To not understand how any parent could not vote for Labour, our kids need the NHS don't they?

[April2013]

I just don't get it, our children need the NHS, me and my children would probably all not be alive if it wasn't for the NHS, and if we had to pay for private I probably wouldn't even have children....and even if you have private healthcare we all need our police force. I just don't get it. How do people justify this to themselves?

Labour have never offered any solutions for the future of the NHS. They just say 'save it' which is hopeless as a policy or plan.

The NHS we need now and in the future is totally different from the one we have now. Yes it needs more money but it does need reform.

Last time Labour was in power it went full throttle with the PFI which causes masses headaches for the NHS now.

Trust Labour with the NHS? You must be joking. I work in the NHS btw.

I'm voting Liberal Democrat. Norman Lamb, who was a fantastic coalition health minister, has been leading the calls for real cross party work on NHS and social care. That's what we need to do, and not have a Labour led 'action group' fighting every change as if it were the end of the world.

overspending myths

Because she devoted her life to helping other people

eh? I thought you were talking about the tories closing down the NHS, not altruism in general/

OP - while the NHS does generally do a good or at least OK job, why does it follow that this model is the only way to provide healthcare? That's basically what the "save the NHS!" arguements boil down to - it's this or nothing.

Actually, scrapping the NHS as it is and replacing it with a different model for providing healthcare for the public might be much better for all concerned, but the "save the NHS!" nonesense gets in the way about proper discussions about how to provide healthcare to the majority of the population who cant' afford to go fully private.

(Agree that in many cases, closing city centre hospitals and replacing with larger modern hospitals out of town with good transportation links will provide better healthcare for the majority, it's just that shutting historic hospitals is politically sensitive.)

I don't think the Torys can fix the NHS but I'm also not convinced that Labour can either.

Why is there so much head in the sand over this. The NHS comes under more and more pressure because there are more people living longer with more complex and expensive medicines/treatment needed. peoples expectations. It was 'better' in the past because there was less people who died quicker and expensive treatments/medicines didn't exist.

No matter what either party has promised, so far, it wont save the NHS in the long term. So Its the least worst option for me, and I dont want the NHS saddled with more and more debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off before a solution can be found. Just like Gordon Brown has saddled this generation of hospitals with.

Personally I would like to see the NHS reformed where we can have a good discussion on what it should provide and how rather than just giving it more money.

My son had a super high temperature at one month old, we weren't sure what to do. I looked on the nhs website which said seek medical attention immediately, so we went to the out of hours Dr, who called us an ambulance. A few hours later we were told he had meningitis, and that we'd have to wait 48 hours to find out if it was bacterial (scary meningitis) or viral (unpleasant but largely ok meningitis). The worst 48 of my life. I keep imagining if we'd have had to weigh up if we could afford to see the out of hours Dr, the ambulance ride and the week in hospital on antibiotic drip. We couldn't. We're doing ok, but we couldn't afford all that. The nhs enabled us to look after our new born baby. We were incredibly lucky that he had viral meningitis from the common cold virus (never visit a new born with a cold!) And that the nhs was there to help keep him alive and well. It's all very well saying that a private system wouldn't be that bad, but it would be terrible. And do not kid yourself that the tax burden on ordinary workers would reduce: it wouldn't. We'd end up subsidising the nhs like we do the railways.

Everyone knows Fullfact are owned by a Tory party donor

And that the nhs was there to help keep him alive and well

The NHS will be there under the tories as well.

Everyone knows Fullfact are owned by a Tory party donor

Which stops them doing their job how?

I've had some really bad experiences with NHS.
I have seen some shocking things there too.
It can't be fixed until we keep it on pedestal and aren't allowed to change anything about it.

Piglet- someone linked to a fullfact article earlier and Im just pointing out that they have a policial bias and thereforeb not a reliable source of information

I don't really trust any political party with the NHS. P's are right, it needs a total reform, not just more money.
If we had a private system, my family would be bankrupt from the care I and both DD's have needed. I certainly don't know how we would afford the heart surgery DD2 needs.

Love the assumption that you either Vote Labour or you HATE the NHS and no longer want it! YES vote Labour if you're a good person - everyone else is a cock!

Piglet- someone linked to a fullfact article earlier and Im just pointing out that they have a policial bias and thereforeb not a reliable source of information

I'm guessing that you also don't believe the YouGov polls and seat checker then that shows a hung parliament?

Or that you can't possibly vote Conservative if you are a parent.

erm......because healthcare and the NHS are devolved.

There is on evidence that any other funding model would be better and lots of evidence that the upheaval and admin involved in transition to another funding model would be very very bad

one example of the NHSs complete waste of money, i worked on an elderly dementia care ward it was closed down and refurbished and the cost was in excess of£1000,000 it was reopened as an all singing all dancing specialist care unit and then some bright spark deciedes to move all the dementia care services to another site about ten miles away so the ward that had be reopened was closed down less then 12 months later but no one was held accountable this is why the NHS is in such a mess because no one gives a shit that all this money is being wasted

I don't think you will get a good response on her OP its a very emotive issue. Labour DID start privatisation with PFIs, but the tories are continuing to underfund it, the naylor report does recommend selling nhs property to private companies at a 10 billion cost to the tax payer and Hunt did co-write a book about privatising the NHS. He has also visited a private US healthcare firm for meetings several times as have other mps. No government will ever come out and say yes we are privatising it, but cuts are the running theme at the moment and many nhs workers believe that is what is happening here. You have to vote for the change you want to see but you cant expect everyone to do the same, as at the moment there is no solid evidence.

OP you might have logged off now, but I think you comment here is very revealing:

"The idea that we all collectively pay for a service to help all of us is what makes me think we are a nation, it's about helping each other fundamentally."

This is the crux of the matter. As I said, those on the Left have deprived themselves of all other outlets to feel good about our nation. I'm willing to bet that most feel rootless and an uneasy sense of low-level loathing for our country and people. So they cling to the NHS as our only achievement, and the one thing that binds us together.

I feel sorry for people like this. There is so much more to this country and our achievements than the bloody NHS.

Because I don't trust labour to run the country effectively, they tried before and failed miserably.

pilates They didn't fail miserably, they made some mistakes, they did some good. No MP is perfect no matter which party they're from.

Tories say Labour financial crash was not Labour overspend