Callisto]

The NHS is broken and needs to be fixed. The govt can't afford to because all the money has been spent, so privatisation seems the best option. It doesn't mean that you and I have to pay for it, it means that the government pays for it, just less money (hopefully).

As for the 'good day for bad news' that was something Labour perfected I think you'll find. Either way, this may be good, may be bad, but as everyone is so hysterical about keeping the NHS as the lumbering, money-leaking behemoth that it has become and can't even discuss the possibility of changing it, I actually can't fault the timing.

[GypsyMoth]

surely they had planned to release this news before the Murdoch stuff was scheduled?

[goodkate]

The sooner the NHS is privatised and streamlined the better. At last someone has the guts to do something about the car crash that is just waiting to happen.

We are extraordinarily privileged in this country if only we would recognise it and don't worry those that need help will still get it.

[capricorn76]

So where did the Libya bobming money come from Callisto and who cares if Labour spun too? Being a critic of some of the coalitions decisions does not make one a Labour supporter.

I actually do have private health cover but the NHS must be protected.

[KilledBill]

"Those who need help will still get it"

So, when the healthcare depends on profit, and you have a long term condition that costs a fortune but cant be cured, just where on the "to do" pile do you think you will be?

When it costs less to import shoddy matierials from some god forsaken back street in Pakistan, where do you think the stuff will be bought from? This stuff already sneaks into the NHS, wont be long before everything is imported.

And, seeing as the privatisation of everything else went so bloody well (another letter from British Gas today, bills up by 18% AGAIN) why not privatise the very thing that will keep us alive. DUH.

[Faithless12]

Really Callisto? So privatising it won't mean someone makes a profit from it? how can a profit be made without either sacrificing services or costing someone more money.

[Highlander]

"He pointed out that the former prime minister's abnormal heart rhythms could today be treated by using the telephone to measure the heart beats and give an instant diagnosis, followed by a call from a nurse advising on whether the patient needed to "go to hospital or not". "You could cut dramatically the number of hospital admissions like this."

DH is a consultant cardiologist and he says..........

"er, NO".

Automated ECG machines are widespread in parts of the North East and one of his bugbears is their incorrect use by GPs and Practice Nurses. If the leads are incorrectly positioned then an 'abnormal' result is recorded, patient gets freaked out, comes to hospital... and all is well once they've seen a cardiologist. These patients are often referred as urgent to DH by their GP, pushing other patients down the list, when a normal referral is more appropriate. The patinets bumped down the list then breach their waiting time and DH gets an extra payment to run a Waiting List Breach Clinic.

Oh yes, money saving.......................

[Glitterknickaz]

What Capricorn76 said.

[Andrewofgg]

It depends whether it was announced that the announcement was to be today before the hearing was fixed for today.

[Callisto]

Oh FGS. Who fucking cares if someone makes a profit? There is always someone making a profit, no matter what, and you can be sure that there are an awful lot of people making an awful lot of money from the NHS right now. It is so badly run and throwing more and more money at it has not solved any of the fundamental problems.

If the NHS runs well, people get what they need when they need it and the govt saves some money then it really is irrelevant. It is so naive to expect the NHS to keep going the way it is. Free healthcare for all is a pipe dream these days.

[Callisto]

And wtf has Libya got to do with anything?

[Riveninside]

'The NHS is broken and needs to be fixed. The govt can't afford to because all the money has been spent, so privatisation seems the best option. It doesn't mean that you and I have to pay for it, it means that the government pays for it, just less money (hopefully).'

its never ever less money. Our local council used to pay for respite services too in-house staff. New rules meant outside contracts. So its no longer £7 an hour they pay to staff directly employed by them but £15 an hour to a private care agency.
Same happens with agency nurses when there's a shortfall on the wards.

[KilledBill]

Libya has everything to do with it when the well rehearsed Tory Bastard line is "Labour spent all the money in the whole country and left us with nothing at all and thats why we have to make your life shit"......

No money for healthcare - then no money for wars.

[Callisto]

'Tory Bastards'. Nice. How very Blind Labour Tribalist of you.

[capricorn76]

Yes Callisto privatisation always works out so well for the British people. I'll remember that when I next have pay £50 for a 1hr journey by train from Leicester to London or the next time I have to pay my ridic gas bill...Some people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

[KilledBill]

"Blind Labour Tribalist". Nice. How very Tory Bastard of you.

[2shoes]

why does everyone go on about how broke the country is, if we are so broke how cam we still send money abroad.

[OpinionatedPlusSprogs]

fucking typical.

[pointythings]

To all those who are lauding the privatisation of the NHS as a good thing I have exactly two words to say:

United. States.